Case study
Student management system
A first semester C++ project: student records with file persistence, written to put the language's fundamentals to work on something with real structure behind it.
Overview
The first semester project. A student management system holding records, computing over them and persisting them to file, written in C++ before any framework or library was on the table.
It is the earliest thing in this portfolio, and the direct ancestor of the Java rewrite that followed it a couple of months later.
Complexities tackled
Persistence without a database. Everything survives across runs through file handling written by hand: serialising records out, reading them back, and coping with a file that is missing, empty or half written. Doing that manually is what makes a database feel like a luxury rather than a default.
Structure before you have been taught to need it. A first project naturally becomes one long function. Splitting it into types with their own responsibilities, when nothing forces you to, is the habit the exercise is really for.
Stack
C++, with file handling for persistence.
Working on something similar?
Tell me what you are building and what is in the way. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.