C++ Masterclass & Complete Course Documentation

g++ -std=c++20 -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Wconversion -fsanitize=address,undefined -O2 main.cpp -o app

Enables standard C++20, all warnings, strict pedantic checks, address & undefined behavior sanitizers, and optimization level 2.

Container	Random Access	Insert / Erase (Back)	Insert / Erase (Front/Middle)	Underlying Structure
`std::vector`	O(1)	O(1) amortized	O(N)	Contiguous Heap Array
`std::deque`	O(1)	O(1)	O(1) front/back, O(N) middle	Chunked memory blocks
`std::list`	O(N)	O(1)	O(1) if iterator known	Doubly-linked list
`std::map / std::set`	O(log N) search	O(log N)	O(log N)	Red-Black Tree (Ordered)
`std::unordered_map`	O(1) avg search	O(1) avg	O(1) avg	Hash Table

Prefer Stack over Heap: Stack allocations are instant, cache-friendly, and automatically freed.
Rule of Zero / Five: If you define a custom destructor, copy/move constructor or assignment, define all five (or prefer smart pointers so you need none).
Smart Pointers: Use std::unique_ptr by default. Only use std::shared_ptr when ownership is genuinely shared.
Pass by Const Reference: Pass non-primitive objects as const Type& or std::string_view to eliminate copies.

Dynamic Arrays: Use std::vector as your default container. It handles dynamic resizing and memory cleanup automatically.
Polymorphism & Destructors: Always declare base class destructors as virtual ~Base() = default; to ensure derived objects are cleanly destroyed.
Thread Lifetime: Always call .join() on every std::thread before it goes out of scope to avoid program termination.
Safe Mutex Locking: Always wrap mutexes with std::lock_guard<std::mutex> (RAII) to prevent race conditions and deadlocks.
Prefer Smart Pointers over raw 'new/delete': Use std::make_unique<T>() to eliminate manual memory management and leaks entirely.