Before COVID, I spent 5 years teaching C++ to students at my university. I went in with many opinions on teaching in general and C++ in particular, and I still have many opinions on teaching. Just not always the same ones.

In this talk, I want to share some hard-won experiences from my time teaching a C++ course to undergrads, and various things that I would do differently in hindsight. I hope these might be useful to others who look to teach C++ in primarily classroom setting.