C typing practice

C typing practice centres on three characters that barely appear anywhere else: the asterisk for pointers, the ampersand for addresses, and the hash for preprocessor directives. All three need Shift, and the ampersand and asterisk sit next to each other on the number row, which is where most of the confusion comes from.

Practise C now

4 exercises, each complete and syntactically valid, chosen for the characters it drills rather than for what it computes. Untimed, and no account needed.

Drills#<>(){};"

WPM0

Accuracy0.0%

Time0:00

Raw0

Consistency0%

#include <stdio.h>↵
↵
int main(void) {↵
printf("Hello, world!\n");↵
return 0;↵
}

Click here to start — there is no timer

Show keyboardIndentation is spaces. Press Enter at the end of each line.

Why is C harder to type than English?

C is a small language with a punishing character set. Pointers mean the asterisk and the ampersand appear constantly, and they sit adjacent on the number row, both under Shift, so a slip of one key turns a dereference into an address-of and the code still compiles. The hash at the start of every include and define is Shift plus the left middle finger on the number row, a reach most typing never asks for. Add angle brackets around header names and braces around every block, and almost everything structural in C is a shifted symbol.

Which keys slow you down in C?

The characters that cost the most time in C
Key	Finger	Why it costs time
`*` Asterisk	Right middle + Shift	Pointers and dereferencing. Adjacent to the ampersand, which is the problem.
`&` Ampersand	Right index + Shift	Address-of. One key from the asterisk, and mixing them still compiles.
`#` Hash	Left middle + Shift	Every include and define. A long reach from the home row.
`{` Curly braces	Right little finger + Shift	Every block. Paired, so the cost is doubled.

Finger assignments follow the standard touch typing layout. The full chart is on the finger placement page.

The mistake C typists make most

Confusing the asterisk and the ampersand under speed. They are adjacent on the number row, both shifted, and both appear in pointer code within a few characters of each other. The dangerous part is that swapping them often produces code that still compiles and then behaves wrongly at runtime, so unlike most typing errors it is not caught the moment you make it. Slow down deliberately on any line containing both.

How fast should you type C?

Expect roughly 45 to 60 percent of your prose speed. C lines are short, but a high proportion of their characters are shifted symbols, so the per-character cost is higher than the line length suggests.

Measure prose first so you have something to compare against — a one minute test is enough. A code speed well below the range above usually means specific symbols rather than general slowness, and the test results name which keys they are.

Questions about typing C

How do I practise typing C code?

Use snippets that contain pointers, because that is where the difficulty actually is. A hello world exercise drills the hash and the quotes and nothing else. A swap function with asterisks and ampersands in the same three lines is worth more than a page of printf calls.

Which symbols are hardest to type in C?

The asterisk and the ampersand, mainly because they sit next to each other on the number row and mean opposite things. The hash is the other one worth drilling: it is at the start of every include, and it is a long shifted reach with the left middle finger that almost no other typing asks for.

Is typing practice useful for embedded programming?

It is, because embedded work involves more editing in constrained environments where you may not have a fully configured editor with auto-closing brackets and snippets. The further you are from a comfortable setup, the more your raw typing matters.

Should I practise typing braces on their own line?

Type both styles. Where the brace goes is a project convention and you will meet both, so drilling only one leaves you slow in half the codebases you will read. The exercises here put the opening brace on the same line, which is the more common style in C today.

All free, and no account needed.