I'm a high-school student interested in low-level and systems programming. I learned C a few months ago, have some basic C++ knowledge, and have built small projects such as simple Unix command clones and basic libraries.
While reading a systems programming book, I encountered topics involving operating systems, CPU registers, memory addressing, and other hardware concepts. That led me to study how CPUs and RAM work, which eventually led me to x86-64 NASM assembly.
I'm wondering whether I'm approaching this sensibly. I'm not trying to become an assembly programmer, but I do want to understand systems programming and how computers work at a lower level. Should I continue studying x86-64 assembly and computer architecture, or focus on other fundamentals first? I'm also interested in eventually building Linux tools such as package managers and perhaps creating a Linux system from scratch.
3 Answers
Assembly isn’t required for a lot of systems programming. C already exposes many important ideas, including memory, pointers, stack behavior, control flow, calling conventions, and interaction with the operating system. I’ve worked on low-level device software without writing assembly directly.
Assembly becomes especially valuable for reading compiler output, reverse engineering, binary instrumentation, performance-critical code, JITs, or designing virtual machines. So treat it as a useful way to understand what is happening underneath C, not as a prerequisite for every systems project. Since you genuinely enjoy it, there’s no reason to stop—curiosity is a much better motivator than following a rigid study order.
You can absolutely learn some assembly, but x86-64 is a fairly complicated architecture for a first introduction. Simpler instruction sets such as 6502, 68000, MIPS, or 32-bit ARM can make the basic ideas easier to see. That said, learning x86-64 is still useful if your eventual interests involve modern operating systems or low-level development; just expect more details and historical baggage.
I chose x86-64 because I thought it might be useful for operating systems and other low-level work later. Is the difference between architectures large enough that starting with a simpler one would be better?
You’re broadly on the right track. You don’t need to master every CPU detail before writing systems software, but being able to read assembly is very helpful. Keep working on C, pointers, processes, files, system calls, virtual memory, linking, executable formats, and debugging alongside assembly.
For assembly, a beginner-focused book such as Assembly Language Step-by-Step can explain the fundamentals well, although its examples may target older 32-bit systems. You’ll need to adapt some code and calling conventions for modern x86-64 machines. A good practical approach is to write small C programs, compile them to assembly, and compare the source with the generated instructions.
I really enjoy low-level work and may pursue it professionally. For now, I’d like to build Linux tools such as a simple package manager and eventually create a system from scratch. I’m studying assembly mainly to understand 64-bit systems more deeply and know when assembly is actually useful.