Homework and Exams

• Homework is to be handed in via GradeScope. If you are enrolled in the course, you should be automatically added to Gradescope. Please let us know (email the course staff list or post privately on Ed) if you can't access Gradescope.
• The homework schedule is here.
• Please adhere to the collaboration policies. In brief:
  • HW will be done in small groups (of up to three). Please turn in one PSET per group.
  • We recommend that you complete the "Exercises" section on your own, before collaborating.
  • Collaboration between groups (of enrolled CS161 students) is allowed, but (a) you must give credit to collaborators, and (b) each group must type up their own solutions from scratch.
  • No collaboration outside of CS161 is allowed.
• Homework solutions must be typed, and submitted as a PDF. See the Resources section for help on typesetting mathematical writing, as well as a LaTeX template for homework.
• Your solutions will be graded by a human; respect that human. Make sure that your solutions are organized and use complete sentences. It's not a good idea to turn in your first draft. See the Resources section for more homework tips and an example solution set.
• See the pre-lecture exercise for Lecture 2 for instructions on installing Jupyter Notebooks with Python and see the resources section for Python help. All IPython notebooks will be using Python 3.

Homework 0 is available on Gradescope starting Monday April 3! It is DUE FRIDAY April 7. HW0 is a short, multiple-choice homework that is graded for completion (so, if you do it, you'll get 100%). HW0 is meant as a way for you to check if you have the background and pre-requisites for this course, and to give us (the course staff) a general idea of the level of background in the class.

• There are two exams, both timed and in-person.
  • EXAM 1: Thursday May 4, 6-9pm.
  • EXAM 2: Monday June 12, 3:30pm-6:30pm.
• Both exams are closed-book, except for two pieces of paper (front and back) with anything you want written on them. We suggest you make this "cheat-sheet" yourself; in our experience, making the cheat-sheet is a great way to study!
• We don't expect that calculators will help you on the exams, but if you like you can bring one, as long as it's not connected to the internet or anything like that. (e.g., a TI-84 is fine).
• We promise that each exam will contain at least one problem extremely close to a homework problem. (Here, "close" means "close in algorithmic content." The context/story for the problem may be different). So understanding all of the homework problems is a good thing to do while studying!!
• More information and practice exams will be posted closer to the exam date.

• Notify the course staff (either via a private post on Ed, or as an email to the staff list) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and before Wednesday April 12. We will let you know whether or not we can accommodate your request before the add-drop deadline.
• We cannot promise to be able to accommodate alternate exam requests made after April 12.

• When? Exam 1 will be May 4, 6-9pm!
• Where? Location information will be emailed out!
• What's the scope? Exam 1 covers Lecture 1-8. We recognize that you won't have had a chance to do HW on Lectures 7 and 8, and we will keep that in mind when writing questions on those topics.
• What are the rules? As mentioned above, the exam is closed-book, except for two pieces of paper (front and back) with anything you like written on them.
• OMG homework takes me so long! Do you really expect that in three hours? We recognize that creative algorithm design requires some tricky "aha!" moments that are hard to generate on command. We won't expect you to have these "aha!" moments in a timed exam setting! Instead, we promise that there will be at least one problem on the exam that is very similar to a HW problem -- that way, you'll get to recycle your "aha!" moments from HW on the exam! (Note: This doesn't mean that the exam will be easy! There are many skills in this class that you can learn to do without "aha!" moments, but you do need to practice/study them!)
• Is there a practice exam? Yes! Here it is: Exam, Solutions. We have tried to make the practice exam similar in length/difficulty to the actual exam, but of course different things are harder or easier for different people.
• Can we see some old exams? Yes! Here they are: Old Exam 1, Solutions to Old Exam 1, Old Exam 2, Solutions to Old Exam 2, Old Exam 3, Solutions to Old Exam 3. Note that these exams were under different instructors and conditions (potentially take-home etc), so though they are a good source of practice problems, but not a good representation of difficulty, length or format of the exam for the current iteration of this course.

• When? Exam 2 will be Monday June 12, 3:30-6:30pm!
• Where? Location information will be emailed out!
• What's the scope? Exam 2 is technically cumulative, but with a heavy focus on Lectures 9-16.5 (including Embedded EthiCS content). We recognize that you won't have had a chance to do HW on Min-Cut/Max-Flow, and we will keep that in mind when writing questions on those topics. (Notice that there's also a review session specifically dedicated to Min-Cut/Max-Flow practice problems).
• What are the rules? As mentioned above, the exam is closed-book, except for two pieces of paper (front and back) with anything you like written on them.
• OMG homework takes me so long! Do you really expect that in three hours? We recognize that creative algorithm design requires some tricky "aha!" moments that are hard to generate on command. We won't expect you to have these "aha!" moments in a timed exam setting! Instead, we promise that there will be at least one problem on the exam that is very similar to a HW problem -- that way, you'll get to recycle your "aha!" moments from HW on the exam! (Note: This doesn't mean that the exam will be easy! There are many skills in this class that you can learn to do without "aha!" moments, but you do need to practice/study them! Also of course there is the disclaimer that different things are harder or more "aha"-y for different people.)
• Is there a practice exam? Yes! Here it is: Exam, Solutions. We have tried to make the practice exam similar in length/difficulty to the actual exam, but of course different things are harder or easier for different people.
• Can we see some old exams? Here they are: Old Exam 1, Solutions to Old Exam 1, Old Exam 2, Solutions to Old Exam 2. Note that these exams were under different instructors and conditions (potentially take-home, covering different material, etc), so though they are a good source of practice problems, but not a good representation of difficulty, length or format of the exam for the current iteration of this course.