Lecture Schedule
Future lecture topics are subject to change. Over time we will add links to relevant textbook chapters / lecture notes; links to future lecture notes, videos, and other resources are placeholders. Exam dates are fixed. Notes that have been recently written or revised (however lightly) are marked ✍️.
Lecture videos are available on a separate page. New videos should be available at most a day after each lecture.
Semester progress:
[Jump to current week]
- Tue Aug 25
- Introduction and administrivia
[scribbles,
video,
Strömberg Lei Wu 2026,
Yong Nacenty Este 2026]
- Thu Aug 27
- Review of fundamental data types and data sturctures
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Sep 1
-
Iterative algorithms and loop invariants
[scribbles,
video,
YouTube (3Blue1Brown)]
- Thu Sep 3
-
Recursive algorithms, divide and conquer, recurrences
[scribbles,
video]
- Fri Sep 4
- Add deadline
- Mon Sep 7
- Labor Day
- Tue Sep 8
- More divide and conquer
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Sep 10
- Backtracking
and dags
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Sep 15
- Dynamic programming
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Sep 17
- Dynamic programming too
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Sep 22
- Dynamic programming also
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Sep 24
- Midterm 1 review
[scribbles,
video]
- Mon Sep 28
- Midterm 1 — 7–9pm, location TBA
- Tue Sep 29
- Greedy algorithms
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Oct 1
- More greedy algorithms
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Oct 6
- Graph structure and representation
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Oct 8
- Graph traversal / reachability
[scribbles>,
video]
- Tue Oct 13
- Directed graphs: topological sort, strong components
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Oct 15
- Shortest paths
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Oct 20
- Graph modeling and reductions
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Oct 22
- Local search
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Oct 27
- More local search
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Oct 29
- Midterm 2 review
[scribbles,
video]
- Mon Nov 2
- Midterm 2 — 7–9pm, location TBA
- Tue Nov 3
- Introduction to flows and matchings
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Nov 5
- Flow/cut/matching algorithms
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Nov 10
- Applications of flows and matchings
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Nov 12
- More applications of flows and matchings
[scribbles,
video]
- Fri Nov 15
- Grad drop deadline
- Tue Nov 17
- Linear programming
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Nov 19
- Optimization
[scribbles,
video]
- Nov 22–28
- Inconveniently scheduled week-long break
📺
- Tue Dec 1
-
Cool stuff
[scribbles,
video]
- Thu Dec 3
-
More cool stuff
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Dec 8
- Final exam review
[scribbles,
video]
- Tue Dec 15
- Final exam —
7–10pm,
location TBA