How to study Programming in C — Semester I, Pokhara University BECE
What it covers
Problem solving with the C language: algorithms and flowcharts, data types, operators, control structures, arrays and strings, functions, pointers, structures and unions, and file handling.
Topics worth extra time
- Control structures: if/else, switch, and for, while and do-while loops
- Arrays and strings, including common string functions and 2-D arrays (matrices)
- Functions, recursion, and passing by value versus by reference
- Pointers: pointer arithmetic, pointers with arrays and functions, dynamic memory
- Structures and unions, and file handling with fopen, fprintf, fscanf, fread and fwrite
How to study it
Write and run code every day, even short programs. Start with the classic exercises (patterns, primes, factorials, Fibonacci, matrix operations, string reversal) and type them yourself instead of copying. Pointers are where most students struggle: draw memory boxes and arrows until you can predict what each line does.
In the exam
Practise writing programs on paper, since there is no compiler in the exam hall: indent clearly, declare every variable and include headers. For output-prediction questions, trace the code line by line in a table of variable values.