Course Syllabus

CSE101 Introduction to Data Structures and Algorithms

Course Staff:

• Instructor: Prof. Davis (davisje@ucsc.edu)
  • Office hours: (immediately after class I take questions until there are no more)
• Graduate TAs
  • Tianyi Luo                (tluo6@ucsc.edu) 
  • Priyanka Mondal     (pmondal@ucsc.edu)
  • Saeed Kargar           (skargar@ucsc.edu)
• Undergraduate TAs / Tutors
  • Bryan Rodriguez.     (bredrodr@ucsc.edu)
  • Danielle Laganiere   (dlaganie@ucsc.edu)
  • Kevin Pinney            (kpinney@ucsc.edu)
  • Nathan MacLeod     (nmacleod@ucsc.edu)
  • Neal Chokshi            (nealc@ucsc.edu)
  • Xin Yan                      (xyan87@ucsc.edu)
• MSG / MSI
  • Jeffrey Zhang           (jzhan357@ucsc.edu), MSG, Tutortrac
  • Tre Braswell              (tmbraswe@ucsc.edu), discord ID bobbob#0030

Office Hours:

Please also check Piazza for any sudden schedule changes!

Zoom:

Lecture Tu/Th: 8:00-9:35am

• https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93207259499?pwd=VThFdjdqSjIyVXNrMGNDTG9mOENDdz09

Piazza:

• https://piazza.com/class/kjhg3v61h5o14b 

FAQ:

• Is there a section during the first week of classes?
  • NO
• Is this online?
  • Of course. All online and Zoom.
• I live in the wrong time zone and 8am is the middle of the night? Do I have to come?
  • I will record everything. Lecture time is flexible. Generally this fails to work properly twice a quarter. You will miss those lectures, its the price of flexibility.
• I live in CA and 8am is the middle of (my) night, do I have to come?
  • I am still deciding my policy on this. On the one hand I like you to have freedom. On the other hand, I am certain that if I require attendance a larger number of people will pass the class. I want to be kind, and its a question of which is kinder.
• What about the discussion sections, do I have to go to those?
  • Yes. Your discussion section is required since exams will be administered there. 
• Do I have to buy the book?
  • The book is "optional". We will use codio for assignments and exams, and you do need to pay for that service if you stay in the course beyond week 3.
• This is also offered by Prof. Tantalo during Win21. Is it the same?
  • No. I will copy from Prof. Sesh. The topics are the same. The specifics of assignments are different.
• Can I have a permission code?
  • Instructors do not have permission codes. This was a policy change. Its useless to email me. You have to wait until waitlist is active and get on that. If you have weird prereq issues I think your only hope is the advising office.
• I have other special cases I need to ask about.
  • If it can wait until we get class started please wait. 90% of questions repeat and are not immediately actionable.

Course Textbooks

• Introduction to Algorithms, Third Edition by Cormen

Lecture Schedule:

Grading

• Tests
  • There are 5 of them (3 in Codio where you code, 2 in Canvas written style)
  • These determine whether you pass the class or not
  • Details:
    • You get a set of questions in advance, on test day you get one of them
    • ~20 lines of code
    • Drop the worst test 
      • e.g. 5/10, 10/10, 7/10, 5/10, 10/10 = (5+10+7+10)/40=80%
    • score 70% or above and you insure at least a C
    • score 90% or above and you insure at least a B-
• HW
  • There are 4 of them
  • These control A,B,C grade
  • Details:
    • ~ 100s of lines of code
    • Your code will be run against test cases, strict and tough
    • Drop the worst HW
    • score 50%, you get at least B-
    • score 80%, you get at least A-
      
      

Homework

You complete this in codio. This is a paid service (you can get a refund if you drop the class). It provides a virtual machine in a web page, so that we all have the same programming environment. Instructions to sign up for codio can be found at Codio Set Up. The details of these assignments will be in the codio system. 

• Due Week 3 - Linked Lists
• Due Week 5 - Recursion and stacks
• Due Week 7 - Trees
• Due Week 9 - Graphs

Exams

Some exams are also in codio with code answer, and some exams are in canvas with written answers. For exams 1,2,3 in codio, you write real code which must work. Example study questions which exactly match the exams will be provided in codio. For exams 4,5 you write psuedocode, the sample questions will be released in the Files section of Canvas, and you take the exam in Canvas. Exams are administered by TAs during section, thus everyone does not take the exam on the same days. For all exams, you open a full screen window and do your work there. You may not switch tabs or reference other digital content. You may reference your own handwritten notes.

• Week 3 - Linked list
• Week 5 - Stacks
• Week 7 Heaps and BSTs
• Week 9 - Arrays and simple data structures 
  • array-qns.pdf : data-struct-qns.pdf : instructions.pdf 
• Final - Graphs