Why it matters

Bit manipulation powers embedded systems, cryptography, and hot loops. Understanding operators shapes performance.

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The architecture

AND masks bits; OR sets bits; XOR toggles/compares; shifts multiply/divide by powers of two.

Combine for compact set membership and flags.

Bit manipulation basicsAND / OR / XORmask, set, toggleShifts<< and >> for pow-2Combinedflags, sets, hashesCompiler intrinsics beat manual code; know the built-ins
Bit manipulation fundamentals.
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How it works end to end

Flags packed as bitset.

Bit tricks avoid branches.

Compiler intrinsics inline safely.