Memory Foundations in C++

This course will teach you the memory foundations in C++ you need to successfully understand and work with computer programs. In a world with AI the edge goes to programmers who truly understand what their code is doing, and memory is at the heart of it. Whether you're debugging a tricky issue, optimizing performance, or building data structures, knowing how your program manages memory is essential. This course will guide you through the concepts: how local variables live on the stack, how pass-by-value and pass-by-reference determine whether your data changes across function calls, and how pointers give you direct access to memory addresses. You'll also explore arrays, C-strings, and dynamic memory. Learning how to allocate and free heap memory safely while avoiding common pitfalls like memory leaks and dangling pointers. You'll reinforce your understanding through auto-graded conceptual questions and hands-on coding labs. By the end, you'll have the memory foundations needed to tackle advanced C++ topics like linked lists, trees, and beyond.