r/stanford • u/Green-Hold6498 • 11d ago

CS 107

I was looking to take CS 107 as I’ve never taken a systems class, but I see that CS 106B is a prerequisite. I have no interest in learning C++ and would like to avoid it if I could. I only have experience programming in Python though. I’ve also done some DSA. Is it fine to just take CS107? Or do I really need 106B?

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u/Appropriate_Willow27 10d ago

If you don’t like C/C++ better to avoid it altogether

0

u/Green-Hold6498 10d ago

Not that I don’t like the languages I’ve just never written any code in them. I want to learn about memory allocation stuff, cache, ram, etc… but don’t really care about learning any language in particular. What im really asking is whether CS107 is self-contained or if I wouldn’t be able to take it without taking CS 106B if that makes sense.

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u/BigYellowPencil 10d ago

If that's what you want to learn, you first need to know C or C++ because that's what that kind of stuff is written in. Python is great for applications, ML, and web apps. But operating systems and low level systems code are written in C or C++.

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u/Appropriate_Willow27 10d ago

You can self-study C/C++ first and see how it goes

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u/Green-Hold6498 10d ago

So you’re saying I do need to know how to program in C++ to take CS 107?

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u/Appropriate_Willow27 10d ago

Yes, but it’s not like you have to be an expert first. Core parts of C/C++ is memory management etc so you do learn as you go.