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A program can produce the right answer and still rest on a weak design. In Computer Science II (CS2), the central questions change: What should an object be responsible for? Which behavior belongs in the public interface? Who owns each resource? Which representation makes the required operations clear, safe, and efficient?

Who This Book Is For

Own the Design is Part II of the Programming by Design series and a course-length C++17 textbook for students continuing from a first programming course or equivalent experience. It assumes experience with functions, files, arrays, vectors, records, testing, and basic recursion.

What Students Learn

turn procedural records into classes with clear public interfaces and invariants
design abstract data types with contracts, UML, composition, and carefully limited inheritance
trace pointers, dynamic storage, object lifetimes, copying, moving, and destruction
implement an academic vector and linked structures, then apply restricted interfaces through stacks and queues
test through public behavior, compare operation costs, and defend design tradeoffs

Each structure is treated as a design decision: define the client-visible behavior, choose a representation, preserve its invariants, test through the public interface, and account for operation costs.

What the Book Includes

The book includes 12 chapters, numbered 13 through 24, eight technical and curricular appendices, guided examples, trace-before-code activities, chapter reviews, Programming Exercises, a staged container project, and a complete data structures project.

Free Sample

A curated PDF and EPUB sample is being prepared for this forthcoming book. It will include the complete-edition table of contents, the preface, Chapters 13 and 14, Appendix H, Sources and Further Reading, and the complete index.

Current Status

Own the Design is coming soon and is not yet published. All 12 chapters and all eight appendices are in place. The manuscript is awaiting review while images and prose are refined and the sample is prepared. Instructor resources are planned for later in the publication process. No additional chapters or appendices are planned. Use the notification form on this page to be notified when the book is published.

For Instructors

Chapter-aligned lecture slides and test banks are planned for verified instructors and will be developed as the book approaches publication. When available, these resources will be provided separately and updated alongside major revisions of the book. They are intended as adaptable starting points for course preparation, not as a hosted course or LMS integration. Verified faculty will receive access through a secure site. Visit the instructor support page for information. Faculty may use the Email the Author link on this Leanpub page to request instructor-resource access or a digital evaluation copy when considering the book for adoption. Requests should come from a faculty email address and include a link to an institutional department or faculty page that confirms the requester’s affiliation. These books and their instructor resources are independently produced and are not sponsored or endorsed by the author’s employer. Assessment material should not be shared with students.

Start with Computer Science I

Think Before Coding provides the Computer Science I (CS1) foundation and is available now.

Design the interface. Trace the ownership. Test the behavior. Explain the tradeoff. Own the design.

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Kick off your book project, get started with GhostAI, get better at marketing, or spend the day doing all three! Free live workshops on Zoom. Saturday, June 27, 2026.

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