CSCI 103 - Spring 2025 Introduction to Programming

Final Info

Overview and Process

Time/Date: Tues, May 13th at 4:30 PM Pacific Pacific - 90 minutes (End at 6:00 p.m.).

• Location: (Based on Last Name)
  • A-K: SAL 101
  • L-W: SGM 124
  • X-Z: SGM 601
  • OSAS Accommodations: If you have USC approved accommodations, you will need to coordinate in advance with the OSAS office to schedule your exam at the testing center on that same day.

The exam will be paper/pen based. There will be some multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and, likely, some small hand-written coding.

• Bring: A pencil or two and an eraser. No laptop needed!.
• Format: Paper and PENCIL (not pen) exam with fill-in-the-blank answer style for all questions: conceptual, tracing, and coding by choosing the code that should go in the blank.
• The exam is Closed book, Closed notes, Closed Internet (search/reference). No other devices are allowed out during the exam.

• Questions: The test will mainly have questions that are closed-set choices and are written to state the necessary information required to solve the problem. We cannot offer hints or additional details/guidance beyond what is stated in the exam. So, our answer could likely be: “The question is well-formed (no typos) and all the information you need to answer is provided. Do the best you can.” But, with that said, if you have a question you may raise your hand and a staff person will try to come to you. Please sit on the aisle if you tend to ask questions more often than your peers.

• Policies:
  • No calculators, phones, or textbooks are allowed.
  • You must request to use the restroom or leave the classroom for any reason and only 1 person will be allowed to leave at a time.
  • You may not have headphones or earbuds in.
  • Do your best to cover your work with your scratch paper (as a cover sheet)
  • With 10 minutes remaining, no one will be allowed to leave the classroom (no bathroom use or leaving if you are finished). If you finish, simply sit quietly. Do NOT work on anything else.
  • When time is called, all pencils must go down and you should sit still. Anyone seen writing after the exam MAY BE ASSIGNED a 0!

Topics

The following is the list of topics that you should be familiar with. Use it as a guide to help your studying.

Unit 2a

• declaring pointer variables (int *)
• referencing (&) and dereferencing (*)

Unit 2b

• const arguments
• pointer arithmetic
• Array names and pointer equivalency
• Array access and pointer arithmetic/dereference (e.g. ptr[i] <=> *(ptr+i))

Unit 2c

• Concept of dynamic memory allocation and when to use it
• Syntax of using new and delete both with scalars (individual variables) and arrays

Unit 2d

• NULL and nullptr
• Handling of char vs. char* types
• const char* as the type of string literals

Unit 2e

• pointers to pointers
• arrays of pointers (like char* argv[])
• command line arguments (argc and argv[])

Unit 2f

• Shallow vs. deep copy
• 2D array allocation via many 1D allocations

Unit 3a

• Basic objects (structs)
• Assignment of objects
• . and -> operators
• Using C++ string class

Unit 3b

• Defining your own classes
• public vs. private
• Constructors and Destructors and when they execute
• Defining member functions
• Splitting your class into files

Unit 4a

• Linked Lists
• Implementing basic operations (push, pop to front, middle, or back)
• Efficiency of various operations given variations of their implementation (with or without tail pointer, etc)
• Pros and cons compared to arrays

Unit 4b

• Doubly Linked lists and operations

Unit 4c

• vector<T> basic operation
• Efficiency of their operations

Unit 4d

• Deque implementations (which can work vs. cannot work)
  • Efficiency of various operations given variations of their implementation (with or without tail pointer, etc)
• deque<T> class

Unit 4e

• Use of getline()
• Checking an input stream for failure
• Checking for failure when opening a file
• Using C++ ifstream and ofstream classes for File I/O

Unit 4f

• Maze Project (no BFS questions)

Unit 5a - Operator Overloading

• Understanding the two approaches (Global vs. Member functions) and when to use each
• The signature of various operator overloads (arithmetic, comparison, etc.)
• friend functions
• operator<< function signature and implementation

Unit 5b - Copy Semantics

• Copy constructors
• Assignment operators
• When each is called
• “Gotchas” that the assignment operator should handle
• Rule of 3

Unit 5c - Class Details

• Default vs. Initializing constructors
• Constructor Initialization Lists
• const keyword

Unit 5d - Inheritance

• Base class constructor and destructor calls
• protected keyword
• public vs. private inheritance
• Composition vs. Inheritance
• Calling base class overloaded functions

Unit 5e - Polymorphism

• Static vs. Dynamic binding (virtual vs. non-virtual)
• pure virtual functions and abstract classes
• need for virtual destructors

Unit 5f - Inheritance Details

• protected keyword
• Public vs. private inheritance

Unit 5g - Parsing and Streams

• operator>> and getline()
• When do input streams fail (fail())
• Correct approaches for how and when to check for failure
• stringstreams

Unit 5h - File I/O Details

• get(), ignore(), and peek()
• seekg() and tellg()

Unit 5i - Exceptions

• throw keyword
• try/catch block
• ordering of catch blocks
• stack unwinding (exceptions propagating to calling functions)
• exceptions and inheritance

Unit 6a - Recursion

• Tracing of recursive functions

Topics from MT1 and MT2 are potential supporting material (you need to still understand pointers, linked lists, etc.) but heavy focus will be on (be sure you are very comfortable with):

• Linked lists (single- and doubly-linked)
• Operator overloading (when to use global vs. class member functions, use of friend, etc.)
• Deep copy semantics (copy constructor / assignment operator)
• Inheritance and Polymorphism
• Streams and parsing with >> and getline(), using stringstreams, and knowing when a stream will fail.
• Tracing of recursive functions

You should also review:

• Pointers
• C-strings and pointers to C-strings. Arrays of char*s (like argv[])
• vector<> and deque<>
• Syntax differences with pointers (T*) and C++ references (T&).

Practice Final on Gradescope

• Will be done in our last lab meeting.
• Gradescope Solutions
• Coding problems are on Codoi and solutions are in that assignment.

Other Selected Practice Problems

• Sp24 Final Practice
• Sp24 Final Practice Solutions

Older Practice Problems

• Fall 2017 Final Exam
  • No solutions / crowdsource your answer or come to office hours.
• Fall 2016 Final Exam
  • No solutions / crowdsource your answer or come to office hours.
• Spring 2015 Final Exam
  • Solutions
• Fall 2014 Final Exam
  • Solutions
• Older Fall 2014 Practice Problems