Introduction to Programming

Overview

This course aims to prepare you for problem solving through programming. In this course, you’ll be introduced to the C Programming Language. You’ll learn about various constructs supported by C Language and use them to write programs which can solve scientific problems. This course covers a wide variety of topics in fundamentals of programming that are designed to give you an overview of what’s to come in the BITS Pilani BSc Computer Science degree program. By the end of the course in the degree program you will be able to write C programs to solve scientific problems, understand the high-level components of a computer and how they are interconnected to execute programs, write programs using various constructs supported by the C language such as assignment, sequencing, conditional and iteration, perform indirect memory level operations of a computer through pointers and dynamic memory allocation, create, edit and delete files on a computer using programs as well as write programs to create large records of data and implement operations such as searching, sorting etc. Here you can experience the first half of the course very similarly to how you would were you enrolled in the degree program.

Syllabus

Course Introduction

This module introduces you to the course and its structure. The course introductory video orients you to the skills and knowledge you will acquire through this course. The syllabus reading highlights the course values, assessments, grading scheme, schedule and details of live sessions, and readings list that you must procure to acquire the concepts better. You will also meet and greet your peers around the globe through a discussion prompt.

Introduction to Computing and Problem-Solving

In this module, you will learn about the basics of a computer, what computer programs are, and how they are executed in a computer with the help of an operating system. In addition, you will also learn to schematically represent the steps to solve a problem before writing a computer program by drawing flowcharts for scientific problem-solving.

Introduction to C Programming

In this module, you will learn the key elements of a C program and learn how to execute a C program. You will know what variables are and how to initialize and modify the value of variables in a C program. You will also learn to write arithmetic and logical expressions in a C program.

Branching and Looping

In this module, you will learn about branching and looping. You will learn how decision-making can be incorporated into a program. You will also discover how repetitive and iterative tasks can be achieved using while loops and for loops.

Functions

In this module, you will learn how to break down a complex problem into modular functions. You will learn about the scope and lifetime of a variable declared in a C program. You will also analyze and examine the data stored at the different memory segments for any C program.

Arrays

In this module, you will learn to store a collection of similar type data contiguously in adjacent memory using arrays. You will learn to perform operations on arrays, search for specific values from them, and sort the data stored in the arrays in ascending or descending order.