latency.lab
C++ · from first compile to interview-ready

Learn to write C++
like the machine is watching.

A ground-up course built for one target: walking into a trading-firm interview and out-coding everyone in the room. No hand-waving. Memory, pointers, RAII, the STL, concurrency, and the debugging skills that actually decide these interviews.

13 modules
scratch → mastery
3 exams
milestone gates
1 capstone
order book engine
0%
your progress
Course completion0%
The sequence

Curriculum

Each module builds on the last. Do them in order. Exams gate the next block — pass them before moving on.

00
Toolchain & First Program
Install the toolchain. Compile and run. Understand what the build actually does.
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01
Fundamentals
Types, integers, floats, operators, control flow, functions, scope.
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02
The Memory Model
Stack vs heap. Object lifetime. new / delete. What an address really is.
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03
Pointers & References
Raw pointers, references, the three consts, arrays, dangling, nullptr.
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04
Classes & RAII
Structs, classes, encapsulation, constructors, destructors, RAII.
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E1
Milestone Exam I
Fundamentals through RAII. Closed-book. Pass to unlock Block II.
exam
05
Rule of Five & Move Semantics
lvalues & rvalues, copy vs move, std::move, the rule of five.
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06
Smart Pointers
unique_ptr, shared_ptr, weak_ptr. Ownership without leaks.
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07
STL Containers
vector, map, unordered_map, set, deque, priority_queue. Complexity & iterator invalidation.
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08
Iterators & Algorithms
Iterators, sort, find, lower_bound, accumulate, transform, lambdas.
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E2
Milestone Exam II
Memory, RAII, move semantics, the STL. Closed-book.
exam
09
Templates & Generics
Function & class templates, deduction, a first taste of metaprogramming.
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10
Concurrency & Multithreading
thread, mutex, lock_guard, condition_variable, atomic. Races & deadlocks.
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11
Debugging & Undefined Behavior
The undefined-behavior catalog. GDB, Valgrind, sanitizers. Reading broken code.
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12
Systems, Performance & the Order Book
Cache, layout, allocators, benchmarking — and the order book capstone.
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EF
Final Exam & Interview Simulation
Everything. Plus a simulated C++ interview loop like Akuna and CTC run.
exam
Operating manual

How to use this

  • One module per day. Read the lesson, run every code sample yourself, then pass the checkpoint quiz. Passing a quiz marks the module done automatically.
  • Type the code, don't copy it. The muscle memory of writing C++ by hand is the entire point. Keep a scratch file open and compile constantly.
  • Do the exercises before the quiz. Each module ends with a build task. That's where the learning sticks; the quiz just verifies it.
  • Exams are closed-book. No scrolling back. If you can't pass without notes, repeat the block. This mirrors the real interview.
  • The capstone is the trophy. By Module 12 you build a working order book with benchmarks. That single repo is what makes a recruiter stop scrolling.
  • Progress saves in this browser. Come back tomorrow and pick up where you left off. Use the same browser and don't clear site data.
Setup

You need a C++17 compiler (g++ or clang++) and CMake. Module 00 walks you through installing them and compiling your first program. If you have VS Code, install the C/C++ extension and CMake Tools. Everything here assumes the command line.

THE LATENCY LAB · built for Brida Esambu · compile · run · measure · repeat