Course Completion Checklist

Status of the whole course as a deliverable · Course home · Audit reports on GitHub

Everything on this page is in place. The course is complete for self-study: a student with no programming experience can start at the main README and reach the capstone without an instructor.

Course structure

• 16 units · 32 sessions planned and mapped to teaching modules
• Six stages (Foundations → Capstone) defined in the syllabus
• Canonical reading order agreed by syllabus, roadmap, website pager, and homepage
• Week 0 orientation (Getting Started): per-OS compiler guides, online-compiler option, sanity check, setup checklist, troubleshooting guide, Lab 00
• Problem-Solving module before any syntax: 20 progressively harder scenarios, pseudocode, trace tables, test design, lab
• Beyond-Week-16 enrichment path (inheritance, exceptions, modern C++, STL, templates, multi-file projects) defined in the roadmap

Lessons

• 24 module homes with objectives, lesson maps, and practice tables
• C++ Foundations — 4 lessons (structure, data, operators, conversion) + Unit 01’s two sessions
• C++ Input/Output — 3 lessons (cout, cin, getline)
• Decisions — 4 lessons + requirements-to-decisions pipeline
• Iteration — 4 lessons (while/do-while, for, break/continue, nested)
• Functions — 4 lessons (parameters, scope, references, overloading/design)
• Arrays — 4 lessons; Algorithms — 3 lessons (recursion, searching, sorting)
• Strings — 4 lessons; Files — 3 lessons
• Pointers — 3 lessons; Records — 3 lessons; OOP — 3 lessons (no inheritance by design)
• Enrichment: Inheritance & Polymorphism, Operator Overloading & Templates, STL, Robustness (exceptions), Modern C++, Modular Programming
• Every concept follows: plain-language explanation → syntax → worked example → explanation → practice pointer

Labs

• Unit labs inside every module (decisions 8, iteration 10, functions 8, arrays 7, I/O 5, strings 7, files 6, pointers 4, records 6, OOP 7 class labs)
• Programming Labs collection: 42 scenarios in five levels (beginner → integrated)
• Every lab: scenario, requirements, inputs/outputs, constraints, example, test cases, student tasks, hints, extension challenges, complete solution, explanation, testing checklist
• Seeded-bug “Debug It” starters with verified bug counts and fix lists
• Mini-projects per module (Marks Analyzer, Text Toolkit, Quiz Runner, Menu-Driven Toolkit, Modernisation Lab, …)

Exercises

• Per-module exercise sets (30–36 in the core modules), graded beginner → challenge
• Output-prediction sets with worked answers (separate keys)
• Debugging hunts — 10 per module, hint-laddered, with the fix and the why
• Challenge sets — 10–15 per module, ★/★★★ rated
• Practice Bank: 200 categorized problems — five tiers, 17 topics, each with statement, difficulty, I/O, constraints, sample tests, numbered hints, reference solution, explanation
• Getting Started exercises (10 beginner + 5 challenges) with selected answers

Projects

• 10 project briefs from calculator to integrated OOP management system
• Each with overview, objectives, prerequisites, functional requirements, suggested data structures, milestones, tasks, test plan, edge cases, extension ideas, self-assessment rubric, hints, complete reference solution, design decisions
• Three flagship projects (Weeks 5 / 10 / 16) with rehearsal projects mapped in the collection

Quizzes & assessment

• Self-Assessment System: 34 instruments · 366 questions
• 16 weekly quizzes (W01–W16), 8 topic revision tests, 4 cumulative tests, 2 comprehensive practice finals
• Every question difficulty-labelled with a hidden answer key and explanation
• Unit 01’s own quiz + revision sheet; scoring bands (≥ 90% move on · 70–89% revisit · < 70% redo)
• Lab & project rubrics in grading; post-exam worksheets

Code validation

• 1,576 embedded C++ listings + 9 standalone files validated (static suite: comment/string-aware balance, include-vs-usage, namespace discipline, API scan, memory pairing) — 14 genuine defects found and fixed
• Seeded-bug files verified to match their published diagnoses
• Validation report on GitHub
• Optional next layer: a CI compile sweep (g++ -fsyntax-only) on the deploy runner — the only check this environment could not run

Links

• 3,052 relative links verified resolving (tools/check-links.sh)
• 1,063 fragment anchors valid on github.com and Jekyll/Pages (tools/check-anchors.sh)
• Case-sensitivity walk of every path segment: clean
• All course links are relative — they work on GitHub, on the website, and on project-pages URLs

GitHub Pages

• Student learning website in docs/: custom lightweight layout, breadcrumbs, prev/next module pager, mobile-friendly CSS, dark-mode support, no animations
• Deployment workflow (.github/workflows/deploy.yml): official Pages actions, correct permissions, Jekyll build with --baseurl, homepage-entry-point check
• Planning documents and technical material excluded from the published site
• Maintainer ops page: docs/technical/github-pages.md (not published)
• One manual step remains: Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions (first deploy), then the post-deploy checklist in the technical page

Accessibility

• Skip-to-content link; semantic headings; single H1 per page
• Viewport meta + responsive layout down to phone widths; wide tables scroll safely
• Light/dark via OS preference; no animations or tracking; system fonts
• Collapsible answers that keep questions spoiler-free while remaining keyboard-usable

Student self-study readiness

• Day-1 path explicit: README → Getting Started → Problem-Solving → Unit 01 · Lesson 1 — no guesswork about where to begin
• Prerequisites stated everywhere (“none — this is the start” for Session 1.1)
• Try-first protocol (“Try It Yourself Before Looking at the Solution”) stated in Week 0 and enforced by every module
• Hints always precede solutions; answers separated or hidden so self-testing works
• Study method taught explicitly: How to Study + How to Learn Programming (the Read → Predict → Code → Run → Test → Debug → Explain → Extend cycle), plus a weekly planner
• Common beginner mistakes galleries and the compiler error catalogue
• Student-experience audit completed with all Critical/High/Medium findings fixed (report on GitHub)

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