From Bugs to Breakthroughs: Novice Errors in CS2

TL;DR

This study analyzes the progression of novice CS2 students' programming errors over time, revealing that while syntax and semantic errors decrease, logical errors persist, indicating areas for improved teaching focus.

Contribution

It provides a detailed longitudinal analysis of student errors in CS2, highlighting the evolution of different error types and informing targeted instructional strategies.

Findings

Syntax and semantic errors decrease significantly over time.

Logical errors remain prevalent throughout the course.

Students quickly learn syntax but struggle with conceptual understanding.

Abstract

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.