Concepts and Content
Students learn to interpret and explain MATLAB programs, focusing on concepts such as program intent, control flow (loops and conditionals), variable scope, and edge cases. The activity emphasizes that understanding and communicating code is as important as writing it.

Use of MATLAB
MATLAB provides the code context for the interview and is the medium through which students practice comprehension. By reviewing authentic MATLAB syntax and structure, students strengthen their familiarity with the language. The chatbot prompts targeted questions, encouraging students to actively engage with the code instead of passively reading it, which deepens conceptual understanding.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills
The activity develops critical thinking (reasoning through control flow and edge cases), computational reasoning (predicting program behavior), and synthesis of ideas (linking different parts of a program into a coherent explanation). Students also practice debugging-style analysis by identifying unreachable code or potential logic errors.

Other Skills
Because the activity is modeled after a technical interview, students gain experience with oral and written communication, learning to explain technical ideas clearly and concisely. This builds confidence for future interviews while also supporting classroom skills in explanation, reasoning, and peer discussion.

This activity is designed for introductory programming courses at the undergraduate level, particularly in engineering, computer science, or related STEM fields. It works best in any sized class especially large enrollment courses where students can complete the activity on their own time. The activity takes about 10–15 minutes total: 5 minutes for students to review an instructor-provided code snippet and 5 minutes to engage with the MATLAB Chatbot in an interview-style interaction. It is well suited for classroom use, lab sessions, or as a low-stakes homework assignment. The complexity and duration of the activity are easily adapted based on instructor preference and alignment with course objectives.

Student Prerequisites:
Students should have basic MATLAB skills, including:

Understanding simple scripts and functions

Reading and interpreting for and while loops

Recognizing if/elseif/else and switch statements

Using variables, counters, and simple arrays

No advanced MATLAB programming (vectorization, toolboxes, or object-oriented programming) is required.

Disciplinary Skills:
Students should already have some exposure to introductory programming logic (variables, loops, conditionals) and be comfortable explaining code in plain language. Prior experience with debugging or formal code interviews is not required, but the activity helps build toward those skills.

Course Placement & Adaptability:
This activity is typically situated early to mid-semester once students have been introduced to loops and conditionals. It can be easily adapted by changing the code snippet under review, making it appropriate across multiple programming courses and institution types (community college, undergraduate, or introductory graduate-level refresher). Faculty can also use the framework for peer interviews or as a checkpoint for lab assignments.

The activity begins with the instructor making small modifications to a provided instructions.md file so it fits the needs of their course. The instructor may:

Provide students with a specific code snippet to analyze, or allow students to upload their own code.

Add or modify a set of sample questions for the chatbot to guide the interview.

Students then navigate to the MATLAB GPT on ChatGPT and upload the instructions.md file. This file configures the chatbot to act as a code interviewer, prompting students with a series of short, interview-style comprehension questions about the given code. Students engage in the interview for about 5 minutes, practicing how to explain program intent, describe control flow, and reason about edge cases. Platforms like chatgpt also allow for microphone input to better simulate an oral-based code interview.

Although designed for MATLAB GPT, the same instructions.md file can be used in other chatbot platforms (e.g., Google Gemini, institution-provided chatbots, or other LLM interfaces).

Materials Provided

instructions.md (generic) – A reusable template file that configures the chatbot to behave like a code interviewer. Instructors can edit this file to customize code snippets or sample questions.

instructions_CI1_ASEN_1030.md (course-specific) – An example version modeled after the MATLAB Academy Programming Constructs course, illustrating how the framework can be tailored to specific instructional content.

Sample Code Snippets – Short MATLAB programs appropriate for entry-level programming (loops, conditionals, arrays). These can be swapped depending on the course's current focus.

Sample Question Bank – Example interview-style questions focusing on program intent, control flow, variable initialization, and edge cases.

Why MATLAB?
The activity is designed around MATLAB because:

It is widely used in STEM education and engineering practice.

The clear syntax and strong support for teaching programming constructs (loops, conditionals, arrays) make it well-suited for entry-level comprehension tasks.

Students gain practice in explaining MATLAB-specific syntax and logic, which directly supports their coursework.

MATLAB GPT is a mathworks provided and curated custom gpt housed on chatgpt.com <https://chatgpt.com/g/g-QFTjbeK3U-matlab>

Supporting Student Use of MATLAB

Remind students that the purpose of the exercise is code comprehension and explanation, not code execution. Encourage them to read the code carefully and trace logic by hand rather than running it.

If students are unfamiliar with MATLAB syntax, provide a quick reference sheet for common structures (for, while, if/elseif/else, switch, array indexing).

Tips for Effective Implementation

Keep code snippets short (20–40 lines) so students can grasp intent quickly in a timed setting.

Provide clear directions for uploading the instructions.md file to the chatbot. A quick live demo can reduce confusion.

Encourage students to answer questions verbally first, then refine explanations in writing if you want written submissions. This mimics a real interview dynamic.

Rotate or randomize which questions are asked to reduce "answer sharing" across students.

Practical Considerations

No safety issues are involved, as this is a software-based classroom activity.

The activity adapts well for homework, lab warm-ups, or as an in-class formative assessment.

For larger classes, consider pairing students so one plays the "interviewer" role using the chatbot while the other practices answering, then swap.