C - Piscine Exam 01

The C Piscine Exam 01 primarily tests your foundational understanding of the C programming language, specifically the concepts introduced in modules C 00 and C 01. While the very first exam (often called Exam 00) might include Shell questions, Exam 01 is firmly focused on C logic. Key Exam Topics

Exam 01 is designed to see if you’ve actually understood the "C" days or if you’ve just been copy-pasting from your neighbors. If you can handle pointers and string manipulation with confidence, you’ll breeze through it. c piscine exam 01

7. Arrays

• Declaration: int arr[10];
• Initialization: int a[] = 1,2,3;
• Multi-dimensional: int mat[3][4];
• Passing to functions: void f(int *a, int n) ... or void f(int a[], int n)
• sizeof on parameter yields pointer size; pass length explicitly.

Level 2 (The First Real Wall)

• ft_atoi – Convert a string to an integer. You must handle spaces, +/- signs, and overflow. Pro tip: Use long for intermediate calculations to detect overflow.
• ft_strdup – Allocate memory (malloc) for a copy of a string and return the copy. This is your first real memory allocation test. Never forget to malloc exactly strlen(src) + 1.
• ft_strrev – Reverse a string in place. This tests your ability to swap characters using two pointers (one at the start, one at the end).
• ft_range – Create an array of integers between min and max. This tests malloc for arrays. The size is max - min.

• Task: Return the nth Fibonacci number.
• Logic: Base cases (0 returns 0, 1 returns 1). Recursion: return (ft_fibonacci(index - 1) + ft_fibonacci(index - 2)).

💡 Strategy Tips

1. Read the Traces: The exam interface shows "Trace 1", "Trace 2". These are the inputs and expected outputs. Use them! If your output doesn't match the trace, look at the difference closely.
2. Don't Panic on Segfaults: A segfault usually means you are accessing an array index out of bounds or dereferencing a NULL pointer. Check your loop limits.
3. Simplify: If you write printf, it will fail (unless allowed). Use write.
4. Test Locally: Write a main function locally to test your logic before pasting into the exam interface.