98-361: Software Development Fundamentals (using VB .Net)

Learn how to verify Visual Studio licensing by signing in with a Microsoft account, locate your Windows sign-in name, and clear the 30‑day trial ambiguity before creating your first program.

Create your first Visual Basic console app by starting a new Visual Basic project, writing hello world, building and running, and exploring Solution Explorer and basic project management.

Explain how a Visual Basic console program uses a line six statement to print a string, contrasts console with GUI, and relates to the command prompt, MS-DOS, and batch files.

Explore how System.Console relates to the Console class, the role of Imports System, namespaces, modules, and subroutines, and key elements like WriteLine, End Sub, Sub Main, and comments.

Practice activity 1 guides you through creating a Visual Basic console app in Visual Studio, using Console.WriteLine and comments to show output like 'Hello everyone, this is my first programme'.

Learn how to declare variables in VB.NET using dim, set integer values for val1 and val2, and join strings with ampersand while displaying the total.

Understand why choosing the right integer data type matters for memory and range. Use double for decimals and review byte, short, int, long, unsigned variants, and dot net names.

Compare floating point types in vb . net: single, double, and decimal; discuss precision limits, conversion suffixes F, R, D, and choosing the smallest type that meets accuracy needs.

Explore four data types—boolean, string, char, and date—with examples of true/false values, string concatenation, and characters; learn date-time storage and the Japanese year-month-day format using date literals.

Declare three variables in vb .net: a string for the first name, a string for the last name, and a byte for the programme number, then print greeting with console.writeline.

Explore computer decision structures by reading flowcharts, identifying start, input/output, process, and decision symbols, and tracing loops and conditions that repeat or end the program.

Write a Visual Basic if statement to branch code when a condition is true, using one equals for comparison, then End If, with optional brackets.

Explore evaluating expressions with a single condition in vb.net, including equality, inequality, not, and comparison operators, and understand operator order and unreachable code concepts.

Explore decision tables with multiple conditions, illustrating the or operator and the and operator, with dry versus wet scenarios, and translate to true and false in Visual Basic.

Explore evaluating expressions with and, or, and not in vb.net by combining multiple conditions and understanding true and false outcomes.

Explore how division behaves with integers and doubles in VB.NET, including implicit casting to double, integer division, modulus, and explicit conversions with Int and Fix for rounding and truncation.

Learn how if, else, and else if structures evaluate conditions in VB .Net, including nested branches, multiple statements per block, and the role of AndIF in flow control.

Demonstrate using the select case structure to replace repeated mod checks with case options, including case 1, case 2, and case 3 to 5, ending with end select.

Define two variables mood and type of activity as strings with initial values, then use if, else-if, else, and a select case to produce mood and activity messages.

Explore choosing the right repetition construct in vb.net, focusing on for loops, while loops, and do while; understand for loop syntax, step values, and how continue and exit affect flow.

Explore repetition structures in VB.NET by contrasting the for next, while, and do...while loops, showing how and when each executes and how to control exits and increments.

Learn to increment and decrement variables in vb.net using plus equals and minus equals within do loops, with val1 illustrated through practical examples.

Learn to read user input from the console, perform modulus operations, convert input to numbers, and handle format errors like System.InvalidCastException.

Apply structured exception handling using try, catch, and finally to manage input and file errors. Note that finally and catch are optional, and use throw to rethrow.

In practice activity 4, students implement a multiplying program using loops (for, do while, or do until), manage a running total, read console input, and handle input errors with try-catch.

Learn object-oriented programming by creating a class, instantiating it, and defining sub procedures like typing and sound. Explore modules, properties, inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation.

Turn a sub into a function that returns a value, and learn to create properties in a VB .Net class, using a TypeOfComputer property for laptop and desktop objects.

Demonstrate defining read-only and write-only properties in a VB .Net class, compare auto-implemented versus explicit get/set, and validate values with select case logic and snippets.

Understand how access modifiers control visibility in vb .net, from private to public, internal and protected, shaping how classes, methods, and variables are accessed within and across assemblies.

Create a mammal class with a name property, instantiate two mammals named lion and kitten, and output their names and sounds, using roar for lion, bark for dog, else noise.

Use with blocks to simplify repeated item references and set computer types to laptop or desktop. Preview constructors for creating new computers with concise initialization.

See how Visual Basic uses the New constructor to initialize and instantiate objects, including parameterless and overloaded forms, with TypeOfComputer and the Me reference; modules have no constructors.

Create and raise events, and subscribe external handlers to react to them. See typing events handled by a dedicated handler with AddHandler, and observe listeners such as bank balance updates.

Explore constructors, events, and property implementation in a vb net mammal class, including private fields, get/set validation, and raising and subscribing to an I hear a sound event.

Explore recursion by building a grand total from a starting number using a running total and an add up function, and learn to stop correctly with optional parameters.

Explore inheritance in Visual Basic, showing how a laptop derives from a base computer and inherits properties and methods, while constructors are not inherited.

Extend a derived class from a base class through inheritance, add the am I mobile function, and create a desktop class inheriting computer to demonstrate extended functionality and upcoming polymorphism.

Create wild animal and tame animal as derived classes from mammal, add constructors, implement an am I wild function, and verify lion and kitten outputs while prepping for polymorphism.

Explore polymorphism in vb.net by overriding base class functions in Laptop and Desktop, using shadows, overrides, and overridable to customize AmIMobile behavior.

Explore polymorphism by comparing shadows and overrides, showing how a derived class can hide base class functionality or replace it with overrides.

Show how NotOverridable prevents derived classes from overriding a method, using a derived laptop class and a mobile function example. Note that base class methods cannot be marked NotOverridable.

Encapsulate by treating a class as a black box with a private backing field. Expose only public properties and methods with get and set to protect internal state.

Practice polymorphism in VB.NET by overriding and shadowing AmIwild() in a mammal class, exploring must override, must inherit, and overridable patterns.

Explore creating and populating single-dimension arrays in VB .NET using zero-based indexing. Learn to loop through items, use length, and understand array bounds.

Explore multi-dimensional arrays in VB .Net by converting a single array into two dimensions, using nested loops, and retrieving bounds and ranks to search and access data.

Practice activity 9 demonstrates creating a names array (zero to three) in VB.NET, printing with a for loop, and using a multidimensional array for first and last names.

Discover stacks, a last-in, first-out collection. Push, pop, peek, contains, and clear with System.Collections.Stack in vb.net.

Learn how queues implement first in, first out behavior by enqueuing and dequeuing items, contrasting with stacks, and using clear and contents operations.

Learn about doubly linked lists in vb net, and how to add after or before, add first or last, and remove, find, contains, and clear items.

Practice activity 10 demonstrates stacks, queues, and linked lists in VB .NET, showing push, pop, enqueue, dequeue, and insert operations, with iteration and containment checks, plus sorting previews.

Watch how bubble sort compares adjacent items, swaps them, and bubbles the highest values to the right in an eight-item unsorted list, illustrating an early, inefficient sorting method in VB.NET.

Discover quick sort, a partition-based algorithm that uses a pivot to divide a list into left and right parts, then repeats on partitions for faster sorting than bubble sort.

Compare arrays, stacks, queues, and linked lists, noting indexing, shrinking and growing, and contains; choose structures by access pattern, insertion needs, and sorting options like bubble sort or quick sort.

Examine how computers store programs in memory by comparing stack and heap, showing where value types and reference types reside, with pointers, arrays, strings, objects, and garbage collection.

Explore the phases of application lifecycle management—from requirements and vision to design, implementation, verification, and maintenance—highlighting agile practices and the value of early problem detection.

Explore software testing within application lifecycle management, comparing black-box testing (inputs and outputs) with white-box testing (internal units and system integration) to ensure all requirements are met.

Interpret application specifications by mapping requirements to design, sketching a high-level input flow and sorting criteria for a prototype.