You want a combination of learning activities. So, you wouldn't give students ONLY typing practice for the top. Rather, typing practice, some low level multiple

You want a combination of learning activities. So, you wouldn't give students ONLY typing practice for the top. Rather, typing practice, some low level multiple choice/code tracing activities, and traditional programming tasks. While it may seem like more work, those low-level practices reduce overall study time when compared to if the activities were all traditional coding. I also have typing exercises as a practice for students in my courses and part of my research. While I haven't formally analyzed how much time they take, I can say that students take roughly 7-10 minutes to complete 30-50 line typing practice.