Yes C++ is complicated and yes students struggle with programming. It takes years to understand how to put a decent program together (separation of data, logic

Yes C++ is complicated and yes students struggle with programming. It takes years to understand how to put a decent program together (separation of data, logic and transport etc). As for your guesswork with C-style strings, you should have been using std::string and using copy constructors to pass work into a thread (eg. who owns the data the thread is working on?). With modern things you can move the data into the thread instead of copying it. I would recommend students working on their own personal projects as a good pasttime as it further helps anyone understand how to write a decent program and learn the language. Also, tell them to read Stroustrup's book.