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DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2020.28

Using Property-Based Testing to Generate Feedback for C Programming Exercises

Authors: Pedro Vasconcelos and Rita P. Ribeiro

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 81, First International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2020)

Abstract

This paper reports on the use of property-based testing for providing feedback to C programming exercises. Test cases are generated automatically from properties specified in a test script; this not only makes it possible to conduct many tests (thus potentially find more mistakes), but also allows simplifying failed tests cases automatically. We present some experimental validation gathered for an introductory C programming course during the fall semester of 2018 that show significant positive correlations between getting feedback during the semester and the student’s results in the final exam. We also discuss some limitations regarding feedback for undefined behaviors in the C language.

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Pedro Vasconcelos and Rita P. Ribeiro. Using Property-Based Testing to Generate Feedback for C Programming Exercises. In First International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2020). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 81, pp. 28:1-28:10, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{vasconcelos_et_al:OASIcs.ICPEC.2020.28,
  author =	{Vasconcelos, Pedro and Ribeiro, Rita P.},
  title =	{{Using Property-Based Testing to Generate Feedback for C Programming Exercises}},
  booktitle =	{First International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2020)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:10},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-153-5},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{81},
  editor =	{Queir\'{o}s, Ricardo and Portela, Filipe and Pinto, M\'{a}rio and Sim\~{o}es, Alberto},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2020.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-123159},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2020.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: property-based testing, C language, Haskell language, teaching programming}
}

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Using Property-Based Testing to Generate Feedback for C Programming Exercises

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