C++ Advice

[mark_z]

Hi Guy

I want to take a C++ course that would prep me for Quantnet's C++ course, I was debating whether to take the prep class in a community college or try some online sources like Coursera or Udemy, my goal is to be comfortable with takin Quantnet, start the class with a good background, given that my background in programming isn't so great.

 

[CLy]

Hi, I was in the same position before. Thought that study some books would best prepare for the course but no my friend. It is ineffective and waste of time. I studied the books/tutorials for 1 month before trying the course but I was stuck on Level for for 2 weeks.
Start the course and you learn along way. If you do not understand anything, google it, you will learn much better that way.
The reason books/tutorials don't help much is because you read it once or twice without doing exercises. C++ Quantnet course will make you suffer and at the end it will worth it.

 

[mark_z]

Hi, I was in the same position before. Thought that study some books would best prepare for the course but no my friend. It is ineffective and waste of time. I studied the books/tutorials for 1 month before trying the course but I was stuck on Level for for 2 weeks.
Start the course and you learn along way. If you do not understand anything, google it, you will learn much better that way.
The reason books/tutorials don't help much is because you read it once or twice without doing exercises. C++ Quantnet course will make you suffer and at the end it will worth it.

I agree with you 100%, if you go over the online courses you understand everything, but when you do the hw problems or project you will be stuck, I want a course that would prep me so it wouldn't take me too long to finish Quantnet's C++

 

[Lyle_C]

My suggestion is that if you have not done it already, you should finish Level 1 (which is free) before you register for the QuantNet course. That should give you a bit of a head-start.
I feel like it's not a good idea to take another course to prep for this one because most likely the only thing transferable from another course is the surface-level C++ programming concepts. But those are not what's going to take the most time. What's time-consuming is applying the programming concepts in a context that the homework requires. You will be spending most of the time looking through the forum, googling, and debugging code. So the usefulness of a prior C++ course is going to be limited.
Plus, assuming you are taking the QuantNet course to prepare for future study in quantitative finance, this will not be the last time you need to learn and apply difficult programming/math concepts in limited time. So might as well use this course as a yardstick to see if you have what it takes for such a journey.
Lastly, I recommend reading Professor Duffy's "Introduction to C++ for Financial Engineers" during the course. That book definitely helps clarify a lot of the concepts.

 

[YankeesR]

The C++ course here is very well done in the sense that it gives you the "why" for most/ if not all the things you learn, which for me, I find important. The CS course I took at my college was really disappointing in the fact that no why was ever implemented into the course.

If you want to get a head start on this course read the first few chapters of "The C Programming Language" by Kerrnigan and Ritchie. I was really impressed by how good this book was. It is concise and for a beginner, a great place to start.

 

[mark_z]

Thank you so much!

 

[WZhang]

I suggest reading the lectures, then watching the lectures. For books, I suggest sams teach yourself c++ 1 hr per day. It has few excercises but it does go over the features/tools provided in C++.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

The C++ course here is very well done in the sense that it gives you the "why" for most/ if not all the things you learn, which for me, I find important. The CS course I took at my college was really disappointing in the fact that no why was ever implemented into the course.

If you want to get a head start on this course read the first few chapters of "The C Programming Language" by Kerrnigan and Ritchie. I was really impressed by how good this book was. It is concise and for a beginner, a great place to start.

QN C++ is based on many years or teaching in industry and academia, not to mention actually writing applications.
Read the lectures few times and then jump into the all_so_important exercises.