From Bugs to Breakthroughs: Novice Errors in CS2
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866913700508598272 |
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| author | Just, Nadja Siegmund, Janet Schantong, Belinda |
| author_facet | Just, Nadja Siegmund, Janet Schantong, Belinda |
| contents | Background: Programming is a fundamental skill in computer science and software engineering specifically. Mastering it is a challenge for novices, which is evidenced by numerous errors that students make during programming assignments. Objective: In our study, we want to identify common programming errors in CS2 courses and understand how students evolve over time. Method: To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study of errors that students of a CS2 course made in subsequent programming assignments. Specifically, we manually categorized 710 errors based on a modified version of an established error framework. Result: We could observe a learning curve of students, such that they start out with only few syntactical errors, but with a high number of semantic errors. During the course, the syntax and semantic errors almost completely vanish, but logical errors remain consistently present. Conclusion: Thus, students have only little trouble with learning the programming language, but need more time to understand and express concepts in a programming language. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_14438 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | From Bugs to Breakthroughs: Novice Errors in CS2 Just, Nadja Siegmund, Janet Schantong, Belinda Software Engineering Background: Programming is a fundamental skill in computer science and software engineering specifically. Mastering it is a challenge for novices, which is evidenced by numerous errors that students make during programming assignments. Objective: In our study, we want to identify common programming errors in CS2 courses and understand how students evolve over time. Method: To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study of errors that students of a CS2 course made in subsequent programming assignments. Specifically, we manually categorized 710 errors based on a modified version of an established error framework. Result: We could observe a learning curve of students, such that they start out with only few syntactical errors, but with a high number of semantic errors. During the course, the syntax and semantic errors almost completely vanish, but logical errors remain consistently present. Conclusion: Thus, students have only little trouble with learning the programming language, but need more time to understand and express concepts in a programming language. |
| title | From Bugs to Breakthroughs: Novice Errors in CS2 |
| topic | Software Engineering |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.14438 |