CS 374 A
About this course Course staff Announcements Stuff you already know
Guided problem sets Lab handouts and solutions Homeworks and solutions Exams and solutions
Course calendar (with lecture notes and videos) Weekly events (including office hours)
Extension request form PrairieLearn Gradescope (entry code Y76PYE) MediaSpace Ed Discussion Discord Other useful resources
Homework policies Exam policies Grading policies Accommodations Health and wellness Academic integrity Conduct

Announcements

Thu Dec 21
  • Final exam scores have been released on Gradescope.
    • The maximum score for both the regular and conflict exam is 70. We graded the two choices for the NP-hardness reduction as two separate Gradescope problems, which makes Gradescope think the maximum score was 80.
    • Regrade requests can be submitted until Friday, January 12 at 11:59pm. We reserve the right to ignore regrade requests whose positive outcome would not increase any course grade, and we are unlikely to answer any new regrade requests before January 8.
    • Here is the distribution of exam grades and overall course averages:

      As usual, the orange curve shows the final overall course averages (see below) for all students who took all three regular exams, in sorted order. The blue dots show the sum of all three exam scores for the corresponding students. Dots further above the orange curve indicate lower homework averages.

  • Course grades have been submitted to Banner. Course grades were computed as described in the grading policies, using the advertised fixed cutoffs, with the following adjustments:
    • Everyone received 1.5% extra credit for filling out all three feedback surveys.
    • All requested extensions were applied to both guided problem sets and written homework. (Due to technical limitations, grades displayed on PrairieLearn cannot reflect extensions granted after the original deadline.)
    • Scores on the conflict final exam were significantly lower than on the regular exam. Conflict final scores were curved upward to compensate for this discrepancy before calculating course grades; Gradescope shows only the original uncurved scores.
    • For purposes of computing homework averages, all homework scores less than or equal to 4/10 were forgiven.
    • For purposes of computing letter grades, overall averages within 1/2 an exam point of the next higher grade cutoff (about 0.2%) were rounded up.
  • Here is a summary of the distribution of submitted grades, excluding students who missed both the regular final and the conflict final. The overall "GPA" for the class was 3.10. Future regrades may increase some of these grades.

    Letter + ε –
    A 24 (6.3%) 61 (16.1%) 58 (15.3%)
    B 55 (14.5%) 40 (10.6%) 51 (13.5%)
    C 46 (12.1%) 19 (5.0%) 20 (5.3%)
    D 4 (1.1%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.3%)
    F 0 (0.0%)

Wed Dec 13

Wed Dec 6
As everyone already knows, the final exam will be offered this Friday, December 6, from 8am to 11am. More information is available on the exams page, but here are a few important logistical announcements.
  • The final exam will be held in following locations; please go to the room assigned to the first letter of your last (family) name. Nobody is in the same building as either Midterm 1 or Midterm 2. You may find these floor maps for all buildings on campus helpful.
  • Everyone who registered for the conflict final exam has been contacted with scheduling information. However, we are leaving the conflict registration form open through Friday to accommodate students with unexpected emergencies.
  • Please read and understand the exam policies. In particular, you can bring two double-sided 8½"×11" handwritten cheat sheets to the exam.
  • HKN is hosting a final-exam review session tomorrow (Thursday), 12:30–3:00 in ECE 1002.
Other announcements:
  • All office hours will continue as usual through the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday). However, there will not be a "homework party" Thursday evening. There will be no regular office hours after the final exam begins.
  • There are obviously a large number of outstanding regrade requests (and reregrade rerequests), especially for Midterm 2, and we anticipate a similar volume of regrade requests for the final exam. All regrade requests will be answered eventually, but starting Friday afternoon, grading the final exam and computing final course grades will take higher priority. We will prioritize regrade requests from students with lower exam scores / course averages. If a regrade requests changes a student's course grade, Jeff will submit a grade change request (which usually takes effect in only a few days) and notify the studentby email.

Sun Dec 3
  • Study problems and first practice exam (answer booklet) for the final exam are available. Jeff will go over this practice exam in class on Tuesday. Another practice exam will be posted tomorrow, with solutions released on Thursday. Watch the exams page for more information.

  • Midterm 2 grades have been released on Gradescope.
    • Regrade requests can be submitted until Monday, December 18 at 11:59pm.
    • Here is the distribution of midterm grades and estimated course averages:

      The orange curve shows computed course averages (35% Homeworks 1–9 and GPS 1–9 + 65% Midterms 1–2) for all students who took both midterms, in sorted order. These averages were used to define the vertical letter-grade boundaries. The blue dots show the sum of both midterm scores for the corresponding students. Dots further above the orange curve indicate lower homework averages.

      Assuming a HW+GPS average of 87% (the class median assuming no drops), a total midterm score of at least 84 is consistent with an A, a total midterm score between 60 and 83 is consistent with a B, and a total midterm score between 38 and 53 is consistent with a C.

      Please keep in mind that this is an extremely rough prediction of your final course grades, based on roughly 65% of the overall work. In particular, these estimates were computed without dropping any homework or GPS scores and without incorporating survey extra credit, so they should be considered conservative. Past experience suggests that most students‘ final course grades will be within half a letter grade of these estimates, but differences of a full letter grade (in either direction) are common every semester.

      Here is a scatterplot showing Midterm 1 scores versus Midterm 2 scores:

Mon Nov 27
  • Coursework:
    • Guided Problem Set 11 is available on PrairieLearn. This is the last guided problem set, and it is short.
    • Homework 12 is available. This homework is for practice only; solutions will be posted next Monday.
  • Course logistics:
    • There is a new reregrade rerequest form for submitting followup regrade requests after the two-week Gradescope window closes.
    • The final exam will be held on Friday, December 8, from 8am to 11am. If you need to take a conflict exam, please fill out the conflict registration form no later than Monday, December 4. We will announce the date and time of the conflict exam on Tuesday, December 5, based on the forms submitted by that time. (The registration form will be left open until the regular final exam begins, to accommodate people with last-minute emergencies.)
  • Teaching evaluations

    • ICES Online forms are available through Thursday, December 7 (reading day). Your feedback is extremely important, especially critical narrative feedback. Please submit forms both for Jeff and the course as a whole, and for the TA who leads your registered lab section. (Please also submit evaluations for all your other courses!)
    • ICES only supports evaluation of teaching assistants who are official instructors of a discuss or lab section, and only by students registered for that section, and it does not suport evaluation of undergraduate course assistants at all. Separate surveys are available to collect informal feedback for/about any member of the course staff. These surveys are also available through Thursday, December 7 (reading day).
  • Surveys: We're also asking for feedback on specific aspects of the course. For each of these surveys, the entire class will receive a small amount of extra credit if at least half of the students submits a response before the final exam.
  • Hiring: The PrairieLearn development team for CS 374 is hiring new developers for next semester. If you are interested, please fill out the application form!

Tue Nov 14
  • There is no homework or guided problem set due next week, thanks to fall break.
  • There is no guided problem set due Monday after break.
  • Homework 11 is available. This is the last graded homework.
  • Solutions for Conflict Midterm 2 are available.

Wed Nov 8
Solutions for Midterm 2 are available.

Tue Nov 7

Tue Oct 31
Both practice exams for Midterm 2 are available: See the Exams page for links to solutions and videos.

Mon Oct 30
Midterm 2 will be offered next Monday, November 6, from 7pm to 9pm.
  • The exam will be held in following locations; please go to the room assigned to the first letter of your last (family) name. Do not go to the location where you took Midterm 1. You may find these floor maps for all buildings on campus helpful.

  • Midterm 2 will cover all material from Homeworks 5 through 9 and the corresponding Guided Problem Sets: recursion, divide-and-conquer, backtracking, dynamic programming, graphs, traversal/connectivity/reachability, topological sort, strong components, and shortest paths.
  • Please read and understand the exam policies.
  • Study problems:
  • Review/study sessions:
    • Instead of a lecture this Thursday, there will be an optional review session at the usual lecture time and location. Jeff will walk through the first practice midterm; the review session will be recorded as usual.
    • Instead of labs this Friday, there will be optional review sesions at the usual lab times and locations.
    • We will hold "study parties" this Thursday evening, this Saturday afternoon, and next Monday morning at the usual "homework party" times and locations.
    • HKN will hold a CA-led review session on Saturday, Novmbber 4, 5:30–8:00pm in the main ECE lecture hall. The CAs running the review session will go over a number of sample exam-style questions with solutions, with time for questions at the end.
  • The conflict exam will be held on Tuesday, November 7, at either 10am-12pm or 11am–1pm.
    • If you cannot attend the regular exam for any of the reasons outlined in the student code, please fill out the registration form no later than Friday, November 3. (However, we will leave the registration form open until Monday, November 6 to accommodate last-minute emergencies.)
    • If you need to take the conflict exam but you have additional conflicts both immediately before and immediately after the 374 lecture on November 7, please fill out the registration form no later than Wednesday, November 1.
    • In cases of illness, injury, or other circumstances that may prevent you from taking both the regular exam and the conflict exam, you can also request to have your midterm forgiven, by filling out the conflict registration form (or emailing Jeff directly). If your midterm is forgiven, your other exams will have more weight in the final grade computation.
  • If you have a DRES accommodation, you are welcome to take the exam at the DRES Testing Accommodation Center on either Monday, November 6, or Tuesday, November 7. We strongly recommend scheduling your exam at TAC immediately. If you are not taking the exam at TAC and you have an accommodation for extra time, please take the conflict exam.
Mon Oct 23
  • Guided Problem Set 9 is available on PrairieLearn.
  • Homework 9 is available.
  • These are the last assignments before Midterm 2.
  • Homework 8 problem 2 is now due on Wednesday, October 25, at 9pm. The intended solution relies on material that I did not have time to cover adequately in last week's lectures. So we are adding 24 hours to the deadline; I will cover the necessary material at the start of tomorrow's lecture. GPS 8 is still due tonight at 9pm, and HW 8.1 is still due tomorrow at 9pm.

Fri Oct 20
A minor revision to Homework 8 is available. One of the example rolling-die mazes I claimed was unsolvable is, in fact, solvable using 12 moves; I've updated (and double-checked) the set of example mazes.

Thu Oct 19
Here is the video that I was unable to play in class today, advertising Hongxuan's graph algorithms pilot study. If you are interested in participating, please fill out the application form.

Tue Oct 17

Thu Oct 12
Midterm 1 grades have been released on Gradescope.
  • Regrade requests can be submitted until two weeks from today: Tuesday, October 26.
  • Here is the distribution of midterm grades and estimated course averages:

    The orange curve shows computed course averages (35% Homeworks 1–4 and GPS 1–5 + 65% Midterm 1) for all students who took the regular exam, in sorted order. These averages were used to define the vertical letter-grade boundaries. The blue dots show the corresponding midterm scores for each student. Dots that are further above the orange curve indicate students with lower homework averages.

    Assuming a HW+GPS average of 92% (the class median), a midterm score of at least 40 is consistent with an A, a midterm score between 29 and 39 is consistent with a B, and a midterm score between 17 and 29 is consistent with a C.

    Please keep in mind that this is an extremely rough prediction of your final course grades, based on roughly 30% of the overall work. Past experience suggests that most students‘ final course grades will be within one letter grade of these estimates, but differences of a full letter grade (in either direction) are quite common, and there are a few differences of two letter grades or more (in either directions) every semester.

    Students are strongly encouraged to talk with Jeff before dropping the class. Jeff will be available Friday 10–12 and 1–4, exclusively for students who are thinking of dropping the class and/or are seriously concerned about their midterm performance.

Mon Oct 9

Thu Oct 5
Homework 5 solutions are available.

Tue Oct 3

Fri Sep 29
Homework 5 has been updated with an important clarification to problem 1.
Wed Sep 27
Solutions and tentative rubrics for Midterm 1 are available.

Tue Sep 26

Mon Sep 25
Midterm 1 will be held in the following rooms; please go to the room assigned to the first letter of your last (family) name. You may find these floor maps for all buildings on campus helpful.

Sat Sep 23
Solutions and a walkthrough video for the second practice midterm are available.

Thu Sep 21
Two practice exams are available on the exams page.
Mon Sep 18
Midterm 1 will be offered next Monday, September 25, from 7pm to 9pm. (We're still working on the location.)
  • The exam will cover all material from Homeworks 1 through 4 and the corresponding Guided Problem Sets—string induction, regular expressions, DFAs, product constructions, fooling sets, NFAs, closure properties of regular languages, language transformations, and (very lightly) context-free languages, but not Turing machines.
  • Please read and understand the exam policies.
  • Study problems:
  • Review/study sessions:
    • Instead of a lecture this Thursday, there will be an optional review session at the usual lecture time and location. Jeff will walk through a sample midterm on Thursday; we will post the sample midterm here by Wendesday. The review session will be recorded as usual.
    • Instead of labs this Friday, there will be optional review sesions at the usual lab times and locations.
    • We will hold "study parties" this Thursday evening, this Saturday afternoon, and next Monday morning at the usual "homework party" times and locations.
    • HKN will hold a review session on Sunday, September 24, from 3pm to 5:30pm, in ECE 1002 (the main ECE lecture hall)
  • The conflict exam will be held on Tuesday, September 26, 11am–1pm.
    • If you cannot attend the regular exam for any of the reasons outlined in the student code, please fill out the registration form no later than Friday, September 22.
    • If you need to take the conflict exam but you have additional conflicts both immediately before and immediately after the 374 lecture on September 26, please fill out the registration form no later than Wednesday, September 20.
  • If you have a DRES accommodation, you are welcome to take the exam at the DRES Testing Accommodation Center on Monday or Tuesday. We strongly recommend scheduling your exam at TAC immediately. If you are not taking the exam at TAC and you have an accommodation for extra time, please take the conflict exam.
Tue Sep 12
In response to feedback from both students and course staff, I've reorganized the course web site a bit to make specific resources easier to find. Please take a few minutes to try every item in the navigation menu, and please post feedback to Discord and/or Ed Discussion.
Mon Sep 11
  • Guided Problem Set 4 is available on PrairieLearn. You can also find several additional practice exercises on PrairieLearn that cover everythign we've seen in the course so far.
  • Homework 4 is available.
  • These are the last assignments before Midterm 1.

Fri Sep 8
Homework 2 solutions are available.

Tue Sep 5

Thu Aug 31

Tue Aug 29
  • Next Monday is Labor Day, which is a university holiday. The Monday grading party and all office hours are officially canceled. All deadlines next week are extended by 24 hours.
  • Guided Problem Set 2 is available on PrairieLearn (due next Tuesdsy).
  • Homework 2 is available (due next Wednesday).

  • A reminder about submitting homework: Exactly one member of each group submits exactly one PDF file to Gradescope for each numbered homework problem. The submitter also identifies their other group members in the submission form, so that all group members get credit. Finally, we ask submitters to mark which pages are relevant for each lettered subproblem.

Tue Aug 22
Mon Aug 21
For people still wanting to register: As of 4pm today, there are 33 available seats, which I believe are open to anyone (not just CS majors). I don't expect those seats to stay open long.
Sun Aug 20
  • Guided Problem Set 1 is available on PrairieLearn (due next Monday)
  • Homework 1 is available (due next Tuesday).
  • A LaTeX homework template is available for typesetting hoemwork. You are not required to use this template, or to typeset your homework at all, but please include all the information shown in the template in your homework solutions. The zip archive also includes LaTeX source for Homework 1. (We do not plan to release LaTeX source for future homeworks.)
  • Standard grading rubrics are available. We will use these to grade most homework and exam problems; however, some problems may not fit any of these standards. We reserve the right to modify the rubrics for problems that have not been assigned yet.

Thu Aug 17
The saints in the CS academic office are planning to open about 70 more seats during the first week of the semester, giving us a final enrollment cap of 480. Experience suggests that these seats will vanish very quickly after they are released. I have no control over when the remaining seats open, or who gets them.

We will accept late registration as justification for a 24-hour extension, but you are responsible for submitting GPS1 and HW1 even if you cannot register until after they are due. You can self-enroll on Gradescope without being registered; you will also have access to PrairieLearn.

Mon Aug 14
Aside from the spiffy new mobile-friendly web pages, we are making a few changes to the course this semester. These are all experiments, which we will stop if they prove impractical or disruptive.
  • Extensions: We are now allowing both guided problem sets and written homework to be submitted up to 24 hours after the official deadline for 50% partial credit, or for full credit with an approved extension. Students can request extensions by filling out this form. Everybody gets three free ”no-fault“ extensions. See our extension policies for more information.
  • Homework parties: In addition to regular and conceptual office hours, we expect to offer both frequent review sessions (where course staff review recent course material) and homework parties (where students work together on homework with staff present to answer questions). We are still working out the logistics for these, so they may not happen during the first week of the semester. See our weekly schedule page for more information.
Mon Aug 8
  • Welcome! We’re working hard to get everything set up here before the semester begins. Meanwhile, you may notice several inconsistencies, broken links, and inaccurate dates.
  • There are two independent sections of CS/ECE 374. This is the web site for Section A, or more formally: lecture section AL1 and lab sections AD*. Section B, taught by Nickvash Kani, has a separate site.