Due Monday, April 6 at 1:00 PM Pacific
Welcome to CS103! 
Alex and Cynthia and the entire course staff are glad you're here!
This assignment is designed to help you get your development environment set up so that you can compile, run, and debug C++ programs. There isn't any actual programming or involved. It’s mostly a way for us to ensure everyone has a working development environment before the first major problem set goes out on Friday and that everyone knows how to submit on Gradescope.
This assignment must be completed individually. Working in pairs is not permitted.
Step 1: Get on Gradescope and EdStem
All assignment submissions in this course will be done through Gradescope. Check out the syllabus for details about how to submit work online. When using Gradescope, make sure you use your @stanford.edu e-mail address rather than, say, a Gmail address.
EdStem is our Q&A forum for the quarter. Visit our EdStem forum to ask questions.
If you've only recently enrolled in CS103 and either of the above links are not working for you, you may need to wait about 24 hours for your enrollment to propagate from Axess to Ed and Gradescope. If you have been enrolled for significantly longer than 24 hours, and are not able to access thos links, please contact the course staff over email.
Step 2: Read About the Honor Code
You are required to read our document on the Stanford Honor Code before submitting assignments in this class. Take a minute to read over it before proceeding to the next steps.
Step 3: Download and Install Qt Creator
Your first task is to download and install Qt Creator, the development environment that we'll be using in CS103 this quarter. To do so, visit Stanford's Qt Creator installation guide and follow the instructions there. If you run into trouble installing Qt Creator, don't panic! There’s a large troubleshooting guide available through that link, and if that fails, feel free to ask for help on EdStem or in office hours.
⚠️ We have updated our libraries for Winter 2026. As a result, if you installed the Qt Creator in a previous quarter, you will need to uninstall Qt Creator from your system and then use the instructions above to install the newest version.
Step 4: Download the Starter Files
Now that you've got Qt Creator set up and ready to go, you can start compiling and running C++ programs! To help you get some practice importing and building projects, download the starter files for this assignment using the link below:
Then, open them in Qt Creator.
UPDATE: The CS106B instructors and I have noticed a new QT Creator bug that arose due to Apple pushing a MacOS update just a few days ago. There is a workaround, we will post it shortly. For now, if you are on MacOS, you may want to hold off on working on pset0. Not all MacOS is affected (in particular, if you have delayed doing the recent update you're ok!), so you could try to run the pset0 starter code. You will know you are affected if you see a failure to compile, and a message about a function called yield under the "Issues" tab. If you see that, again, you'll need to wait for workaround instructions. In the meantime, you can at least complete the pset0 Exam Conflicts Google Form–see instructions below in Step 5. Sorry about this and thanks for your patience!
Step 5: Answer Some Questions
The program that you’ve just downloaded contains a quiz on the Stanford Honor Code as it applies in CS103, plus some other questions to help get set up logistically. Compile and run the program to launch the quiz. Answer all the quiz questions, enter your @stanford.edu e-mail address, and the program will automatically generate a completion code in the file res/code.txt.
UPDATE: As noted above, there is a MacOS/QT Creator bug that may prevent some of you from making progress at the moment. In the meantime, you can fill out this Exam Conflicts Google Form, which you would be directed to do by the QT project. This will also allow us to become aware of your exam conflicts before Friday, and begin notifying you if they are approved for alternate or not. Be sure to save the animal species code word given upon completion of the Google form, as you will need that to finish running the QT Project.
Step 6: Submit Everything!
Once you've finished everything else, submit the file res/code.txt on Gradescope for Problem Set 0. If you’ve done everything correctly, you should earn a score of 5/5 and you should receive an e-mail from Gradescope with your score. If not, it means something didn't work correctly with the submission, and you should e-mail the course staff so we can help get things sorted out.
☝️ Note: Problem Set 0 will unlock on Gradescope after our first lecture of the quarter.
And that’s it! You’re done!