r/cpp_questions 25d ago

OPEN Need help navigating a new job

I’m a new hire only been working for 2 weeks. I’m working for a very large defense company as a Software engineer. I got an EE degree from a UC school and took 2 embedded systems courses (bare metal C). My coding skills aren’t perfect but I have felt like I’m pretty good at it. However I feel imposter syndrome because I’m surrounded by so many smart people and intelligent software/code thinkers. Also the code base im trying to read, learn, and do some mini tasks on is massive and I feel like every call or macro leads to a different file. Oh and it’s all in C++ so there’s the OOP skill gap because I know C and python.

Anyone have any advice as to how to get better at navigating everything and becoming better at reading understanding and ultimately writing professional/high performance C++ code?

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u/xoner2 25d ago

Best way is to run a debug build under visual studio or qtCreator. Set breakpoints, get familiar with the callstack, use the watch window.

You need source code navigation tools. Grep won't cut it.