Two Prompts · For Self-Directed Learners

Quiz me
on what I just learned.

A pair of LLM prompts for students who have just finished reading about a data structure in C — and want to find out, gently, whether they actually got it.

Topics Linked Lists · BSTs in C Style Socratic, one concept at a time Use with Claude · ChatGPT · Gemini

What these prompts do

You've just finished a chapter or a video on a C data structure. You think you understand it. The only honest way to find out is to be asked — and to be asked one concept at a time, by something that won't let you slide past the parts you fudged.

Each prompt below frames the LLM as a quiz partner with a tight, specific style. It will ask you a question — usually one that requires reading a small C snippet and predicting what it prints — wait for your answer, give brief feedback, and move on. If you struggle, it nudges you with an analogy rather than handing over the answer. After five clean correct answers, it stops and tells you what you've actually demonstrated you understand.

One concept per turn, with a short C sample.
You predict the output. The prompt grades briefly — under 100 words.
Stuck? You get a hint shaped as a simple analogy. Never the answer outright.
Five correct answers in, you get a summary of the ground you've covered.
Questions are never labeled with the concept being tested — so you can't reverse-engineer the answer from a heading.

Prompt A

Linked lists in C

Pointers, nodes, traversal, insertion, deletion, the dreaded segfault when you forget to malloc.

Prompt B

Binary search trees in C

Recursive structure, ordering invariant, in-order traversal, insertion, deletion's three cases, and balance — or the lack of it.

Prompt A — Linked Lists in C

Paste this into a fresh chat right after you finish studying linked lists. Answer honestly; don't peek at your notes.

I have just learned about **linked list in C**.
1. Quiz me on this topic one concept with a sample at a time.
2. Ask a question that requires me tell the output of sample code
3. Keep your feedback under 100 words.
4. If I struggle, give me a hint using a simple analogy, but don't give the answer immediately.
5. After 5 correct answers, give me a summary of what I've demonstrated understanding of.
Explain in simple language.
Don't label the question using which I can guess the answer.

Prompt B — Binary Search Trees in C

Same shape, different topic. Use this one once your linked-list muscles are warm enough that recursion stops scaring you.

I have just learned about **binary search trees in C**.
1. Quiz me on this topic one concept with a sample at a time.
2. Ask a question that requires me tell the output of sample code
3. Keep your feedback under 100 words.
4. If I struggle, give me a hint using a simple analogy, but don't give the answer immediately.
5. After 5 correct answers, give me a summary of what I've demonstrated understanding of.
Explain in simple language.
Don't label the question using which I can guess the answer.

A note on the format

The two prompts share a skeleton on purpose. Once a quiz format works for you, swap the topic name and the prompt is reusable for any data structure you study next — stacks, queues, hash tables, heaps, graphs.

How to use them well

The prompts are short by design — they describe a behavior, not a curriculum. A few small habits make them much more useful in practice.

Answer before you read the snippet again. The whole point is to surface what you actually know.
If you get stuck, accept the analogy hint and try once more before asking for the answer. The reach for the answer is where the learning happens.
When you reach the five-correct summary, screenshot it or paste it into your notes. It's a more honest record of progress than "I read the chapter."
If the same concept trips you up twice, end the quiz and go re-read just that section. Restart fresh.