CSCI 103L - Fall 2026 Introduction to Programming

MT2 Info

Spring 2026 Canary: This page was updated on 10/13 for Fall 2026

Overview and Process

• Time/Date: Thursday, October 15th Pacific - 110 minutes (during class).
• Location: (Based on Normal class meeting time!)
  • 9:30am: SAL 101
  • 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.
• Bring: A pencil and good eraser or a pen if you feel brave.
• Format: The exam is fill-in-the-blank short answer and coding questions pertaining to project 1.
• Questions: Raise your hand, but PLEASE try not ask excessive questions (and if you know that you tend to ask questions, sit on the aisle or up front.)
• Policies:
  • The exam is Closed book, Closed Internet (search/reference). No outside resources. No calculators, phones, or textbooks are allowed.
  • You must request to leave the classroom for any reason and must hand your exam to an instructor for safekeeping untill you return. You must also leave all electronic devices in the classroom.
  • You may NOT have headphones or earbuds in.
  • All writing must cease by the exam end time and anything after that will be consider a violation and WILL result in penalties!

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

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

Unit 2c and 2d

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

Practice

Here are some practice exams. Note that the topics they cover might be slightly different from our list of topics. Look for short answer and fill-in-the-blank coding questions to get an example of the style of questions that will be on the exam. Look for questions that deal with the topics listed above. Remember, the exam predominately deals with project 2. The exams below were given later in the semester and cover much more material than your exam will cover.

• Spring 2023 MT1 and Solutions
  • Ignore questions about multi-dimensional (2D- and 3D-) arrays
• Midterm Review Packet from Fall 2016-2018 [NO SOLUTIONS - Either run the code, crowdsource answers with fellow students, or come to office hours.]
  • There are some duplicate questions that you can ignore.
  • Q7 solution explanation
• CS 103 Sp15 Midterm and Solutions
  • This was a 60 minute exam
  • Ignore the questions related to the draw library.
• CS 103 Fa14 Midterm and Solutions
  • This was a 90 minute exam
• Additional midterm review questions with no solutions.