Do we know how difficult the rainfall problem is?

Otto Seppälä, Petri Ihantola, Essi Isohanni, Juha Sorva, Arto Vihavainen

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionScientificpeer-review

    52 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The programming task known as the Rainfall Problem has developed a reputation for being surprisingly difficult for introductory-level (CS1) students. We contribute a survey of studies of the problem as well as a new study of students' solutions collected at three institutions. In all three CS1s, at least about half of the students were able to fully solve the problem and the large majority were at least close. Failure to handle invalid or missing input accounted for most bugs. Our survey and study together suggest that the Rainfall Problem is not necessarily overwhelmingly difficult: Success rates vary and some reasonably good results have been achieved under multiple programming paradigms. We provide a breakdown of confounding factors and suggest improvements and hypotheses for future studies of the Rainfall Problem.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication15th Koli Calling Conference on Computing Education Research
    PublisherACM
    Pages 87-96
    Number of pages10
    ISBN (Electronic)978-1-4503-4020-5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Publication typeA4 Article in conference proceedings
    EventKoli Calling - International Conference on Computing Education Research -
    Duration: 1 Jan 1900 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceKoli Calling - International Conference on Computing Education Research
    Period1/01/00 → …

    Publication forum classification

    • Publication forum level 1

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