Data Structures, Algorithms, and Debugging

This unit deepens students’ practical programming skills by introducing core data structures, fundamental algorithms, and professional debugging and testing practices used in game development. It builds on basic syntax and program flow from earlier units and prepares learners to apply these concepts to engine development, AI behaviors, secure data handling, and cross-platform considerations in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and compare common data structures (resizable arrays, linked lists, sets, hash tables, deques, and trees) and select the most appropriate structure for given game programming scenarios, citing performance trade-offs.
• Apply debugging techniques (breakpoints, stepping, watches) and systematic testing methods to identify, isolate, and resolve logic and runtime errors in game code using an integrated development environment.
• Demonstrate implementation of fundamental algorithms (insertion sort, shell sort, adversarial search, phonetic and pattern searching) and use control structures, operators, regular expressions, and multidimensional arrays to process game data and user input.
• Evaluate basic security and persistence approaches by implementing simple encryption concepts, secure coding practices, and file/database access patterns to protect and manage game state across platforms.