CS 574: Randomized Algorithms — Fall 2026

Sariel Har-Peled (sariel at illinois.edu)

Lectures & Schedule

#DayDateTopic / NotesPDF / Video
1WednesdayAugust 26, 2026Introductionintro
2FridayAugust 28, 2026Some probability: conditional probability, independence, expectation, linearity of expectation, Markov's inequalityexpectations
3WednesdaySeptember 02, 2026Quick sort in expectations; Verificationquick_sort
verify
4FridaySeptember 04, 2026Chebychev inequalityalias_method
chebychev
recording
youtube
5WednesdaySeptember 09, 2026Occupancyoccupancy
6FridaySeptember 11, 2026$k$-wise Independencek_wise
7WednesdaySeptember 16, 2026Hashinghashing
8FridaySeptember 18, 2026Closest pair; Turán's theorem; Derandomization of 3SAT via conditional expectationsclosest_pair
turan
3sat_derand
MT1WednesdaySeptember 23, 2026▶ Midterm 1 (in class) — info
10FridaySeptember 25, 2026Discrepancy and derandomizationdiscrepancy
11WednesdaySeptember 30, 2026Routing on the hypercube; Martingaleschernoff_app
martingales
12FridayOctober 02, 2026Martingales 2martin_II
13WednesdayOctober 07, 2026Power of two choicestwo_choices
14FridayOctober 09, 2026Power of two choices part II
15WednesdayOctober 14, 2026Streamingstreaming
16FridayOctober 16, 2026Frequency estimationfrequency_est
17WednesdayOctober 21, 2026Frequency estimation 2freq_est_2
MT2FridayOctober 23, 2026▶ Midterm 2 (in class) — info
19WednesdayOctober 28, 2026Random walk II / Random walk IIIrwalk_II
rwalk_III
20FridayOctober 30, 2026Random walk IIIrwalk_III
21WednesdayNovember 04, 2026Random walk IVrwalk_IV
22FridayNovember 06, 2026Expanding graphs; Random walk V; Graph algebraexpanding_graphs
rwalk_V
graph_algebra
23WednesdayNovember 11, 2026Random walk continued
24FridayNovember 13, 2026Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemmajl
25WednesdayNovember 18, 2026Entropy; Entropy IIentropy
entropy_II
26FridayNovember 20, 2026Shannon's theorementropy_III
Thanksgiving Break — Give thanks, go on vacation
MT3WednesdayDecember 02, 2026▶ Midterm 3 (in class) — info
28FridayDecember 04, 2026
29WednesdayDecember 09, 2026Last lecture