C++ Fundamentals You Wish You Had Known Earlier 2026

C++ Fundamentals You Wish You Had Known Earlier is a three-day online training course with programming examples, taught by Mateusz Pusz. It is offered online from 09:00 to 15:00 Aurora time (MDT), 11:00 to 17:00 EDT, 17:00 to 23:00 CEST, Monday, September 21st through Wednesday, September 23th, 2026 (following the conference).

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Course Description

C++ is a complex programming language. When used correctly, it delivers the best possible performance. Unfortunately, it is often misused, which causes many problems.

However, it turns out that consciously using selected language features can make it relatively easy to produce high-quality software that delivers excellent runtime performance and is error-proof. This coding style is called Modern C++.

The material of this workshop is the first chapter of the trainer’s most successful and popular training called “Advanced Modern C++”. During the class, we will go through all the key features of the C++ language, discuss potential issues and pitfalls, and provide guidelines on how to use them correctly. This training discusses various topics ranging from identifiers that do not result in undefined behavior through vital language features like name lookup, overload resolution, one definition rule, and move semantics up to the design recommendations like Rule of Zero. Among others, we will see how we can provide a custom dynamic allocation strategy for our programs and how we should design and implement customization points for our engine.

If you are wondering if you should attend this class, maybe this short quiz will help you decide:. Those and many other questions will be addressed during the training.

What You Will Learn?

Emphasis on understanding the philosophy and mechanisms of C++ programming language and learning how to reuse this knowledge in one’s own code.
Particular focus on the usage of C++ templates in practical tasks.
Development of error-unfriendly code.
Selection of useful patterns and techniques that prove in a demanding production code.

Workshop Structure

40% lecture
30% discussion
20%hands-on coding
10% knowledge quiz

Environment

A laptop with a web browser and access to the Internet
All hands-on exercises will be implemented using Compiler Explorer

Prerequisites

The training targets developers with some professional experience with C++ programming language and who realize the problems caused by careless ways of coding in this language. The workshop aims to strengthen the knowledge of the C++ core language and show how to avoid many problems that often appear in the production code.

Course Topics

Identifiers and naming conventions
Namespaces
C++ Types and their properties
Value vs reference semantics
Pointers vs references
Unscoped vs scoped enumerations
Classes and friends
Special Member Functions
Rule of Three, Five, and Zero
Value categories
Automatic type deduction
Type conversions
Objects
Alignment
Scope
Lifetime
ODR and inline
Storage duration
Stack vs Heap vs Free Store
Initialization
Name Lookup
Overload Resolution
Customization points
Range-based for loop
Copy elision
Move semantics
Ref-qualifiers
`noexcept`

Course Instructor

Mateusz Pusz is a software architect, principal engineer, and security champion with over 20 years of experience designing, writing, and maintaining C++ code for fun and for a living. His main areas of interest and expertise are Modern C++, code performance, low latency, safety, and maintainability.

As the founder of Train IT, Mateusz provides dedicated C++ training and consulting services to corporations worldwide, drawing on over 15 years of teaching experience. He contributes to the industry as a conference speaker and as an active voting member of the ISO C++ Committee (WG21), where he helps shape the language’s future alongside the world’s top experts.

Committed to software safety, Mateusz is also the founder and primary author of the mp-units project, an open-source library that strives to make the world safer by ensuring the correct handling of physical quantities in software.