Welcome to CS106A - cs106a.stanford.edu - this page currently shows the Fall quarter information, but it will switch to Winter by the first day of class, so this is the right url. Needed class information and whatnot will, of course, be published on this page when the time comes. While we are working on updating the site, check out some FAQs for the course during Winter Quarter. If you have additional questions, please reach out to the Head TA, Juliette Woodrow, at jwoodrow@stanford.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where and when is class?
Class meets every Mon, Weds, Fri from 1:30-2:30pm PT at Hewlett Teaching Center Room 200. For the first two weeks we will be meeting virtually. Information on how to attend class virtually will be posted on this link before the first day of class.

Are lectures available on video to watch later?
Yes! But there are some conditions...
We encourage you to join us for the live lecture, getting the full experience. We will have some in-person exams. Even if you are watching lecture by video, you will need to be available for the in-person exams. We will announce the date and time for these once we figure that out.

Are there discussion sections?
Yes! There will be weekly discussion sections starting week two. These must be attended live. There are many available times, but the scheduling of that is done later by CS106A staff, so don't worry about it in axess. We will open signups for section towards the end of week one.

How many units is CS106A?
The "can be taken for 3 units" option is, in effect, a long-running joke by the registrar to confuse students. Undergraduates must take the class for 5 units. Grad students have the option to take it for 3 units, so they can avoid a university limit on the units they may take. So the 3 unit option is a rule, created by the university, for the purpose of avoiding a different rule, creåted by a different part of the university. In any event, the content and workload of CS106A is not changed by any of this.

Hope you are all enjoying your break so far! Nick released final grades yesterday evening. You can find them on Axess. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the course staff in January as we will not be on email very frequently over break.

We have released grades for the final eaxm at Gradescope. Solutions can be found on the Final Solution Handout. The median was a 91% (197/215). We thought this was a challenging exam and we are pleased that people did so well. Thanks for all of your hard work this quarter!

Here is a distribution of final exam scores:

Regrade Requests We try to grade as consistently as possible, but we are human and we might make mistakes. If you feel like one of your problems was misgraded, please file a regrade request on Gradescope. The regrade requests will open tonight and must be submitted before Sunday, December 12th at 10:00am PT. Sorry for the tight timing, but we need these back before we can calculate final grades. Note that this is the only way to have your regrade request considered; in particular, asking your section leader to take a quick look to see whether a problem was misgraded is not a way of short circuiting this process. We want you to have the credit you deserve, but filing a formal request helps us make sure that your request goes to the right person. If you submit a regrade regrade request, we do reserve the right to regrade the entire problem and make any necessary corrections.

The final exam will take place Monday, December 6th from 9:30-11:30am PT. Please download the exam file in the morning before you head out to your location.

Download Links

You need to download Chrome in order to download the exams. If clicking the link does not download the file, please right click the link instead and select "Save link as" or "download as". If you get an error message when downloading, click the up arrow and select "keep".

• Regular time Final: Download the regular time final exam file
• OAE 50% Additional time: Download the 50% additional time final exam file
• OAE 100% Additional time: Download the 100% additional time final exam file

What to bring:

• Computer (fully charged) with BlueBook and the exam file downloaded
• Phone or whatever device you use for two-factor authentication
• We will provide scratch paper but bring a writing utensil if you want to use the scratch paper

Exam Instructions

• There are 12 problems to complete
• In Bluebook, "Problem 1" is these instructions and reference code
• Problems 2-13 are the actual problems
• This is a closed note exam
• The exam is 120 minutes and 100 points, graded on a curve
• We will not grade off for syntax errors, so long as we see the correct idea
• We will not grade off if you omit the final "return" at the end of a function, so long as the code computes the correct result
• Good luck!

Exam Locations by Last Name inclusive:

• STLC 111: Last names that start with A-Cg
• CEMEX Auditorium: Last names that start with Ch-Lim
• Hewlett 201: Last names that start with Lin-Nf
• Hewlett 200: Last names that start with Ng-Z

The final exam will take place Monday, December 6th from 9:30-11:30am PT. Location information to come at the end of the week. It will be on BlueBook similar to the midterm.

We have just posted a final prep document with topics and practice problems. Juliette will also be holding an informal review session during class time on Friday. It will be recorded like a normal class session. The session will not cover any new problems, only what is on the review sheet.

Yesterday was our last day of class. Thanks for all of your hard work this quarter!! Nick will be hanging out at Bytes Cafe during class time on Weds. Come over and say hi, ask questions about life after 106a, or questions about anything really. If you cannot make it in person and instead want to zoom in during his office hours on Weds, send him an email.

Today in class, we discussed the retraction policy for CS 106A. Please watch the beginning of Lecture 26 where Nick discussed this and take the time to read through our handout detailing the policy and what to do if you feel you made a mistake.

We have released HW8. You can check it out here. This is the last homework of the quarter. It is due Wednesday, December 1st at 11:55pm PT

We have released all parts of HW 7. You can checkout part a here. You can check out part b here. Both parts are due Wednesday, November 17th at 11:55pm PT

Juliette's Wednesday office hours will be on Zoom from 9:30-11:30am PT this week using the Thursday Zoom link. Hope to see you there!

We have released both parts of HW 6. This is a bit of a longer assignment, so we suggest that you start early. You can checkout part a here. You can check out part b here. Both parts are due Wednesday, November 10th at 11:55pm PT

Today is Democracy Day. There will be no LaIR tonight, but Nick will be having his normal Tuesday office hours.

We will release grades for the Midterm on Gradescope in the next hour. Statistics about the exam can be found on the Post Midterm Handout. Solutions can be found on the Midterm Solution Handout.

Regrade Requests We try to grade as consistently as possible, but we are human and we might make mistakes. If you feel like one of your problems was misgraded, please file a regrade request on Gradescope. The regrade requests will open tonight and must be submitted before Friday, November 5th at 1:00pm PT. Note that this is the only way to have your regrade request considered; in particular, asking your section leader to take a quick look to see whether a problem was misgraded is not a way of short circuiting this process. We want you to have the credit you deserve, but filing a formal request helps us make sure that your request goes to the right person. If you submit a regrade regrade request, we do reserve the right to regrade the entire problem and make any necessary corrections.

We have released the both parts of HW5. You can checkout part a here. You can checkout part b here. All parts are due Wednesday, November 3rd at 11:55pm PT

The Midterm is today (Monday, October 25th) between 7:00 p.m and 8:00 p.m PT. Location information is at the bottom of this announcement.

What you need to do before coming to take the exam tonight:

• Download BlueBook. Instructions to set it up can be found here.
• Download the exam file by clicking the button below. Make sure to download the correct exam file for you (regular time, vs. OAE times). There is not reliable wifi in the exam rooms, so please download this before coming to the exam tonight.
• Read the exam instructions at the bottom of this post

Download Links

If clicking the link does not download the file, please right click the link instead and select "Save link as" or "download as". If you get an error message when downloading, click the up arrow and select "keep".

• Regular time Midterm: Download the regular time midterm exam file
• OAE 50% Additional time: Download the 50% additional time midterm exam file
• OAE 100% Additional time: Download the 100% additional time midterm exam file

What to bring:

• Computer (fully charged) with BlueBook and the exam file downloaded
• Phone or whatever device you use for two-factor authentication
• We will provide scratch paper but bring a writing utensil if you want to use the scratch paper

Exam Instructions

• There are 6 problems to complete
• In Bluebook, "Problem 1" is these instructions and reference code
• Problems 2-7 are the actual problems
• This is a closed note exam
• The exam is 60 minutes and 100 points, graded on a curve
• We will not grade off for syntax errors, so long as we see the correct idea
• We will not grade off if you omit the final "return" at the end of a function, so long as the code computes the correct result
• Good luck!

Exam Loactions by Last Name inclusive:

• Bishop Auditorium: Last names that start with A-Cg
• CEMEX Auditorium: Last names that start with Ch-Lim
• Hewlett 201: Last names that start with Lin-Nf
• Hewlett 200: Last names that start with Ng-Z

The midterm is in-person on Monday, October 25th starting at 7pm. Locaiton information is below. If you have OAE accommodations, you will hear from the course staff about your midterm logistics this weekend.

Review: We made a handout with midterm review problems and solutions. You can also find more problems on this week's section handout. These problems are similar to the type of problems you will see on the midterm.

What you need for the exam:

1. You will take the midterm on a software called BlueBook. Please download this before coming in to take the exam. Checkout the Downloading BlueBook handout for more information on BlueBook as well as a practice test you can take on BlueBook to try out the software. Reach out to Juliette if you have any questions about BlueBook.
2. You will need to download the actual quiz file. We will post that on the website around 1:30pm PT on Monday. Please download this before coming to take the exam. There is terrible wifi in the exam rooms so you will likely not be able to download the exam file once in the room.
3. A charged computer. If possible, please bring a fully charged computer and a charger just in case. There are a very limited number of outlets in exam rooms.
4. Your cell phone, or whatever device you use for 2 factor authentication. You will need to 2FA to submit the exam.
5. We will provide blank scratch paper for you as well as the same reference guide that is on the midterm review handout.

Exam Loactions by Last Name inclusive:

• Bishop Auditorium: Last names that start with A-Cg
• CEMEX Auditorium: Last names that start with Ch-Lim
• Hewlett 201: Last names that start with Lin-Nf
• Hewlett 200: Last names that start with Ng-Z

Juliette will be holding a review session on Sunday, 10/24 from 5-6pm at this zoom link.

We would like to invite you to apply for the Stanford CS undergraduate mentoring program! The program matches undergraduates who are curious about computer science with graduate student mentors, with the goal of increasing the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in CS research. The attached flyer describes this program in more detail.

If you are not currently involved in undergraduate research, but are interested in participating in CS research as an undergraduate in the future, or are interested in a career in this field, this can be a great way to learn more!

You may apply by filling out the form at this link: https://forms.gle/tZwSVUuWEfdA6BJ57. The deadline for filling out the application is October 20, 2021.

The faculty advisors for this program are: Zakir Durumeric, Chelsea Finn, Subhasish Mitra, Dorsa Sadigh, and Mary Wootters. Please contact any of us directly if you have any questions!

Today in class, your are going to vote on your favorite bluescreen photo submissions. You can find the submissions to vote on here. You can find the form to vote on here.

We have released all parts of HW4. Check it out here. All parts of HW4 are due Wednesday, October 20th.

We have just posted HW3. Check it out here. All parts of HW3 are due Wednesday, October 13th.

We have just posted Homework 2 Part a. Homework 2 part b will come out later this week. All parts of the assignment are due Tuesday, October 5th at 11:55pm PT.

We also posted the PyCharm installation handout. We will be using PyCharm for the rest of our assignments starting with homework 2 part b, so you will need to follow these steps before you are able to work on part b of Homework 2.

If you feel comfortable doing so, we’d appreciate it if you could let us know your preferred name and your preferred pronouns. Also, if you can provide an audio recording of the pronunciation of your name, that would be great. Of course, this information is optional to provide and you can provide any portion of it that you like. These questions have no impact on your grade. The information just helps us provide you with a more personalized experience in the class. You can provide this information at the website: https://cs198.stanford.edu/profile

Section assignments have been made. Students who filled out the section signup on time should have received an email with details of their section.

If your section time no longer works for you or you were unable to sign up for a section in time, visit this website or click 'Section Management' in the Section dropdown to join a section. This page will also have a link to a list of all the section times for students wishing to make up a section and auditors.

Note that section participation is required for all enrolled students in CS 106A.

Check out CS+Social Good.

Announcement About Joining CS+Social Good
CS+Social Good Info Session (Fri., 10/1, 2pm)
CS+Social Good Application (Due Sat., 10/2)

The LaIR opened at 7pm PT last night! LaIR is available from 7-11pm PT Sun-Thurs. Check out the LaIr Signup Page page for the necessary links.

Section Signups are open! You can sign up for section by going to this page, logging in, and clicking the form. Section problems generally depend on material covered in Wednesday lecture. To get the most out of section, please be sure you will be able to attend/view the Wednesday lecture before your chosen times. Section signups are due on Sunday at 5pm PDT and are not first come first serve.

We just released the first part of Assignment 1. Write your very first programs with Bit. Wahoo! We will release the second part after class on Friday. The whole thing is due Tuesday, September 28th at 11:55pm.

Welcome to CS106A! We will have live in-person lectures every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:30-2:30pm PT in Hewlett Teaching Center Room 200. We have a large class this quarter, even more students than there are chairs in the classroom we have been assigned. As such, each lecture will be recorded and posted on Canvas approximately two hours after the live class so you can watch those if you do not want to attend in person (we do think coming in-person is neat but of course we would say that). We recommend that you bring your laptop to class if you can as there will be many times where you can follow along and practice coding something.

There will be weekly discussion sections starting week two. These must be attended live. There are many available times, but the scheduling of that is done by CS106A staff, so don't worry about it in axess. We will open signups for section on Thursday evening.

There is a midterm and final exam. The midterm will be Monday, October 25th at 7pm PT. The final will be Monday, December 6th at 8:30am PT. Please email Juliette (jwoodrow@stanford.edu) asap if you are not able to make these times.

If you have an OAE accommodation, please send that information to Juliette (jwoodrow@stanford.edu).

If you have questions during the class or want to see other questions that have been posted, please checkout the thread on the Ed discussion form for a given lecture (see announcement below for more information).

This quarter, we're using Ed Discussion for class Q&A both during and outside of lecture.

Ed During Lecture: During each lecture, we will create a thread titled with the lecture number. Post a comment on that thread if you want to ask a question during lecture and Juliette or one of the section leaders will answer it. It is super important that you post your comment on that specific thread if you want it answered during lecture as that is the only one we will be monitoring at that time. Of course you can also raise your hand and ask your question out loud if you want to do that instead.

Ed Outside of Lecture: On Ed, you can send a message to the staff by making it private, or you can send questions, or posts to the entire group. In short, it's a great forum for administrative questions, quick conceptual questions about office hours or understanding what an error message means.

Join the Ed discussion forum for CS106A!

CS100A, also known as CS106A ACE, is a 1-unit supplementary section designed to build a stronger foundation in computer science. Students participating in ACE will attend an additional weekly section and participate in exam review sessions and individual tutoring. Section will take place Thursdays 1:30-3:30pm PT in person.

ACE is one of the School of Engineering’s Equity and Inclusion Initiatives. We especially want to provide an opportunity for students who come from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds or for anyone who feels they might need additional support in order to succeed. We limit enrollment to enable small classes that allow students to have one-on-one interactions with the TA.

If you are interested in joining the ACE section, please apply at this link due Friday, September 24th at 5pm PT. If you have any questions about ACE, feel free to reach out to Brian Zeng (CS106A ACE TA) at bzeng313@stanford.edu.

Welcome to CS106A! We're gearing up for a fun quarter beginning on Monday, September 20th. Class will take place in the Hewlett Teaching Center Room 200.

Until then, reach out to Juliette, the Head TA, with any questions you have.