CSCI 103L - Fall 2026 Introduction to Programming

Final Info

Fall 2026 Canary: besides the date/time, this page has NOT been updated for Fall 2026

Overview and Process

Time/Date: Saturday, December 12 11am - 1pm Pacific - **110 minutes **.

• Location:
  • TBD
  • 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 true/false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, FiTB coding and, likely, some small hand-written coding.

• Bring: A pencil or two and an eraser. No laptop needed!.
• Format: Paper and pen/pencil
• The exam is Closed book, Closed notes, Closed Devices.
• • Except one 8.5” x 11” (‘letter sized’) double-sided, hand written cheatsheet.

• Questions: We write questions such that given the knowledge you should have from the course along with the information stated in the question is all that is necessary 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 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:
  • Nothing beyond the cheatsheet is allowed: no calculators, phones, notebooks, textbooks, etc.
  • You must request to use the restroom or leave the classroom for any reason the Instructors may request to hold onto your exam an for you to leave devices in the room while you are gone.
  • You may not have headphones or earbuds in .
  • 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 is called 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 1

• C++ basics: syntax, control flow
• C++ functions
• C++ arrays

Unit 2

• declaring pointer variables (int *)
• referencing (&) and dereferencing (*)
• const arguments
• pointer arithmetic
• Array names and pointer equivalency
• Array access and pointer arithmetic/dereference (e.g. ptr[i] <=> *(ptr+i))
• Concept of dynamic memory allocation and when to use it
• Syntax of using new and delete both with scalars (individual variables) and arrays
• NULL and nullptr
• Handling of char vs. char* types
• const char* as the type of string literals
• pointers to pointers
• arrays of pointers (like char* argv[])
• command line arguments (argc and argv[])
• Shallow vs. deep copy
• 2D array allocation via many 1D allocations

Unit 3

• Basic objects (structs)
• Assignment of objects
• . and -> operators
• Using C++ string class
• Defining your own classes
• public vs. private
• Constructors and Destructors and when they execute
• Defining member functions
• Splitting your class into files

Unit 4

• 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
• Doubly Linked lists and operations
• vector<T> basic operation
• Efficiency of their operations
• 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
• 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
• Images
• Multidimensional arrays and images

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
• protected keyword
• Public vs. private inheritance

Unit 5f - Parsing and Streams

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

Unit 5g - Exceptions

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

Unit 5h - File I/O Details

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

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&).

Other Selected Practice Problems

• Fa25 Final Practice
• Fa25 Final Practice Solutions
• 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