Debugging C and C++: Master GDB, Valgrind, and Memory Safety

Relying on print statements to find bugs in your C and C++ programs is slow, exhausting, and often fails to uncover hidden memory leaks. To build robust, production-grade software, you need to master the professional tools and systematic techniques used to diagnose complex runtime errors. This written course guides you through the essential concepts of software debugging. You will transition from guessing where errors are to systematically identifying, analyzing, and fixing segmentation faults, memory leaks, and undefined behavior. What you'll learn: - Understand core debugging terminology, memory layouts, and why common C/C++ bugs occur. - Master GDB commands to inspect variables, set breakpoints, navigate call stacks, and perform reverse debugging. - Detect memory leaks and invalid memory accesses using Valgrind Memcheck. - Apply modern compiler instrumentation techniques like AddressSanitizer (ASan) to catch bugs at runtime. - Analyze core dumps to debug crashes that happen in production environments. - Write GDB scripts to automate repetitive debugging workflows and save time. You will start with foundational concepts of program execution and memory safety before moving step-by-step through practical debugging scenarios. Through written explanations and code analysis exercises, you will build a solid mental model of how programs fail and how to fix them. This course is designed for beginner-to-intermediate C and C++ developers who want to move beyond basic print-statement debugging. No prior experience with debugging tools is required. Equip yourself with the skills to write cleaner, safer, and more reliable C and C++ code.