Systems Programming - Base Course Profile

Category: Low-level programming, memory management, performance-critical development Applicable Languages: C, C++, Rust, Zig

Overview

This is a base profile for systems programming courses. Language-specific profiles (like C++ Fundamentals) inherit from this and customize for their specific language and audience.

Core Concepts (All Systems Languages)

Memory Management

• Stack vs heap allocation
• Object lifetime and ownership
• Memory layout and alignment
• Manual vs automatic memory management

Performance Awareness

• Understanding what code compiles to
• Cache-friendly data structures
• Avoiding unnecessary copies
• Profiling and optimization

Safety Considerations

• Buffer overflows and bounds checking
• Use-after-free and dangling references
• Data races and thread safety
• Undefined behavior awareness

Low-Level Understanding

• How the CPU executes code
• System calls and OS interaction
• File I/O at the system level
• Network programming basics

Pedagogical Approach

Visualization is Critical

Systems programming deals with invisible concepts. Make them visible:

• Memory layout diagrams for every pointer topic
• Stack frame illustrations
• Heap allocation visualizations
• Data structure memory representations

Compile-Time vs Runtime

Help students distinguish:

• What the compiler does vs what happens at runtime
• Static vs dynamic properties
• Compile-time errors vs runtime errors

Error-Driven Learning

Compiler errors and crashes are learning tools:

• Show what broken code looks like
• Teach students to read error messages
• Build pattern recognition for common issues

Framework-Free Teaching

Systems programming courses should typically:

• Focus on standard library only
• Build fundamental understanding first
• Avoid abstractions that hide important details
• Let students feel the "weight" of manual management

Lab Structure

Environment Requirements

• Must compile and run locally (not just online)
• Debugger access is essential
• Students need to see memory state

Challenge Design

• Start with working code to modify
• Include "break this code" exercises
• Require debugging exercises
• Test with edge cases and invalid input

Assessment Considerations

Compilation is Non-Negotiable

• Code that doesn't compile fails
• Partial credit for compiling code with bugs
• Full error messages must be understood

Memory Safety Checks

• Use sanitizers (ASan, MSan, UBSan) in testing
• Valgrind for memory leak detection
• Points deducted for memory errors

Performance Requirements (When Applicable)

• Specify complexity requirements
• Test with large inputs
• Compare against reference implementation

Sandbox Configuration

Systems programming courses require robust sandbox environments with full debugging and memory analysis tooling.

Required Container Capabilities

All systems programming sandboxes must include:

Category	Tools	Purpose
Compilers	GCC 13+, Clang 17+	Compilation with latest standards
Debuggers	GDB, LLDB	Interactive debugging
Memory Analysis	Valgrind, ASan, MSan, UBSan	Memory error detection
Thread Analysis	ThreadSanitizer, Helgrind	Race condition detection
Static Analysis	clang-tidy, cppcheck	Code quality checks
Profiling	perf, flamegraph	Performance analysis

Sandbox Commands

# Initialize sandbox
/setup-sandbox {course-id}

# Compile and run with full warnings
/run-code source.cpp

# Run with memory sanitizers
/debug-code source.cpp sanitize

# Memory leak check
docker exec course-sandbox-{course-id} \
  valgrind --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all /tmp/prog

# Thread safety check
docker exec course-sandbox-{course-id} \
  g++ -std=c++20 -fsanitize=thread -g -o /tmp/prog source.cpp && /tmp/prog

# Performance profiling
docker exec course-sandbox-{course-id} \
  perf record /tmp/prog && perf report

Validation Requirements

Before publishing content:

1. All code must compile - Zero tolerance for compile errors
2. All code must pass sanitizers - ASan, UBSan, and TSan (for threaded code)
3. Memory must be clean - Valgrind should report no leaks for completed examples
4. Error examples must fail - Verify intentional errors produce expected failures

Security Constraints

Systems programming sandboxes need special security consideration:

docker run -d \
  --name course-sandbox-{course-id} \
  --cap-drop=ALL \
  --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
  --security-opt=seccomp=default \
  --memory=2g \
  --cpus=2 \
  --network=none \
  --read-only \
  --tmpfs /tmp:size=512m \
  course-sandbox-{course-id}:latest

Key restrictions:

• No network access - Prevents exfiltration
• Read-only filesystem - Prevents persistent changes
• Dropped capabilities - Minimal privileges
• Resource limits - Prevents resource exhaustion
• Seccomp filtering - Restricts system calls