The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!

[MNomadic]

Provider: Straighterline
Course: Introduction to Programming in C++
Score: 85%
Course content: 4 quizzes, a midterm, 8 programming assignments, and a proctored final
Final exam format: 3 or 4 programming questions, the rest are multiple choice; 50 questions total  
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: I felt the final exam had different, more difficult questions than what I saw on the quizzes and midterm, but the content is still the same; just review the materials and make sure to know it well.  
Familiarity with subject before course: I have no programming experience whatsoever. Total newbie. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There is a very helpful forum where you can submit questions, plus you can send your code to a certain email where someone can help you review it if you're stuck. That was a lifesaver for me! You will need to download a coding program; I used Xcode since I'm using a Mac. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 10. Since I have no experience with programming, I found this course to be extremely difficult and I struggled quite a bit. For someone who has programming knowledge, this may be easier for you. You definitely can't breeze through it!

How did the assignments work? Are they auto-graded? Can you submit assignments multiple times until you pass? Thanks for the review!