PB160 C Programming

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 2026
Extent and Intensity
2/2/0. 3 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
doc. RNDr. Petr Švenda, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. RNDr. Petr Švenda, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Systems and Communications – Faculty of Informatics
Supplier department: Department of Computer Systems and Communications – Faculty of Informatics
Prerequisites
PB006 Princ. of Prog Lang. and OOP
Students are expected to have the basic knowledge of algorithmization in Python or another procedural language and basic understanding of low-level programming concepts on the level of the PB111 course. Students are also required to have user experience with Unix/Linux OS, as homework is submitted and tested on a Unix/Linux server.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 85 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/85, only registered: 86/85, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 78/85
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to:
Understand and use basic C syntax according to ANSI and ISO/IEC norms, including the newest C23.
Decompose given problem and perform practical implementation.
Use modern development tools (IDE, debugger, version control, gitflow...).
Understand basic C functions for POSIX system.
Annotate source code with possibility to automatically generate documentation. Understand and practically use documentation for existing functions.
Use and follow programming best practices;
Compile programs both under Unix/Linux and Windows.
Appropriately use support tools based on large language models (LLMs) for suggesting new code, debugging, refactoring, code comprehension, and reviewing new source code (code review).
Learning outcomes
After a course completion, the student will be able to:
- write non-trivial programs in C language using modern approaches and language constructs;
- use basic development tools including IDE, debugger, versioning system , dynamic analysis of memory use and profiling;
- understand code execution on the level of CPU and memory;
- use dynamic allocation and apply correct deallocation where necessary;
- write programs with an application of good programming practices;
- use supporting development tools based on large language models (LLMs).
Syllabus
  • Historical background of the C language. Its relation to the Unix OS.
  • C compilers under Unix and MS-DOS/MS-Windows, integrated development environment, debugger, version control. Good programming practices, testing.
  • Data types, constants, declarations, expressions. Assignment expressions and statements.
  • Basic program structure. Preprocessor statements. Comments. Control structures. Relational expressions. Elementary I/O operations.
  • Arrays and pointers. Functions. Calling by value, passing arguments by pointer.
  • User defined data types. Dynamic memory allocation.
  • I/O in details. Using files. Wide characters.
  • Strings and string manipulation. Standard C library according to ANSI and ISO/IEC standards.
  • Modern language constructs of C11/17/23 standards.
  • Development and debugging of programs with parallel execution using C11/17/23 constructs.
  • Calling Unix core services. Further Unix libraries for C. POSIX C Library. Implementation on Windows.
  • Safe and defensive programming.
  • Automated and manual testing.
  • Usage of LLM-based tools and procedures in development process.
Teaching methods
Teaching consists from theoretical lectures combined with the practical exercises and programming homework selected to practice topics from lectures.
Assessment methods
To be allowed to participate in final exam, a student student will undertake 6 programming homework (at least four of them for non-zero points) and participate in one final programming exercise consisting of test and practical programming exercise. Minimal defined number of points is required to pass the course in addition to successful completion of requirements of practical exercises.
The students are working on given homework (usually finalized at home or in computer lab). Homework are awarded by point according to given criteria. Recommended finalization is exam, which is maintained as test questionnaire on computer. Precondition for undertake exam is to have awarded credit from practical exercises and autonomously programmed final assignment. Classification is based on points gathered from exercises, test questionnaire and final assignment. Participation on practical exercises is mandatory, unless teacher allows for exception (e.g., based on student exceptional knowledge of the subject).
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught every week.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
Teacher's information
The course is intended for students who want to gain basic knowledge of the C language, including its latest revisions, the principles of low-level programming, and the use of modern development tools.
Additional information is published on the course website during the semester.
The lecturer can be contacted in person in A406 office in consultation hours or via email svenda@fi.muni.cz
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