Abstract: Aiming at the design of high-performance computing units, one of the core technologies of digital design, the University of Electronic Science and Technology’s Exemplary School of Microelectronics opened a challenging course “Design and Verification of High-performance Computing Units”. This course is based on challenging issues as the traction force, in-depth discussion as the basis, and experimental verification as the means, which comprehensively cultivates students’ innovative consciousness, practical ability and teamwork ability. Teaching practice shows that students can deeply understand design methods for complex digital circuits through discussions and come up with novel insights and solutions; they can also find the contradictions between practice and theory at the experimental verification stage, and trace their roots to find the cause. Through the study of this course, students have significantly improved their learning initiative, their ability to study problems in depth, their ability to combine theory with practice, and their ability to work in teams.