Announcements

Fri May 15

Solutions for the Final Exam and solutions for the Conflict Final Exam are now available.

Thu May 14

As a reminder, the Final Exam will held today Thursday, May 14, from 7pm to 10pm.

  • The exam will cover all material seen over the course of the semester with some bias toward material not already covered in the midterms.
  • Please read and understand the exam policies. In particular, you are allowed to bring two double-sided 8½"×11" handwritten cheat sheets to the exam.
  • The final exam will be held in the following rooms; please go to the room that matches the first letter of your last name.

Best of luck, everybody!

Sun May 10

Solutions for Practice final exam 3 are available along with a video in two parts (part I, part II) of Emily solving it at her desk.

Please note that the recording of Part I began before the final MASSMAIL confirming restoration of Canvas and final exams, and Part II was recorded after Emily learned that final exams were to continue as scheduled but before there were any discussions on how to mitigate the damage from the disrupted schedules.

Sat May 09

Due to the extreme disruption to the Spring 2026 final exam scheduling caused by the university's response to and communications concerning the Canvas cyberattacks, we are making the following change to the computation of course grades:

Total exam scores for each student are based on either the 17 total midterm and final exam problems each weighted equally as originally established or on only the ten total midterm exam problems, whichever option results in a higher average score.

Exams still count toward 65% of the total score for the semester, meaning each problem will count toward approximately 3.8% or exactly 6.5% of each overall grade depending on which option applies. We will automatically figure out which of the two exam score options are better for each student after grading final exams, so there is no need for students to make a decision about how well one might perform. If a student fails to show up to both the regular and conflict final exam, we will treat their final exam grade as a 0 and otherwise apply the above policy as written.

A single forgiven midterm exam will be treated as if it didn't exist; total exam scores will be based on the better of 12 final and midterm exam problems or the five remaining midterm exam problems, whichever is better.

Two forgiven midterms will result in the whole exam score being based on the final exam as originally established. Students who have two forgiven midterms and cannot take either the regular final exam or the conflict final exam will have to request an Incomplete from their college (Engineering or LAS) and take a makeup final exam early next semester. Sorry, but we cannot assign a grade based only on homework, and we cannot divide by zero when computing exam averages. Please see our established policies for more information on Incomplete grades and makeup exams. There will be no other makeup final exams offered except in extreme unanticipated circumstances.

Explanation: The CS/ECE 374 Section A has no Canvas component at all and has a written final exam assigned to the latest time slot: Thursday from 7pm to 10pm. On the one hand, this combination of circumstances means the Canvas outage has affected the course about as little as can possibly be expected. Everybody should be available on the exam date, and, in theory, they have plenty of time to prepare for the exam and get ready to put on their best performance. Many students will come out of this exam with a higher course average than they began with.

However, disruptions to other classes including rescheduling of CBTF exams will make taking our exam much more difficult and stressful for some students than originally expected. Also, 374 is likely to be the most difficult and stressful course of the semester for many students, meaning anticipation of its final exam may adversely affect how well they adapt to the disruptions in their other courses.

We believe this change to the grading policy will give students a last chance to demonstrate their mastery of the class material, remove much of the risk of this week's disruptions unfairly bringing down their grade in this class, and reduce the adverse affects that worrying about this class may have on their other courses.

We encourage all students to attend their final exam as planned and make their best attempt. This policy change is intended to reduce the undue pressure from this messy final exam period. We hope it won't be treated as permission to disengage early, but we understand each student knows their own needs better than others.

Fri May 08
  • As you can see, we're currently operating under the assumption that the Final Exam will take place as originally scheduled, 7pm–10pm Thu May 14. We will make further announcements as more direction or guidance are given. However things shake out, we will try our best to make sure everybody gets a fair chance and opportunity to get the grade they would have earned had the week proceeded as normal.
  • We will hold a Final Exam review party this Sun May 10 from 2pm–4pm in the normal Sunday party location 0216 Siebel Center. To avoid conflicting with finals that were supposed to occur, there are no party events planned for Saturday or Monday.
  • Homework 12 solutions are available. We apologize for the delay.
Thu May 07
  • The conflict final exam will be held 8–11am on Wed, May 13. The location of the conflict exam will be emailed to students who have submitted the conflict registration form. However, the form will remain open through Tue, May 12 to accommodate last-minute emergencies.
  • FLEX feedback due today, Thu, May 7. We would really appreciate you giving your honest feedback so we can improve future versions of the course.
  • Final practice exam 3 (answer booklet) is now available. You will have the opportunity to work with course staff and other students on this or other things during a review party Sun, May 10 (location TBA). Handwritten solutions and a walkthrough video should be available late that evening.
Wed May 06
  • Solutions for Practice final exam 2 are available along with a video of Emily solving it from her desk.
  • Ruta and Emily will hold at least one hour of office hours in the Siebel basement each work day starting tomorrow Thu May 7 and continuing until Thu May 14. Please send either of them an email if you'd like to meet outside these times. Other staff may hold extra or atypical office hours as well. Please check the Google Calendar on the bottom of the weekly events page often for the latest information on everybody's office hours.
Tue May 05

Solutions for Practice final exam 1 are available along with a video of Emily solving part of it during Thursday's optional review session and another video of Emily finishing the exam at her desk.

Sun May 03

Final practice exam 2 (answer booklet) is now available. You will have the opportunity to work with course staff and other students during the lab session this Wed May 6. Handwritten solutions and a walkthrough video should be available late that evening.

Sat May 02

Applications to be a CA for CS 374 Section A in Fall 2026 are available as a Google form. Details are available on the first page. We'll give full consideration to applications submitted before Jul 15, 2026, but we may look over additional submissions until we've hired a full staff for the semester.

Please apply if you're interested and share the link with other students who you think would be a good fit!

Fri May 01

Final Practice exam 1 (answer booklet) is now available. One or two additional final practice exams will be made available some time in the next few days.

We strongly recommend attempting each of these practice exams under exam conditions—three hours alone in a quiet space with a two-page cheat sheet but no other notes or internet—before discussing them with others or looking at any solutions. There will be an opportunity to work with course staff and other students on part of each exam (preferably after you attempt the exam alone) in place of lecture, lab, and maybe a homework party. Handwritten solutions and walkthrough videos for each practice exam will be posted late in the evening the same day as that event.

  • Practice 1 (answer booklet) — reviewed on Tue May 5 during the wrap-up lecture
  • Practice 2 — reviewed on Wed May 6 during lab
  • Practice 3 (tentative) — tentatively reviewed in place of a homework party after May 6

The format of the actual exam will match these practice exams. At the actual exam, we will pass out the question sheet, give everyone a few minutes to read the questions, pass out the answer booklets, and then start the clock.

In addition to the practice exams, there are a collection of practice problems available on PrairieLearn. Completion of these problems will not be considered when determining your overall course grade.

Older announcements

Thu Apr 30
Tue Apr 28

Midterm 2 grades have been released on Gradescope.

  • Regrade requests can be submitted until 9pm on Tue May 12.

  • Here is the distribution of the combined midterm grades and estimated course averages:

    Distribution of combined midterm grades and estimated course averages

    The orange curve shows computed course averages (35% Homeworks 1–9 and GPS 1–10 + 65% Midterms 1 and 2) for all students who took both regular midterm exam and have at least a 50% average homework score, 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 combined midterm score of at least 82 out of 100 is consistent with an A, a combined midterm score between 59 and 81 is consistent with a B, and a combined midterm score between 36 and 58 is consistent with a C. The following scatterplot shows scores for Midterm 1 (x-axis) and Midterm 2 (y-axis) with color bands that reflect these rough letter-grade boundaries.

    Scatterplot comparing Midterm 1 and Midterm 2 scores

    Please keep in mind that this is an very rough prediction of your final course grades based on roughly 65% of the overall work. In particular, these estimates were computed without dropping lowest homework scores, including missing grades for unreported group members or other logistical issues, so they are slightly lower than the final grading algorithm would predict. 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 still common.

Thu Apr 23

Homework 10 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 13a.)

Wed Apr 22

The final exam will held on Thursday, May 14, from 7pm to 10pm.

  • The exam will cover all material seen over the course of the semester with some bias toward material not already covered in the midterms.
  • Please read and understand the exam policies. In particular, you are allowed to bring two double-sided 8½"×11" handwritten cheat sheets to the exam.
  • The final exam will be held in the following rooms; please go to the room that matches the first letter of your last name.
  • We are offering offer a conflict final exam, tentatively on Wednesday, May 13. If you cannot attend the regular final exam for any of the reasons outlined in the student code, please fill out the conflict registration form as soon as possible. The precise date and time of the conflict exam will depend on the exam schedules of students who fill out the form by Monday, May 4 at 5pm; however, the form will remain open to accommodate last-minute emergencies.
  • Students who have registered with DRES for exam accommodations should plan to take the final exam at the Testing Accommodation Center, on Wednesday, May 13 or Thursday, May 14, at any time of day.  We strongly recommend scheduling your final exam at TAC as soon as possible.  (Now would be a good time.)  If you are unable to take the final exam at the TAC on either of those dates, sign up for Tuesday, May 12, and please contact Emily and Ruta know so they can prepare for more early signups. If none of those three dates work, please contact Emily and Ruta as soon as possible.

Practice exams and information on the corresponding review sessions will be available late next week (likely Friday, May 1.)

Sat Apr 18

The standard rubric for NP-hardness has been updated. Most notably,

  1. Wording has been updated to reflect this semester's emphasis on many-one reductions. A correct black-box reduction like those shown in the book is still worth full credit.
  2. If a question asks for a proof of NP-completeness, then half a point is transferred from each of the "if" and "only if" sides of the reduction's proof of correctness to a proof that the question's problem belongs to NP.

With the exception of Item 2., the point distributions remain unchanged.

Thu Apr 16

Solutions for Conflict Midterm 2 are now available. Also, the rubric for Midterm 2 Problem 1 has been adjusted to better balance the individual parts and to remove penalties for not simplifying $A(n)$ to a specific form.

Wed Apr 15

Solutions for Midterm 2 are now available. The questions from Conflict Midterm 2 are available as well, but solutions will some a little later.

Sun Apr 12

Solutions for the dynamic programming practice problems are available.

Sat Apr 11

Solutions for Midterm 2 practice exam 3 are available along with a video of Emily solving it from her desk.

Fri Apr 10

  • Solutions for Midterm 2 practice exam 1 are available along with a video of Ruta solving it during Thursday's optional review session.

  • Solutions for Midterm 2 practice exam 2 are available along with a video of Emily solving it from her desk.

    Warning: The app Emily uses for notes and solving exams froze a couple times while recording the video, so there are a couple jump cuts. After the first freeze, Emily forgot to switch back to the correct pdf, so there are several minutes of them talking about Problem 1 before you see any of the progress being made. Unlike their original expectation, they do not plan to record another video going over that problem again, but they do summarize what they did during the final pass at the end.

Thu Apr 09

  • Due to Engineering Open House (EOH 2026), the Fri Apr 10 optional review sessions being held in place of labs in 1304 Siebel Center are being held in atypical locations. See the lists below. We apologize for the inconvenience.

    Labs not listed below are being held in their normal location of 4101 Materials Sci & Eng.

    • AYJ: 9am–9:50am in 1214 Siebel Center
    • AYK: 10am–10:50am in 156 Henry Admin Building
    • AYA: 11am–11:50am in 0220 Siebel Center
    • AYB: 12pm–12:50pm in 2405 Siebel Center
    • AYC: 1pm–1:50pm in 108 English Building
    • AYD: 2pm–2:50pm in 108 English Building
    • AYE: 3pm–3:50pm in Armory 370
    • AYF: 4pm–4:50pm in 156 Henry Admin Building

  • The ACM will be holding a review session for Midterm 2 in ECEB 3017 on Sat Apr 11 from 12pm - 4pm.

  • Homework 9 solutions are available along with with solutions for Lab 11.

Mon Apr 06

Practice exams for Midterm 2 are available. We strongly recommend attempting each of these practice exams under exam conditions—two hours alone in a quiet space with a one-page cheat sheet but no other notes or internet—before discussing them with others or looking at any solutions. There will be an opportunity to work with course staff and other students on part of each exam (preferably after you attempt the exam alone) in place of lecture, lab, or a homework party. Handwritten solutions and walkthrough videos for each practice exam will be posted late in the evening the same day as that event.

The format of the actual exam will match these practice exams. At the actual exam, we will pass out the question sheet, give everyone a few minutes to read the questions, pass out the answer booklets, and then start the clock.

In addition to the practice exams, there are a collection of practice problems available on PrairieLearn. Completion of these problems will not be considered when determining your overall course grade.

Finally, there are also some practice dynamic programming problems you may want to try. Feel free to ask about these in office hours or during the homework review party Sun Apr 12.

Thu Apr 02
  • Midterm 2 will be held on Monday, April 13, from 7pm to 9pm.

    • The exam will cover all material covered in Homeworks 5 through 9: recursion, divide and conquer, backtracking, dynamic programming (including tree-shaped dynamic programming), graphs, traversal / connectivity / reachability, breadth- and depth-first search, topological sort and strongly connected components, and shortest paths.

    • The exam will be split across multiple rooms throughout the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF). Please go the room that matches the start of your last name. The room is the same as Midterm 1.

    • Please read and understand the exam policies. In particular, you are allowed to bring one double-sided 8½"×11" handwritten cheat sheet to the exam.

    • We are offered multiple optional review sessions next week:

      • Thursday, April 9, in place of the usual lecture
      • Friday, April 10, in place of the usual labs. These may be held in atypical locations due to Engineering Open House. We'll announce locations next week
      • Saturday, April 11, in place of the usual homework party
      • Sunday, April 12, in place of the usual homework party

      There will no homework party on Monday, April 13 (as you'll be taking the exam!)

    • We will post multiple practice exams early next week, which will have the same format as (but different questions than!) the actual midterm. We will cover these practice exams in the review sessions. Solutions and walkthrough videos will be released for each practice exam after the corresponding review session.

    • We are offering a conflict exam on Tuesday, April 14. If you cannot attend the regular midterm for any of the reasons outlined in the student code, please fill out this registration form no later than Friday, April 10. On Monday, April 13, we will email the precise time and location of the conflict exam to students who have filled out the registration form.

    • If you have a DRES accommodation, you are welcome to take the exam at the DRES Testing Accommodation Center either Monday or Tuesday. We strongly recommend scheduling your exam at TAC immediately if you have not done so already.

  • Homework 8 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 10a.) We apologize for the delay; Emily decided to add a dynamic programming based solution for Homework 8 Problem 2 at the last minute.
Thu Mar 26

Homework 7 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 9a.)

Fri Mar 13
  • No homework parties, office hours, or other regularly scheduled events will be held from Sat Mar 14 through Sun Mar 22 due to Spring Break.
  • Starting Mon Mar 23, all Monday homework parties will be held in Siebel 2405 (Saturday and Sunday homework parties will still be held in Siebel 0216 unless we announce otherwise.)
Thu Mar 12

Homework 6 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 8a.)

Tue Mar 10

  • Midterm 1 grades have been released on Gradescope.

    • Regrade requests can be submitted until Tue Mar 24.

    • Here is the distribution of midterm grades and estimated course averages:

      Distribution of midterm grades and estimated course averages

      The orange curve shows computed course averages (35% Homeworks 1–4 and GPS 1–4 + 65% Midterm 1) for all students who took the regular exam and have at least a 40% course average, 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 91% (the class median), a midterm score of at least 41 out of 50 is consistent with an A, a midterm score between 30 and 40 is consistent with a B, and a midterm score between 18 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 (in either directions) every semester.

  • Students are strongly encouraged to talk with Emily and/or Ruta before dropping the class.  Emily and Ruta will hold extra office hours this week, exclusively for students who are thinking of dropping the class and/or are seriously concerned about their midterm performance.

    • Emily: Wednesday 10am–12pm and Thursday 1:30–3:30pm in 2336 Siebel
    • Ruta: Tuesday 1:30pm–2:30pm in 3218 Siebel

  • Homework scores are showing a very large variance. In particular, there are a large number of students with much higher exam scores than homework averages. Please double-check your scores on Gradescope and submit regrade requests for any administrative issues. We have already noticed several submissions where Gradescope was not informed about all team members, which means not everyone got credit for that homework. We are working to fix those issues as we find them, but with well over 1000 homework submissions so far, we are unlikely to find all such mistakes without your help.

Mon Mar 09

Today's homework party will be held from 6pm–8pm today in Siebel 1304. Sorry about the late notice.

Thu Mar 05

Homework 5 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 7a.)

Tue Mar 03
  • In preparation for the next two written homeworks, the standard rubric for dynamic programming algorithms has been updated. Beyond than some clarifications, there is one major change: Any dynamic programming algorithm must include an English description of the recursive function being evaluated to receive any credit. Iterative pseudocode is allowed but is not required. However, solutions with iterative pseudocode still require an English description of the underlying recursive function to receive any credit, even if otherwise perfectly correct.
  • And on that note, Homework 6 is now available.
Sun Mar 01

For Homework 5 Problem 2, you may assume the elements of the input array $A$ are distinct (using this assumption is not necessary for full credit.) The handout has been updated to include this assumption.

Sat Feb 28

Due to HackIllinois 2026, homework parties for Sat Feb 28 and Sun Mar 1 will be held in Siebel 4124. There's a small chance we'll run out of room. If so, we'll try to spill over into nearby spaces or ask students who were around longer to make room for new arrivals.

Wed Feb 25

Solutions for Midterm 1 and solutions for Conflict Midterm 1 are now available.

Sat Feb 21

Solutions for Midterm 1 practice exam 3 are available along with a video of it being solved by CA Navid Tajkhorshid.

Warning: The image cuts out around 59 minutes into the video, but Navid can still be heard solving the rest of the exam. The solutions pdf does contain all of his work.

Fri Feb 20

Solutions for Midterm 1 practice exam 2 are available along with a video of it being solved by CA Sarah Dowden.

Thu Feb 19
Mon Feb 16

Practice exams for Midterm 1 are available. We strongly recommend attempting each of these practice exams under exam conditions—two hours alone in a quiet space with a one-page cheat sheet but no other notes or internet—before discussing them with others or looking at any solutions. There will be an opportunity to work with course staff and other students on part of each exam (preferably after you attempt the exam alone) in place of lecture, lab, or a homework party. Handwritten solutions and walkthrough videos for each practice exam will be posted late in the evening the same day as that event.

The format of the actual exam will match these practice exams. At the actual exam, we will pass out the question sheet, give everyone a few minutes to read the questions, pass out the answer booklets, and then start the clock.

In addition to the practice exams, there are a collection of practice problems available on PrairieLearn. Completion of these problems will not be considered when determining your overall course grade.

Sat Feb 14

The standard grading rubrics have been updated to include a rubric for describing context-free grammars (CFGs). We highly recommend checking it as you prepare your solutions to Homework 4 Problem 2.

Also, submissions are open on Gradescope for both Homework 4 problems.

Thu Feb 12
  • Midterm 1 will be held on Monday, February 23, from 7pm to 9pm.

    • The exam will cover all material covered in Homeworks 1, 2, 3, and 4: induction on strings and languages, regular languages, regular expressions, DFAs, NFAs, fooling sets, regular language transformations, and context-free languages and grammars.

    • The exam will be split across multiple rooms throughout the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF). Please go the room that matches the start of your last name.

    • Please read and understand the exam policies. In particular, you are allowed to bring one double-sided 8½"×11" handwritten cheat sheet to the exam.

    • We are offered multiple optional review sessions next week:

      • Thursday, February 19, in place of the usual lecture
      • Friday, February 20, in place of the usual labs
      • Saturday, February 21, in place of the usual homework party
      • Sunday, February 22, in place of the usual homework party

      ACM is also planning to offer an independent review session; stay tuned for more details. There will no homework party on Monday, February 23 (as you'll be taking the exam!)

    • We will post multiple practice exams early next week, which will have the same format as (but different questions than!) the actual midterm. We will cover these practice exams in the review sessions. Solutions and walkthrough videos will be released for each practice exam after the corresponding review session.

    • We are offering a conflict exam on Tuesday, February 24. If you cannot attend the regular midterm for any of the reasons outlined in the student code, please fill out this registration form no later than Friday, February 20. On Monday, February 23, we will email the precise time and location of the conflict exam to students who have filled out the registration form.

    • If you have a DRES accommodation, you are welcome to take the exam at the DRES Testing Accommodation Center either Monday or Tuesday. We strongly recommend scheduling your exam at TAC immediately if you have not done so already.

  • Homework 3 solutions are available.
Mon Feb 09

Two sets of additional notes are available with links next to their relevant lecture on the Course Calendar page.

  1. Infinte Fooling Set Review Guide written by former 374 TA Eric Huber
  2. Notes on Regular Language Transformations written by current 374 CA Pranay Midha

The latter gives detailed coverage of material we'll go over in lecture tomorrow Tue Feb 10. You may find it helpful in preparing for Homework 4 and the first midterm exam.

Thu Feb 05

Homework 2 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 3a.)

Wed Feb 04

Homework 1 Problem 2 has been graded. As stated for Problem 1 in yesterday's announcements, a large number of submissions either did not include a (possibly empty) list of sources and collaborators; explain LLM usage; or have all group members declared within the Gradescope interface. You can fix all of these issues without penalty by submitting a regrade request by 9pm on Wed Feb 18.

Of course, you can also request a regrade for an actual grading error, but you must offer a brief written justification for why the grading was incorrect, and the final grade will still be based on what was actually submitted and not new info presented within the request itself.

Finally, we are unlikely to post announcements about individual homework grades from here on, so please check Gradescope regularly.

Tue Feb 03

  • Homework 3 asks you to prove several languages nonregular, and we believe the best way to do so is the use of fooling sets. Unfortunately, due to semester-by-semester schedule changes, fooling sets do not appear in the upcoming Guided problem set 3, and it is too late to change it. We recommend completing Zone 1 of Guided problem set 4 (still due Mon Feb 16) before attempting Homework 3. You'll also get to practice fooling set proofs (and reduction arguments) during lab on Wed Feb 4.

  • Grades have been released for Homework 1 Problem 1. Grading for Homework 1 Problem 2 is nearly complete (our typical goal is to have grades released within a week of submission for homework, but course staff pushed hard this time to have feedback available before Homework 2 was due.)

    Check your scores as soon as possible, and be mindful of the feedback left by the graders as you work on future assignments. You may submit regrade requests that include a brief written justification for why the problem was graded incorrectly until 9pm on Tue Feb 17.

    Two things stood out in particular for this homework:

    • A very large number of submissions either did not include a list of sources and collaborators or an explanation of how an LLM was used. Per course policy (which was repeated on the cover page for Homework 1), every part of every problem must include a list of collaborators and, when applicable, an explanation of LLM usage even if the list is empty (if the list is empty, you should write "Sources and collaborators: None" or similar; otherwise, we can only assume you forgot to cite your source.) Please remember there is no penalty for using outside sources including LLMs as long as you cite them and write your solutions in your own words. (Of course, if you rely on them too much, you won't get the experience of solving the problems, and that will be reflected in your exam performance.)

      Graders removed all points for problem parts that did not follow the above policy. However, you may submit regrade requests with your list of sources and LLM explanation to remove the penalties (if a penalty was applied in error, please point out where the sources are listed like you would when requesting a regrade for any other kind of grader error.) This opportunity to have the citation penalty removed will only be provided for the first three written homeworks.

    • You may not have received a score at all for Homework 1.1 if you're in a group and the assignment was submitted without listing all group members in Gradescope. If you're missing a score, please ask the submitting group member to add your name to the group (from Emily's end, this is done by pulling up the problem submission and clicking the "View or edit group" link under HW 1.1 in the upper right corner of the page.)

  • In case there's any confusion of where to look, all recent announcements will appear on the course website index page with older announcements available as well on the Announcements page. Some particularly timely announcements like the above (it should be useful for Homework 2) will be posted on Ed and Discord as well.

Thu Jan 29
  • Homework 1 solutions are available (along with with solutions for Lab 2a.)
  • Regular expression writing tips:
    • If you need to concatenate $n$ strings matching a regular expression $R$ where $n$ is a fixed non-negative integer, you can write it more concisely as $R^n$. For example, $(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})^3$ is equivalent to $(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})$.
    • Acceptable but not recommended: If you need to concatenate one or more strings matching a regular expression $R$, you might want to use the so-called "Kleene plus" notation $R^+$. For example, $(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})^+$ is equivalent to $(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})(\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0} + \texttt{\color{BrickRed}1}\texttt{\color{BrickRed}0})^*$. However, you need to be careful to distinguish between the superscript Kleene plus and a standard $+$ used for unions. As always, graders cannot and should not try to guess what you meant when it is unclear.
Mon Jan 26
  • As a reminder, Guided Problem Set 1 is due today Mon Jan 26 and Homework 1 is due tomorrow Tue Jan 27. We won't generally announce reminders about individual assignment deadlines, because they're listed at the top of the course web page.
  • In accordance with the already posted homework policies, the Homework 1 handout has been updated with a reminder to post the (possibly empty) list of sources and collaborators at the end of each lettered problem part.
Sat Jan 24

The homework party for tomorrow, Sunday Jan 25th is canceled due to the incoming winter storm. We are still planning to hold homework parties today (Saturday Jan 24th) in Siebel 0216 and Monday Jan 26th in Siebel 1404.

Fri Jan 23

Starting tomorrow, we will be holding homework parties

  • Saturdays 2pm–4pm in 0216 Siebel Center
  • Sundays 2pm–4pm in 0216 Siebel Center
  • Mondays 6pm–8pm in 1404 Siebel Center

Borrowing text from the weekly events page: Homework parties are dedicated times for students to work together on the current week's CS 374 homework. Students are expected to help each other; course staff are also present to answer questions and offer assistance. This is a great opportunity to meet other people to form homework groups. In weeks with no homework, some homework parties will turn into review sessions. (That said, the normal time for the Monday homework party coincides with the time for the midterm exams.)

That said, this Sunday's party may have to be cancelled if the weather demands it.

Thu Jan 22

Ruta will be holding general office hours starting today (Thursday) from 1:30pm–2:30pm in the Siebel basement.

Wed Jan 21

  • Emily is holding conceptual office hours tomorrow (Thursday) from 4–5pm in the Siebel basement along with general (conceptual or homework) office hours from 11am–noon on Friday. Please visit the weekly events page for the most up-to-date information on her and everyone else's office hours.

  • We just added everybody currently registered for the course to PrairieLearn (for guided problem sets) and Gradescope (for written homework submission).

    Those registering later should visit the above links and enroll themselves. The self-enrollment code for Gradescope is 8DXWD7. Even if you plan to enroll next week, submit GPS 1 and Homework 1 as if you are already registered. We cannot delay the release of homework solutions beyond the 24-hour late submission period.

    Note that we had to split up "Last Name, First Name" entries from the roster automatically to prepare the cvs file for Gradescope. If your name does not appear correctly, feel free to edit it or let us know if you cannot!

Sat Jan 17
  • 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.
  • As in past semesters, 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 AY*. Section B, taught by Abhishek Umrawal and Daniel Alabi, has a separate site.