A few years ago, I started becoming interested in quantitative finance and in the process of researching about the field through google, I stumbled upon quantnet.com and upon browsing the website found out about the C++ course. It was only this year that I finally had the opportunity and funds to enroll in the course. I took the course because all the possible job paths I am considering need programming skills and I was looking for a course where I am able to get a certificate and could practice using given homework which would be graded. I initially was planning to enroll in the Python course, but then read Andy Nguyen's suggestion in the Python course FAQ to take the C++ course first to gain foundation in a hard programming language, and so decided to take his advice. I am now enrolled in the Python course and could definitely say that Andy's suggestion was right since the foundational concepts I have learned in the C++ course is helping me a lot in understanding the topics in the Python course. In fact, I would say that the C++ course does not only give one a foundation in C++ programming, but in the field of programming in general, and would help one pick up any other programming language after. This course sparked my interest in programming and helped stringboard my programming journey. There are many good things to say about the course, many of which have already been mentioned in other testimonies:
1.) The course content went way beyond what I expected. Syntax is thoroughly covered in the first few levels. The other levels delve into important programming paradigms (OOP and generic programming) and their implementation in C++, introduce important C++ libraries (STL and boost) and discuss programming in the context of finance (with there being a substantial discussion of mathematical methods used in quantitative finance as well).
2.) Prof. Duffy's lectures are pleasant to listen to. He explains things well and has a way to make the lectures fun. He did an excellent job in preparing the course content and designing the homework, and he also responded to many of my queries in the forum for which I am thankful.
3.) I commend and thank both TAs Avi Palley and W. Zhang for responding to my many queries in the forums in a timely and helpful way. They are both very patient TAs and have been a great help to me and all the other students as we worked through the course material. I also am very thankful for Avi Palley's consistently grading my homeworks within a day of submission (many times even less than a day) and for providing me with helpful comments on how to improve. The timely checking of homework really help keeps the momentum going.
5.) I cannot emphasize how helpful the forum has been as one can view all the previous questions asked and their answers. I highly suggest new students to view at least a few of the forum posts before answering each homework question (especially in the later levels) as many tips and ideas and clarifications could be found there. The search function is especially helpful when looking for specific questions.
Overall, I would recommend this course to anyone looking to improve their programming skills in C++ and to learn important foundational programming principles. It is a challenging course and does require time and effort to finish, but this makes it all the more rewarding as you look back and see how much you have learned and improved.