This reply is a little late, but I work on things in the robotics space where there are much more robust libraries for C++ than in Java, and some little extra f

This reply is a little late, but I work on things in the robotics space where there are much more robust libraries for C++ than in Java, and some little extra features (e.g. operator overloading for linear algebra libraries) really make a big difference. For students however I think that Java is probably the better call (fewer footguns, more resources like the AP curriculum.)