This study explores how the first-year undergraduate students in School of Engineering, Kathmandu University learns their very first programming language i.e. C programming. The students were requested to response to an online questioner, where they were asked about their perception about the programming language they are learning, their motivation on learning that particular language and their strategy on preparing for the subject. Student’s concept on C programming and their approach for preparing for the exam are categorized. Our results show what kind of different strategies they use to learn this particular programming language. Additionally, the insights of this paper point that learning theory of programming and practicing programming goes hand in hand in C programming course and the focus here is on learning difficult topics which involves investigating students perceptions and conceptions of causality in relation to learning difficulties (Berglund et al., 2009). This study is intended to be helpful for future teachers and students in programming courses in Nepal.