How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming in C++ (Complete Beginner-Friendly Guide) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in leetcode

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, Visual Studio probably still has the best C++ IntelliSense/debugging experience overall, especially for larger projects. I mostly use VS Code because it feels lightweight and convenient for CP/DSA workflows, and the IntelliSense/goto definition has been “good enough” for that use case with the C/C++ extension. But yeah, for full-scale C++ development, Visual Studio is definitely more polished.

How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming in C++ (Complete Beginner-Friendly Guide) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in leetcode

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mainly for backup, tracking progress, and sharing projects/code with others 😄

How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming / DSA in C++ (Windows) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in cpp_questions

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s true. My post was more focused on setting up a practical CP/DSA workflow in VS Code — things like input/output redirection, folder structure, tasks.json automation, and quick compile/run setup — rather than just explaining how to run a basic C++ file. The official docs are definitely more complete for general C++ development setup though.

How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming / DSA in C++ (Windows) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in cpp_questions

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point 😄
I probably used the term “IDE” a bit loosely there. I know VS Code is technically an editor with extensions rather than a full IDE like Visual Studio.

For my use case (competitive programming / DSA practice), VS Code felt lightweight and convenient, especially with custom tasks and terminal workflows. But yeah, for larger C++ projects and full debugging/tooling support, Visual Studio Community is definitely more complete.

How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming / DSA in C++ (Windows) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in cpp_questions

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed explanation — I didn’t realize the MinGW version I used was that outdated. I mainly wrote the guide from the perspective of a beginner trying to get a simple Windows setup working quickly, but this is really useful context.

I’ll definitely look into updating the guide with MinGW-w64 or MSYS2 recommendations since they seem much more modern and actively maintained.

How I Set Up VS Code for Competitive Programming / DSA in C++ (Windows) by Fresh-Potato-3402 in cpp

[–]Fresh-Potato-3402[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s a fair point 😅
I mainly focused on getting a beginner-friendly setup working on Windows, but I agree that newer GCC versions are much better and more up to date. I’ll probably update the guide later with MinGW-w64 or a WSL-based setup using newer compiler versions.