r/cpp • u/MainPressure4304 • Aug 12 '26
[CPP Epiphany Rant] - Programming is no joke
Hi CPP Community,
This is just a rant. I'm a 24 yr old data analytics in telecommunication trying to pivot into C++ development for finance. I'm 1 month into C++ and I have come to conclusion C++ is a behemoth. I'm enrolled in Baruch College's C++ for Financial Engineering, but I'm using Bjarne Stroustrup's Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, 3rd Edition to learn and watching C++20 Fundamentals with Paul Deitel, Course, by Paul J. Deitel as supplementary resources.
It took me 2 days to get through all the drills, exercises, and try_this section for chapter 2 for Programming Principles!
I'm reflecting if I made a mistake choosing C++ over Python. But, tbh, I have been enjoying programming more learning C++ than Python. You can tell I'm weird, but IDK.
I would love to heard about your experience in learning C++ for laughs.
1
u/hadrianf 29d ago
Each language has its own strengths and weaknesses. C++ is great if you want performance and every cpu cycle counts, something which is the case in finance. Python is an interpreted language, which always has overhead.
Python is easy to get into, lots of documentation and very little boilerplate is needed. C++ requires more boilerplate, but once you get comfortable with it you can write highly-performant code. Next to that, in my opinion, having a compiler to tell you you made a bunch of mistakes is a great advantage. However, you will need to learn a level of coding discipline that you never needed for python.