In introductory computer programming courses, students experience a range of emotions. Students often experience anxiety and frustration when they encounter difficulties in writing programs. Continued frustration can discourage students from pursuing engineering and computing careers. Although prior research has shown how emotions affect students’ motivation and learning, little is known about students’ emotions in programming courses. In this qualitative study of first-year engineering students taking an introductory programming course, we examined the emotions that these students experienced during programming tasks and the reasons for experiencing those emotions.