C++ is not my favorite language, and if I had full control, I’d prefer a more beginner-friendly language. However, most of our students intend to transfer to a university. We have articulation agreements with universities defining what is transferable. Most undergraduate CS programs in California teach their intro courses in Python, Java, or C++; there’s even the rare intro courses taught in C. Some universities don’t care about the intro language from community college intro courses as long as those classes teach their same concepts of programming, but there are other universities that insist on particular languages. What’s nice about C++ is that it pleases most universities. If a student can grasp C++, then that student could easily learn Python or Java.

I have a feeling we’ll have to revisit this topic in the next five years as college and university CS departments grapple with the implications of generative AI coding tools such as Claude Code, but that’s another story…