I don't use C++ or bitwise operations at my current job but I'm thinking of applying to companies where it is a requirement to be fluent with them (on their tests anyway).
So my question is: Can anyone suggest a project which will require gaining a fluency in bitwise operations to complete?
On a side note, is there a canonical book on optimization techniques using bitwise operations since that seems to be an important use of them?
There's no mystery to bitwise operations. Perhaps you're thinking of some of the crazy bit twiddling tricks that people have come up with over the years? For example, Stanford has a page with a long list of such tricks. Your best bet there is to just start with a list such as the one I linked and go through a number of them. Step through them in a debugger if it helps. Once you understand a handful of them, you'll get more comfortable thinking in those terms.
You'd hardly need a book to figure this out, only to know how numbers are represented in binary. Buy yourself a pad and pencil and draw some Truth Tables
As for a project, how about writing an algorithm that takes an image bitmap and draws/blits it transparently onto another image using masks. Allow the user to select the transparent colour.
