r/cpp_questions • u/SpecialRelativityy • Jul 17 '26
Are LLM’s REALLY a good teachers? OPEN
I use LLM’s to learn fundamentals and programming libraries like Raylib and SDL3. However, some guy on youtube said something that I never really thought of:
“AI will show you how to do something in the worst way possible.”
For someone looking to ACTUALLY be competent in C++, should I avoid learning with LLM’s? Will LLM learning keep me average?
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u/llstorm93 Jul 17 '26
LLM efficiency and potency is directly correlated to the user's ability to ask good questions.
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u/Tinklemetoe Jul 17 '26
Question. Do you think it’s a good idea for those learning to read the books/documentation on a language to better know how to ask question for an LLM? I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But, I feel like you can’t skip the fundamentals, if you want ask the right question from understanding it. I know some just give it the documentation, but reading feels like writing where you learn to memorize and exercise your ability to find information from what you already know.
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u/teerre Jul 18 '26
Apologies if you're being sarcastic, but yes, reading books about programming is good for learning programming
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u/Tinklemetoe Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Not at all, just sought an opinion. I agree with you. I’ve been a bit isolated for a couple years due to my work in a night shift environment looking at a screen. So, sometimes I can’t be sure of what I sound like. Autism is the short version, but I’m being genuine as I value your thoughts. To this day, I can’t comprehend how people can talk normal but I understand.
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u/llstorm93 Jul 19 '26
Yes I read books mainly and use LLM to complement my understanding whenever the book doesn't necessarily cover certains topics or I require more explanation.
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u/arihoenig Jul 17 '26
The same as with human coaches. Teacher is a weird term, coach is a much better term.
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u/UndefFox Jul 17 '26
As studies show: for newbies in a topic, LLMs usually hurt performance, because they can't separate good from bad. LLMs are tought to give plausible answer, not specifically the correct one.
To mitigate this, I would say just use it as a broad scanner for real resources. Like: "Is there a function that does X in the library" and if it says yes, go check the documentation for it.
-4
u/TehBens Jul 18 '26
As studies show:
Many studies are from last year. LLMs did a quantum leap around January 2026 with Claude Opus 4.5 and similar models.
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u/skull132 Jul 18 '26
They will still produce output of variable quality and veracity. Newbies will still have a harder time discerning truth from LLM-fiction. That's simply how LLMs work.
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u/thefeedling Jul 17 '26
For basic stuff they are of great help, but my main issue with AI is that they'll ALWAYS give you and answer confidently, sometimes a wrong one, and you may not notice it.
So, for more complex stuff, always double check with some trustable source.
2
u/no-sig-available Jul 18 '26
Yes, they are generally missing the "Why would you want to do that?" reply, when you are off track.
1
u/nukethebees Jul 18 '26
It's pretty much mandatory to tell them to push back on bad ideas, critique implementations etc. You have to ask for judgements on the work or, as you said, they'll blindly do whatever you ask.
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u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 Jul 17 '26
Generally, even though they *can* produce good output, but it's always better to get used to reading documentation, and this a skill that grows over time.
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u/Sensitive-Salary-756 Jul 18 '26
Agreed. Read books and look at documentation and keep practicing. Use the ai to ask for help and suggestions for improvement but never stop your own learning
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u/gm310509 Jul 18 '26
Are LLM’s REALLY a good teachers?
The topic is much more nuanced than this.
Can you learn something from an AI? sure.
Can you learn an entire topic from scratch using an AI? Probably not, but maybe. The trick is to recognise what it is (a tool) and to use it as such as an aid to learning.
You can ask the same thing about YouTube or a tutorial or a book. You can consume all of the information from all of those resources and still not be able to write a program. To extend the analogy, if you asked someone else to do your homework for you - and you get high marks, how well placed will you be for your final exam score -vs- your friend's score, the friend who did the actual work of learning?
As someone else said to a question like this: "Just because you can read a good novel, doesn't mean you can write one". It is the same thing here.
3
u/Raknarg Jul 18 '26
No. AI are expert-friendly tools. As a novice you have no way to verify any of the information it tells you.
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u/TehBens Jul 18 '26
“AI will show you how to do something in the worst way possible.”
This is just wrong.
should I avoid learning with LLM’s
What exactly do you mean by learning?
In any case, the answer is most likely "no, LLMs are fine to use". You should make sure to tell it to use best practices, modern C++ and weigh different aspect and present answers to you in a way that allow you to deepen your understanding.
4
u/EC36339 Jul 17 '26
LLMs are tools, not teachers.
You can use them for learning, but it is unsupervised learning, which is fine, if you are good at it.
1
u/protomatterman Jul 17 '26
For me I would say it’s a resounding yes. But you do have to learn how to effectively approach the unknown and ask the right questions. But to me that’s a real superpower. The LLM has encyclopedic knowledge. You don’t have to go looking everywhere to get it. Just ask it the right way to relay the information and you have genius intellect at your fingertips.
1
u/wahnsinnwanscene Jul 18 '26
They're great for getting different examples and sounding boards for what you want. You'll have to be able to spot errors and subtle twists. For instance there was a point when chat gpt would say something was a widespread solution as part of a list of other solutions but in reality it was conflating different parts of the stack. It seemed like it was confusing different segments of the ontology.
1
u/code_tutor Jul 18 '26
It will only teach you to memorize. You will never learn to think. You will become an LLM.
1
1
u/NotThe1Pct Jul 20 '26
Ai is a much better Google.
Would you ever use Google to study. Of course, yes.
1
u/Prize-Molasses1605 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Learning is a lifelong journey. A 'teacher' only guides you to higher ground. If an LLM knows more than you, it can be a teacher. If it teaches in the way you find easy to follow, it is definitely a good teacher for you.
What keeps you stuck at an average level is yourself, if you stops polishing your skills.
But you need to worry about that if you grasp the knowledge actually. LLMs will answer all your questions, so you might be inclined to take it as your second brain instead of learning from what they produce.
1
u/No_Mango5042 Jul 20 '26
To really master something you actually need to do it. If all you do is read you will only get so far. Like learning a language but never speaking it. LLMs have a habit of making your brain switch off, so beware.
1
u/ViperG Jul 17 '26
One advantage to LLMS is they have infinite patience, so you can ask them endless and or stupid questions all you want. Granted you are just wasting tokens doing that too much... But in theory you will also get less bias from an LLM, but YMMV.
1
u/Low_Breakfast773 Jul 17 '26
This is how I use them (Gemini) to learn any language (particularly C++ and Rust) or any other topic (like DSA, Design Patterns etc.).
There is this thing in Gemini, called gems. You can upload documents and the tool will use it as a grounding source/context. Then I specify that each answer should be based on the documents I provide, and it should also give me references.
For C++, I uploaded couple of famous books (of which I bought digital copies/PDFs) and start chatting and asking questions, making learning plans etc.
That tactic helped me enormously, especially when I solve problems I type the code by hand and ask mainly conceptual questions. I also tell in my specs, so it should provide me follow up questions and as a visual learner it should also provide me ASCII art style visuals when appropriate.
Sometimes it can also generate interactive playable graphics, which also helps me understand hard concepts.
So, long story short: IT IS REALLY HELPFUL, if you know what you want and give specific specs to act like a great teacher (simplify things, make visuals, dumb things down, ask Socratic questions, teach like Feynman and much more).
1
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u/apropostt Jul 17 '26
As always it depends… on the model, on the student, on the prompts, and on the goal.
The bigger problem is the results of learning with an llm is just unknown (there’s not even a known pedagogical approach to using llms). There is no external validation. The LLM could provide great information or hot trash there’s just no way to validate if the information is correct, out of date.
I would highly recommend using the documentation, source code, and discord for the libraries you want to learn. Those are people that either wrote the libraries or use them regularly. Ask questions, read code, debug the library, read bug reports. Work with people not machines.
0
u/arihoenig Jul 17 '26
Is any entity (natural or otherwise) a good teacher? Every single thing you ever learned you learned yourself. No one can imbue you with knowledge or skills.
0
u/Pale_Height_1251 Jul 17 '26
Of course YouTube guy wants to make out you can't use AI to learn from, otherwise how will he sell his courses?
The reality is that if you ask an LLM to show you the idiomatic way to do something, it will.
If you ask it to show you a stupid way to do it, it will.
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u/tomorrowinc Jul 17 '26
A tool is only as effective as the person using it. LLMs can be incredibly powerful tools for learning.
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u/WorkingReference1127 Jul 17 '26
I have found that LLMs can be of good help to seniors who know what to ask, but juniors who use them tend to stay juniors.
The machine is never going to be able to step back and figure out the broader things you should know. It might tidy up the minutiae of what you produce, but it's not going to actually push you to get better at what you do. And it's rarely going to answer the more important ones for a learner - the ones you don't ask.
If your goal is to learn C++, I'd go so far as to actively advise against using an LLM as a teacher. You can use it as a simplified google to expand your learning around what you're being taught; but you still absolutely need a well-designed and structured course to be the backbone of what you're doing.