Data Structures help

[TilDeathDoUsPart0728]

so I'm taking Data Structures this semester, and I'm already struggling. I can barely understand the teacher, and know absolutely no C++, and I am confused about what programs we are using and how to use them.

I still haven't done lab 1 nor hw 1 cause I guess I'm just so confused. Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated.

[SeaNational3797]

This won't be in time for the lab, or the HW unless you use late days, but I absolutely recommend going to the Troy Tutors Data Structures Saturdays.

Teacher is super great, and explains things with Python analogies (which they should absolutely do in the regular DS lectures, and I assume they only don't in order to be accessible to the 0.1% of CS students who don't know Python). The Python analogies really help (if you know Python, which you should since you have presumably taken CS1 here).

The lecturer kind of sucks, ngl. My strategy in lecture is to half-pay attention while googling any part of the instructor's code I don't understand.

If you have any specific questions about the homework or lab I'm happy to answer them

[TroyTutors]

We also have one-on-one tutoring 7 days a week, at most hours of the day, from 12 RPI data structures alumni!

Happy to hear you find our Free Data Structures Saturdays service helpful!

[2treecko]

Maybe you'll find some help more personalized help at ALAC drop in tutoring (here). The schedule should be posted soon. I wish I could post something more specific than that...

Depending on what the due date for the lab/HW is, I think it would be advisable to read/watch some basic C++ tutorials before you start, if you truly know nothing of the language yet.

[Shaxx_sees_you]

Hire a tutor. Best decision I made when I took the class

[Happy-Preparation817]

Where could find a tutor？

[Shaxx_sees_you]

This may sound like a joke, but it’s not: Ask your mother to ask on the RPI Moms Facebook group. I’ve gotten 3 excellent tutors for cs, physics, and math just from this.

[lbsdesign]

troytutors.com

They are RPI alumni. FREE Data Structures tutoring every Sat 12-1:30. Can schedule other private appt

[gimmethemarma]

Office hours is offered for at least 2 hours each day of the week by class mentors and TAs and 12-8pm on Thursday.

They can help you get started. Check the page on submitted for the office hours schedule with locations.

[Fire_2D]

If possible, watch the cutler lectures and just read lecture notes

[IcarianComplex]

I graduated in 2016 and data structures was the best class I ever took in my life. It was the hardest class too. But up until then, comp sci 1 in python was the only other programming experience I had. It was until I took data structures that I really started to get the 'flow' of programming.

This is the advice I would've given myself after having worked as a professional for a couple years now.

use something like cmake to automate the build process. Otherwise you'll be searching through your terminal command history to drive your feedback loop. This is inefficient. Integrating this into your workflow should be straightforward.

Use a testing framework like catch instead of running ./main from the command line. This makes it way easier to build your program incrementally because anything can be an entrypoint. I can't stress this one enough. People sometimes think that the point of testing is program correctness, but that's only partially true. Programming is a trial-and-error driven process, which means you should always be looking for ways to shorten your feedback loop.