C++
The language of choice when microseconds matter. Essential for trading systems, real-time data processing, and infrastructure software.
ClearView
When every microsecond counts
C++ remains the working language of systems where performance is a functional requirement: trading engines, market data handlers, game engines, embedded targets, and much of the infrastructure other software runs on. It offers control over memory layout, allocation and instruction paths that no garbage-collected runtime can match, and its abstractions compile away to nothing at run time.
The modern standards have made the language safer and more expressive. C++20 brought concepts, coroutines and modules; C++23 adds std::expected for error handling without exceptions. None of this removes the discipline the language demands: undefined behaviour still compiles silently, so sanitisers, static analysis and reviewers who know where the traps sit remain part of any serious C++ practice.
C++ is the wrong choice for ordinary services and business systems, where Go or Java delivers most of the performance at a fraction of the engineering cost, and for data work, which belongs in Python. Where a C++ estate exists without a latency case for it, the pragmatic path is containment: keep the core that earns its complexity, and move the rest behind service boundaries in simpler languages.
C++ was used by 23.5% of respondents to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey.
The ISO C++ standard has been revised on a three-year cycle since C++11.
- Trading Systems
- Real-Time Processing
- Game Engines
- Embedded Systems
Our C++ capabilities
Low-latency systems
Latency work starts with measurement: tail latencies under production-shaped load, cache and branch behaviour from hardware counters, and a profile before any change. On the hot path we remove allocation, lay data out for cache locality, and take the kernel out of the network path with DPDK or io_uring when the network itself is the bottleneck.
- DPDK
- io_uring
- Lock-free
Modern C++ safety patterns
Ownership is expressed in the type system: RAII for every resource, smart pointers with explicit ownership semantics, and std::span in place of raw pointer arithmetic. clang-tidy enforces the ruleset mechanically, and CI includes ASan and TSan builds, because undefined behaviour that passes review is still caught under instrumentation.
- RAII
- clang-tidy
- ASan/TSan
Concurrency & parallelism
C++20 coroutines structure asynchronous I/O without callback chains, std::jthread ties thread lifetime to scope with cooperative cancellation, and execution policies parallelise standard algorithms across cores. Where the workload is data-parallel rather than task-parallel, the same codebase extends to GPUs through CUDA or SYCL.
- Coroutines
- jthread
- CUDA/SYCL
Why Adaca for C++?
Financial systems expertise
Trading infrastructure, risk engines, and market data systems where latency directly impacts revenue.
Modern C++20/23 practices
Concepts, ranges, coroutines, and smart pointers enforced by clang-tidy rules and static analysis.
Performance profiling depth
perf, VTune, Valgrind, and hardware performance counters to identify cache misses and branch mispredictions.
Build system & CI expertise
CMake, Conan, and vcpkg-based pipelines with sanitiser runs integrated into CI.
Cross-platform delivery
C++ codebases targeting Linux, Windows, and macOS with platform abstraction and cross-compiled CI.
C++ to Rust evaluation
Honest evaluation of Rust interop costs, team ramp-up, and where Rust adds safety beyond modern C++.
How We Staff It
C++ roles at Adaca are specialised roles: low-latency work on financial systems, performance engineering on existing estates, and cross-platform systems software. Profiles vary more here than in any web stack, so briefs are matched on the specific depth required, whether that is lock-free programming, CMake and dependency toolchains, or profiling.
Most C++ engagements embed one or two engineers into a team that already owns the system, because the domain knowledge around a mature C++ codebase carries as much weight as the language skill. Engineers work to your working day.
Common Questions
When is C++ still the right choice for a new system?
When the latency budget is measured in microseconds, when the software talks to hardware directly, or when it must live inside an ecosystem that is already C++: trading infrastructure, game engines, embedded platforms. In those settings the language's complexity buys capability no simpler stack offers.
Outside them, it rarely does. A new API service or business system started in C++ today costs more to build and staff than the same system in Go or Java, with no performance difference the workload would notice.
Should we rewrite our C++ system in Rust?
Sometimes, and the decision deserves a costing before a commitment. Rust removes classes of memory error at compile time, which matters most in new components with long lives and clean boundaries. Against that sit interop costs across the C++ boundary, team ramp-up, and the ground that modern C++ with sanitisers and strict analysis already covers.
We run that evaluation per component: some earn a Rust rewrite, most earn modern C++ discipline, and some earn retirement behind a service boundary instead.
How well does AI-assisted delivery work in a C++ codebase?
C++ is the hardest of the mainstream stacks for coding agents, for structural reasons. Build configuration differs from repository to repository, so an agent cannot assume the quick edit-compile-test loop it gets in Go or Python. Template errors can run to pages before the real fault appears, and undefined behaviour means code can compile, pass a shallow test, and still be wrong.
The review bar therefore sits highest here. Agent output goes through the same sanitiser builds, static analysis and senior review as human code, and anything on a latency-critical path stays under human authorship. The measured results of our AI-augmented delivery flow are on the Technology page.
Can you find C++ engineers at short notice?
Yes. The C++ market is thinner than the web stacks, so a shortlist leans harder on people we already employ or already know, with dedicated recruitment covering the rarest profiles, kernel-bypass networking among them. It usually reaches you within 48 hours of a brief.
You interview and decide. Engagement terms are three, six, nine or twelve months, chosen up front, and engagements start at one engineer.