So You Want to Learn C++? (2026 Edition)

At the time of this writing, the C++ programming language is over 40 years old. It has somehow survived through multiple technological shifts and growing competition, including the boom of languages like Smalltalk and Object Pascal/Delphi, the advent of Java, the movement towards mobile-first development, the current web application ecosystem dominated by languages like TypeScript and Python, and now, a whole slew of new systems programming languages like Rust and Zig. While C++ has not always maintained its dominance in every industry, it's clear that C++ is not going away anytime soon, and it's still a viable language to learn for a variety of reasons.

Why Learn C++?

C++ remains one of the most widely used programming languages in the world, and has recently had a resurgence in popularity due to the rise of LLMs and AI development. CUDA, TensorFlow, and many other critical pieces of technology in this ecosystem are written in C++, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. If you're interested in working in AI development, learning C++ is a great way to contribute to these projects and gain a deeper understanding of how these systems work under the hood.

If you want to work in the games industry, C++ is still the dominant language for in-house game engines and tooling, and is the primary language used to develop for Unreal Engine, which is also written in C++. In addition, learning how to do game development in C++ gives you transferable skills to other languages and engines, as it is a low-level language that requires you to understand memory management, performance optimization, and other important concepts that are often abstracted away in higher-level languages; it is easier to go from C++ to a higher-level language than the other way around.

Finally, C++ is still widely used in systems programming, embedded systems, and high-performance computing. While Rust has gained significant traction in the last few years, especially with the Linux kernel adopting it as an officially-supported language, as well as the amazing embedded tools like Embassy and TockOS, C++ code will remain very relevant in these domains for the foreseeable future. It is worth noting that C is still the most common language you'll see in embedded, but recently things have been moving towards more modernized development environments from the more popular vendors. In any case, learning how to write efficient, idiomatic C++ is also translatable directly to how Rust works because many of the things Rust does by default are considered best practices in C++, so it can be a great stepping stone if you're interested in learning both languages.

The Modern C++ Landscape

Background

C++ is a complicated language with a long history, and it's not always easy to get started with it. Compared to modern languages like Rust, which has amazing free learning resources like The Rust Programming Language, Rust By Example, and Rust Atomics and Locks, as well as easy-to-use tools like Cargo and rustup, C++ can feel a bit more daunting. There isn't really a clear way to easily get started. However, once you get past some of the initial hurdles and familiarize yourself with the ecosystem and tooling, it can make things a lot easier to work with.

It is often said you should learn C before you learn C++, but recently that has become an unfavorable opinion due to the evolution of C++ into what is considered "Modern C++." C++ has various versions out there, and there is a clean break between what is considered Modern C++, which is anything from C++11 onwards. In that sense, learning Modern C++ is a much better path for beginners for a variety of reasons.

First, it is less coupled to C than the older C++ versions. A lot of older C++ code heavily relied on using C's standard library and idioms because the C++ standard library was not fully-realized at the time, and in many cases it was simply faster code. Second, Modern C++ has a lot of features that are available in other programming languages that were not available in older C++, including things like lambda functions and range-based for loops. Finally, Modern C++ makes it easier to write code that is safer and less error-prone. With all this said, learning C isn't a waste of time, and it can help you understand why some of the decisions in C++ were made in the name of compatibility, but unless you have a specific reason to learn C first, it's generally better to jump straight into Modern C++.

Development Environment

To get started with C++, you will need to set up a development environment. This typically involves installing a C++ compiler, such as GCC or Clang. macOS users can just set up the Xcode Command Line Tools to get Clang installed, or you can use Homebrew to install GCC as well, while Linux users can usually install GCC or Clang through their package manager. For the purposes of just getting started, there isn't really a reason to pick one over the other. For Windows users, MSVC is the standard for developing C++ on that platform, and is also used as a compiler target for Unreal Engine development. You can also use Clang on Windows with clang-cl, which is a version of Clang that is compatible with MSVC's command-line interface.

You'll also need an editor or IDE, such as Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Zed, or CLion; if you are interested in doing Unreal Engine development it's also worth considering Rider. All of these are either free and open-source, or they have free non-commercial licensing available. I recommend CLion because it's focused on C++ development out of the box and makes it easy to get started without having to learn a lot of configuration details, but on Windows it's very common to use Visual Studio, especially in professional settings.

It's also recommended to consider using something like CMake for managing your builds. CMake is a cross-platform build system that makes it easier to manage dependencies and build configurations for C++ projects. It isn't the easiest tool to work with and learn, but it's also pretty standardized in the ecosystem at this point and can make things easier to manage in the long run. CLion natively uses CMake as its build system, so it is also a nice choice when trying to get started.

For package management, you have a few options available. Unlike many other languages, C++ doesn't come with a package management solution, so you have a few options available. The first, and one of the most common ones, is to simply copy the library into your project and maintain it as part of your codebase. This can be annoying and make it hard to sync updates from the original source, but it is also the simplest way to get started. There are also package managers like vcpkg and Conan that can help manage dependencies for you as well. Finally, you can use CMake's FetchContent module to download and build dependencies as part of your CMake build process. It's not uncommon to see a mix of approaches because not all packages are available through package managers, so it's worth being familiar with all of them.

The Standard Library

One thing to also consider is embracing the standard library as much as possible. Especially with Modern C++, there are a lot of idioms that leverage the standard library to make your code safer and easier to read. Things like smart pointers (e.g., std::unique_ptr and std::shared_ptr) can help manage memory automatically and reduce the risk of memory leaks. There is also the concept of move semantics, which added the ability to transfer ownership of resources without unnecessary copying.

The standard library also includes a lot of useful data structures and algorithms that can save you time and effort when writing code, and is closer to languages like Python, which take a more "kitchen sink" approach to their standard libraries in comparison to Rust, which takes a more minimalistic approach and encourages important development to happen in third-party crates instead to avoid bloat. There are certainly tradeoffs to both approaches, but C++ tries to have decent coverage across major problem domains. In the past there were major gaps in performance between the standard library and other third-party libraries, but with Modern C++ the standard library has improved significantly in terms of performance and usability, though there are still better alternatives to reach for when necessary.

One such alternative Boost, which is a widely-used collection of C++ libraries that provide additional functionality beyond the standard library, and is worth checking out as it is widely used in the C++ community. It tends to have more cutting-edge features and has historically been a proving ground for features that later make their way into the standard library, though this is less the case today with the rapid pace of C++ standardization. There are also interesting projects like the EASTL, which is a C++ standard library implementation developed by Electronic Arts that is optimized for performance in game development scenarios.

Modern C++ Features

Modern C++11 and later has introduced a lot of new features, some of which have taken some time to be widely adopted.

Some of the bigger ones from C++11 and C++14 that made the language more comparable to its contemporaries include:

• Auto keyword: The auto specifier allows for type inference, making it similar to how C#'s var keyword or Rust's let bindings work.
• Range-based for loops: The new range-based for loops were a big quality-of-life improvement that made iterating over collections much easier and more readable.
• Lambda expressions: Lambda expressions are anonymous functions that can be defined inline, making it possible to easily pass in functions as arguments to other functions and create locally-scoped functions.
• Smart pointers: The introduction of std::unique_ptr and std::shared_ptr made memory management much safer and easier by leveraging Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII) principles.
• Move semantics with std::move: Move semantics using std::move allow for efficient transfer of resources between objects without unnecessary copying, which can significantly improve performance in certain scenarios.
• constexpr: The constexpr keyword allows for compile-time evaluation of functions and variables, enabling more optimizations and safer code.

These changes really helped bring C++ into the 21st century and made it a lot more appealing to developers coming from other languages like Java and C#. More importantly, these changes helped guide the future of the language and set the stage for even more improvements in later standards. Features like move semantics and lambdas helped inform the design of the standard library and made it possible to write more efficient and expressive code. These new features come at the cost of increasing the complexity of what was already considered a difficult language to learn, but they are foundational to writing idiomatic Modern C++.

Since these initial releases, there has been a new C++ standard introduced every 3 years. It's important to note that while the number of the standard is meant to represent the year it was released, the features and implementations for each toolchain vary. For example, while C++23 has technically been finalized, even in the current year of 2026, not all compilers have full support for all of its features yet. While it's always good to keep up to date, you might want to consider targeting one version behind the latest to ensure maximum compatibility across different toolchains.

Some of the other notable features from more recent C++ standards include:

• Structured bindings: Structured bindings allow you to unpack tuples and structs into individual variables, making it easier to work with complex data structures. This works similarly to destructuring in JavaScript.
• Optionals with std::optional: std::optional is a type that represents an optional value, which can be used to indicate the presence or absence of a value without resorting to pointers or sentinel values.
• Coroutines: Coroutines allow for asynchronous programming and can simplify code that deals with concurrency.
• Modules: A replacement for the older header file approach, modules provide a faster, cleaner, and easier to use mechanism for organizing and managing code. They remove the limitations of the traditional header file approach, such as ordering, and can speed up build times by avoiding redundant recompilation.
• Ranges: The Ranges library provides a new way to work with collections and algorithms, making it easier to compose operations on data.
• Formatted printing with std::print: With std::print you can now easily print formatted output.
• Better error handling with std::expected: std::expected adds monadic error handling to C++, allowing functions to return either a value or an error code in a type-safe manner. While it's not as nice as Rust's Result type, it's a step in the right direction for improving error handling in C++.

Learning Resources

Books

There have been a ton of books on C++ over the years. This can make it hard to know which ones are worth picking up and which ones are worth avoiding. I will say that if you are a true beginner to programming and are not coming in with experience in other languages, a great place to start would be C++ Primer (5th Edition) by Stanley Lippman, Josée Lajoie, and Barbara E. Moo or Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ (3rd Edition) by Bjarne Stroustrup. Both of these books are designed for beginners and provide a solid foundation in C++ programming concepts.

Since C++11, there have been a number of high-quality books written about Modern C++, and some of the best ones to start with include:

• Bjarne Stroustrup's A Tour of C++ (3rd Edition), which provides a concise overview of the C++ language and its features, especially the newer versions of the language. This is a great starter text as it jumps you through the most important parts of the language without getting bogged down in too many details.
• Scott Meyers' Effective Modern C++, which focuses on best practices for using C++11 and C++14 features and can be seen as a follow-up to his earlier Effective C++ books.
• Nicolai M. Josuttis' The C++ Standard Library (2nd Edition), which is an in-depth guide to the C++ standard, including containers, algorithms, and smart pointers.
• Beautiful C++ by J. Guy Davidson and Kate Gregory distills some of the most important C++ Guidelines into an easy-to-read format.
• 100 C++ Mistakes and How to Avoid Them by Rich Yonts is similar to the Effective C++ series but covers a wider range of topics and is more focused on common pitfalls that C++ developers make.

Once you have a good grasp of the language fundamentals, it's worth looking at some of the more intermediate to advanced books that can help you level up your skills. Most of these will focus on specific areas of C++ development, such as concurrency, design patterns, or performance optimization. Some of the standout titles include:

• Anthony Williams' C++ Concurrency in Action (2nd Edition), which is a comprehensive guide to writing concurrent and parallel programs in C++. It doesn't cover the very latest advancements in C++20 and C++23, such as coroutines, but it is still a great resource for understanding the fundamentals of concurrency in C++.
• The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition) by Bjarne Stroustrup, which is a comprehensive reference for the C++ language. It is a very dense book that covers a ton of topics, but it's worth having a copy if you want to dive deep into the language.
• C++ Templates: The Complete Guide (2nd Edition) by David Vandevoorde, Nicolai M. Josuttis, and Douglas Gregor is the definitive guide to C++ templates, covering everything from basic template syntax to advanced metaprogramming techniques. Code leveraging templates can be pretty incoherent, but they provide a powerful way to write generic and reusable code in C++ and it is worth learning how they work.
• Nicolai M. Josuttis' C++ Move Semantics – The Complete Guide is a deep dive into move semantics, which is a key feature of Modern C++. Understanding move semantics is crucial for writing efficient and performant C++ code, and this book provides a thorough explanation of the topic.

While it's definitely worth focusing your time on Modern C++ titles, there are a few exceptions that are still somewhat relevant. Some of those older titles include:

• Scott Meyers' Effective C++ and More Effective C++, which are still relevant for understanding some fundamental best practices in C++ programming.
• Herb Sutter's Exceptional C++ and More Exceptional C++, which include some great insights into software design with C++ that are still applicable today.
• Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu's C++ Coding Standards, which provides a set of guidelines for writing high-quality C++ code.

When reading these books, you do need to consider their age, and there will definitely be standout sections that are no longer relevant, but if you read them with a critical eye they can still be very useful.

I also wanted to highlight a few books that are C++-adjacent, meaning they may use C++ but are not necessarily focused on the language itself. Most of these will focus on game development or graphics programming, which are two of the most popular use cases for C++. I would caution you to be a bit more familiar with the language before tackling them as they are not really intended to be read by true beginners, but they are valuable resources to apply what you've been learning into interesting projects. All of these also happen to be freely available online if you prefer as well, and include:

• Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom, which explores design patterns in the context of game development using C++, which is also available online for free at gameprogrammingpatterns.com.
• Ray Tracing in One Weekend series by Peter Shirley, which is a great introduction to graphics programming using C++ and is also available online for free at raytracing.github.io.
• Learn OpenGL Programming by Joey de Vries, which is a comprehensive guide to OpenGL programming using C++ and is also available online for free at learnopengl.com.

Online Resources

Two of the best online resources available for C++ are cppreference.com and godbolt.org. Cppreference is an extensive online reference for the C++ language and standard library, and is a great resource for looking up specific features or functions. It is the standard way to look up information on C++ on the web, and should be your first destination when trying to look up something. Godbolt is home to Compiler Explorer, a tool that allows you to write C++ code and see the generated assembly code in real-time, which can be incredibly useful for understanding how your code is being translated by the compiler. There's also the C++ Core Guidelines, which is a set of best practices for writing modern C++ code, maintained by some of the leading experts in the C++ community.

Content Creators

Finally, it's worth mentioning some of the great content creators that have C++ content, including:

• The Cherno - A YouTube channel with a lot of C++ tutorials with a focus on game development, including making a game engine from scratch.
• C++ Weekly - Jason Turner's YouTube channel that provides weekly C++ tips and tricks, often focusing on modern C++ features and best practices.
• cppcast - A podcast dedicated to the C++ programming language, covering a wide range of topics from beginner to advanced levels.
• CppCon - The annual C++ conference that features talks from leading experts in the C++ community, with many of the talks available online for free.
• Mike Shah - A YouTube channel with a lot of C++ content, including tutorials, tips, and discussions on various C++ and game development topics.

Conclusion

Getting started with C++ is definitely not easy, and the learning curve can be incredibly steep compared to other languages. It's a complex beast with a lot of ways to shoot yourself in the foot, but once you get a grasp of it you can incrementally build up your knowledge and skills over time and focus on the areas that interest you the most. Whatever your interests are, there's probably a way to apply C++ to it, and learning the language can open up a lot of opportunities in various fields of software development.