CS 371p Fall 2026: Dhruva Kumar

Which concept from this week surprised you, challenged you, or finally “clicked”?

Iterators were definitely the most challenging part of this week. I hope over the next week to drill a lot of practice writing C++, so that instead of having to think about the semantics of a line, they come intuitively to me.

I underwent a similar process for Python as I learned how to do data structures interview problems in it, and while C++ is more complicated, I hope to eventually build the same intuition as it is an excellent language as well.

How did the collaborative quizzes help you understand the material - or show you what you still need to work on?

The collaborative quizzes showed that I still need to work on my understanding of iterators and the various data structures of the C++ standard library. However, I appreciate that they are revealing gaps in my understanding prior to the test.

Did the programming challenge change how you think about solving problems under pressure?

The guess the number problem was pretty straightforward for me compared to a few of the other kattis problems. I had seen the same pattern before in interview problem practices.

What perspective did the assigned paper give you on real-world software engineering?

I am enjoying our journey through the SOLID principles. I had heard about the acronym before when it comes to low level design, but I had never read the primary sources. I think it is shaping up to be a very valuable experience.

Was there a moment of discovery, frustration, or teamwork this week that stands out?

The ed lesson was the most challenging part of my week. It was the first one where I truly struggled, and could not get any points. I think the problem was not too challenging, but I struggled as I still haven’t made C++ muscle memory for myself. For example, I wasted the 20 minutes trying to get my code to compile with the correct syntax for throwing the standard library error. Frustrating, but the experience showed that I need to hone my skills.

Tip of the Week

My tip of the week is to ask AI to give mini lessons on interesting topics whenever you are bored. I have been learning a little bit about JavaScript semantics from ChatGPT for a few minutes a day as I am trying to get a better understanding of the language than just directing my agent to create AI Slop React.