Why I'm Building a Database From Scratch in Raw C++ (And Why I Banned the STL)

I am a first-year CS student and I recently made a decision that most people around me think is unnecessary — I am building a relational database storage engine from scratch in raw C++, with zero STL dependency. No std::vector. No std::string. No iostream. Nothing. Here is why. The Problem With How I Was Learning For a long time I was writing code that worked but I had no idea why it worked. I used abstractions, APIs, and libraries that hid everything interesting. I could build things but I coul