C Fundamentals

This repository contains my complete reimplementation of my CS1 assignments in C, redone from scratch to strengthen my programming fundamentals and demonstrate mastery of core C concepts.

Topics Covered

• Interactive standard I/O
• Dynamic memory management
• Stacks
• Linked lists
• Custom sorting
• Constraint satisfaction via backtracking
• Binary search trees
• String normalization
• Permutation search

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or newer for the test_projects.py runner
• A C toolchain such as GCC or Clang available on your PATH

Repository Layout

• test_projects.py — Python tester that builds projects and verifies cases
• <project>/main.c — entry point for each assignment reimplementation
• <project>/cases/ — paired .in/.out files that drive automated checks
• <project>/build/ — generated binaries created when running the tester (ignored by git)
• <project>/test_config.json — optional overrides for projects with specialized tests (e.g., interactive cases)

Projects

• arcade_management — Streams arcade arrivals/departures, maintaining a stack-like crowd to identify the current most valuable player on demand.
• cats_game — Plays a warmer/colder interactive guessing challenge that homes in on Patty’s secret number within strict guess limits.
• chessland — Groups rooks by rows and columns to list every attacker relationship across a massive chessboard.
• coin_organization — Converts mixed token/bill payments with a deferred exchange rate and sorts customers by their unified totals.
• colorful_garden — Reconstructs a red/black flower grid from row and column run-length clues via recursive backtracking.
• exciting_tournament — Simulates a single-elimination bracket driven by table activation order while summing total excitement.
• handle_generator — Reduces each provided name to a spaceless handle built from the boundary letters of every word.
• name_chaining — Orders precomputed handles so consecutive words share boundary letters, guaranteeing a “pretty” promotional phrase.

How to Run

Use the bundled Python test runner to compile and validate one or more projects:

python3 test_projects.py chessland

Pass multiple project names to run their test suites sequentially:

python3 test_projects.py chessland handle_generator

Run every project's suite at once with the --all flag:

python3 test_projects.py --all

If you omit project names (and skip --all), the script lists the available options.