Welcome to CS106A - cs106a.stanford.edu - this page currently shows the Spring quarter information, but it will switch to Autumn 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 Autumn 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.

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 (at least one) in-class exam. Even if you are watching lecture by video, you will need to be available for the in-class exam. You can reach out to Juliette if taking the quiz during class time will be an issue. 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.

Is there an ACE section for CS106A?
Yes! 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 24 5pm PT. If you have any questions about ACE, feel free to reach out to Brian Zeng (CS106A ACE TA) at bzeng313@stanford.edu.

Thanks so much for all of your hard work in CS106A this quarter! Nick and Juliette are blown away by all that you accomplished over the past 10 weeks. We love to hear from CS106A alumni as they move at Stanford and in life. Feel free to email us with questions or just life updates. Have a safe a restful summer break! Grades have been posted.

We have released grades for the third quiz on Gradescope. Solutions as well as statistics about the exam can be found on the Quiz 3 Solutions handout. Regrade requests will open later tonight and will close Friday, June 4th at 2pm PT.

Nick and Juliette really enjoyed having you in class this quarter! Feel free to reach out to us with any questions that you have. We both still have our office hours this week if you want to stop by and say hi :)

The Quiz is scheduled to take place on Friday, May 28th between 1:00 p.m and 1:50 p.m PT. If you have a class or time zone conflict, please email Juliette to schedule an alternate exam time. It will be administered digitally; instructions to set up BlueBook, our digital assessment platform, are posted here. Quiz #3 will be approximately 30 minutes. Checkout the Quiz 3 Review handout for practice.

Once it is time for you to start the quiz, you will click the button below which will provide you with the file to download as well as an exam code for you to use to load the quiz on BlueBook. All students can use this link, even if you have arranged for an alternate duration, time, or platform for the diagnostic. You must be enrolled in the class to access the diagnostic.

Starting at 1pm PT please only post questions privately on Ed. If you have a question about the problem statement or about logistics during the diagnostic you may post privately on Ed. Please refrain from posting anything about the diagnostic on Ed until we release solutions next week.

Unless you have arranged with Juliette for an alternate sitting, you must begin the exam between 1pm and 1:50pm PT. Once you download the exam, we expect you to turn it in within the time allotted for the quiz. However, please note that your time does not officially start until you open the file in BlueBook this way no one is disadvantaged for slow download speed.

You will have 30 minutes to complete the quiz. We recommend pulling up any solutions you want to consider before clicking the button below. You can consult lecture notes, your notes, practice problems, section problems, and the internet. You cannot collaborate or discuss with anyone while taking this quiz. Even though you have Pycharm to test your code, you cannot copy or paste into or out of BlueBook. So, it is a better strategy to write down all of your main ideas in BlueBook rather than spending any time testing in Pycharm. You can make BlueBook into a smaller window by hitting escape or the double arrows in the top right of the screen (top left if you are on mac).

If you run into any issues with BlueBook during the exam, check out this handout.

Join us for a quiz review on Thursday at 9am PT at this zoom link.

Also, Nick just added another section to the experimental server with optional, extra challenge dict problems for more practice with dict logic. Check it out while you are studying.

A common question students in CS 106A have towards the end of the course is how to use their newfound programming skills to work on and contribute towards important or interesting problems of their choosing. In your BabyNames and BiasBars assignments you gained experience processing data and visualizing it to glean insights. There are tons of datasets out there that can help us answer meaningful questions. Use your CS106A knowledge to process a dataset, create an interesting visualization, and submit it to the CS106A Data Art Show! A tiny amount of extra credit will be awarded to those who participate. More information on the Data Art Show can be found in the Data Art Show Handout. Submissions are due Monday, May 31st at 11:55pm PT.

We have released both parts of HW 7. You can checkout part a here. You can checkout part b here. Parts a and b are due Wednesday, May 26th at 11:55pm PT

Today in class, we discussed the retraction policy for CS 106A, which allows you to retract any work you've submitted if you feel it crossed the line of academic integrity. Please take the time to read through our handout detailing the policy.

We have released grades for the second quiz on Gradescope. Solutions as well as statistics about the exam can be found on the Quiz 2 Solutions handout.

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, May 19th at 11:55pm PT

The second quiz is scheduled to take place on May 10th between 1:00 p.m and 1:50 p.m PT. If you have a class or time zone conflict, please email Juliette to schedule an alternate exam time. It will be administered digitally; instructions to set up BlueBook, our digital assessment platform, are posted here. Quiz #2 will be approximately 25 minutes, but it may be shorter or longer. Checkout the Quiz 2 Review handout for practice.

Once it is time for you to start the quiz, you will click the button below which will provide you with the file to download as well as an exam code for you to use to load the quiz on BlueBook. All students can use this link, even if you have arranged for an alternate duration, time, or platform for the diagnostic. You must be enrolled in the class to access the diagnostic.

Starting at 1pm PT please only post questions privately on Ed. If you have a question about the problem statement or about logistics during the diagnostic you may post privately on Ed. Please refrain from posting anything about the diagnostic on Ed until we release solutions next week.

Unless you have arranged with Juliette for an alternate sitting, you must begin the exam between 1:00pm and 1:50pm. Once you download the exam, we expect you to turn it in within the time allotted for the quiz. However, please note that your time does not officially start until you open the file in BlueBook this way no one is disadvantaged for slow download speed.

You will have 25 minutes to complete the quiz. We recommend pulling up any solutions you want to consider before clicking the button below. You can consult lecture notes, your notes, practice problems, section problems, and the internet. You cannot collaborate or discuss with anyone while taking this quiz. Even though you have Pycharm to test your code, you cannot copy or paste into or out of BlueBook. So, it is a better strategy to write down all of your main ideas in BlueBook rather than spending any time testing in Pycharm. You can make BlueBook into a smaller window by hitting escape or the double arrows in the top right of the screen (top left if you are on mac). You can ignore any warnings from BlueBook about needing to turn off your wifi.

If you run into any issues with BlueBook during the exam, check out this handout.

There will be a student led review session on Friday night thanks to Connery. You can find more information at this link.

Juliette and some of the awesome section leaders are hosting a quiz review session on Sunday, May 9th at 8pm PT. Here is the zoom link for that session. We hope to see you here!

Checkout this encryption puzzle. Solve it using paper and pencil only, no computers and no internet. Use your knowledge of spelling and punctuation to break the encryption. The first five people to email Nick and Juliette the plaintext solution (and a picture of their work) to this will get a small prize and bragging rights :)

Please take a minute to fill out the Mid Quarter Evaluation during your IGs for assignment 4. Nick and Juliette read each piece of feedback that you write, so let us know how the course is going!

We have released all parts of assignment 5. The assignment is due Wednesday, May 5th. Check out part a. Use what we learned in class on Wednesday to make some cool drawings with Python. Check out part b. In part b, you are going to make some cool visualizations with data from the past.

We have put together two helpful handouts. Here is a link to a handout with keyboard shortcuts. Here is a link to a handout on doctests. These are both now new chapters in the python guide, so you can also find them there.

If you need some additional help with CS106A, you can sign up with the CTL. More information at this link.

We have released grades for the first quiz on Gradescope. Solutions as well as statistics about the exam can be found on the Quiz 1 Solutions handout.

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.

The Quiz is scheduled to take place on April 16th between 12:30 p.m and 1:30 p.m PT It will be administered digitally; instructions to set up BlueBook, our digital assessment platform, are posted here.

Once it is time for you to start the quiz, you will click the button below which will provide you with the file to download as well as an exam code for you to use to load the quiz on BlueBook. All students can use this link, even if you have arranged for an alternate duration, time, or platform for the diagnostic. You must be enrolled in the class to access the diagnostic.

Starting at 12pm PT please only post questions privately on Ed. If you have a question about the problem statement or about logistics during the diagnostic you may post privately on Ed. Please refrain from posting anything about the diagnostic on Ed until we release solutions next week.

Unless you have arranged with Juliette for an alternate sitting, you must begin the exam after 12:30pm and must submit by 1:30pm, with a short grace period during which you can submit.

You will have 25 minutes to complete the quiz. We recommend pulling up any solutions you want to consider before clicking the button below. You can consult lecture notes, your notes, practice problems, section problems, and the internet. You cannot collaborate or discuss with anyone while taking this quiz. Even though you have Pycharm to test your code, you cannot copy or paste into or out of BlueBook. So, it is a better strategy to write down all of your main ideas in BlueBook rather than spending any time testing in Pycharm. You can make BlueBook into a smaller window by hitting escape or the double arrows in the top right of the screen (top left if you are on mac).

If you run into any issues with BlueBook during the exam, check out this handout.

There is a 25 minute quiz on Friday. You can take it during any 25 minute period between 12:30pm and 1:30pm PT on Friday. We will start class at 1:30pm to accommodate those taking the quiz during class time. If you cannot take the quiz between 12:30pm and 1:30pm PT on Friday, please email Juliette no later than Thursday at 9am PT. If you have an OAE accommodation and have not already reached out to Juliette, please do so as soon as possible.

We made a handout with quiz review problems and solutions. These problems are similar to the type of problems you will see on the quiz. You will take the quiz on a software called BlueBook. Please download this in advance of taking the quiz. 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.

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 Wednesday, April 14th 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.

Black in CS is hosting Black LaIR this quarter starting week 2! Here is some more information!

Help with: CS106A and CS106B
Every: Tuesday, Thursday (5-8pm PT), Saturday (12-3pm PT)
Link to sign up for help (CS106A): QueueStatus
Social media/contact: @stanfordblackincs, aolawale@stanford.edu

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.

Section Signups are open! You can sign up for section by going to this page, logging in, and clicking the form. 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 Wednesday, April 7th at 11:55pm. Problem 5 is similar to an example we'll do Fri, so you might want to wait on that one.

Welcome to CS106A! Given the large size of our class, we’ll be running the lectures as a Zoom Webinar (rather than a Zoom Meeting, as Stanford’s Zoom Meetings have a maximum size of 500 students). As a result, a few things will be different than what you might be used to in a Zoom Meeting. You cannot access the zoom link from Canvas. You can find the link to lecture on the zoom info page. Canvas will only show previously recorded lectures (usually a few hours after the live class has finished).

Also, you won’t be able to see video/audio from other students in the class during the webinar—you’ll only see/hear the course staff.

If you have questions during the class or want to see other questions that have been posted, please use the “Q&A” button at the bottom of your Zoom window (don’t use Chat). Our intrepid head TA, Juliette Woodrow, will be monitoring the Q&A during class. You can use the chat feature to interact with the teaching staff before and after class.

This quarter, we're using Ed Discussion for class Q&A outside of lecture. You can send a message to the staff by making it private, or you can send questions, or posts to the entire group. Make sure to check out our Course Communication Handout to understand what Ed is best for, but 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 3:30-5:30pm PT on Zoom, with options for asynchronous participation for those outside the United States.

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 1/15 at 5pm PT). All who apply by 1/13 will be welcome to attend section the first week and will receive a Zoom link for section via email during Week 1. If you have any questions about ACE, feel free to reach out Sonja Johnson-Yu (CS106A ACE TA) at sonjyu@stanford.edu.

We put together some handouts to help you understand where we are going to go in CS 106A and how we plan to get there.

The Syllabus handout has details on course logistics. Read this to get a sense for what CS 106A is going to entail. The General Course Information handout has a bit more info about the happenings in CS 106A. The Course Placement handout has details on deciding between CS 106A and CS 106B.

Finally, the Course Communication handout has details on where to go when you need help in the class.

Welcome to CS106A! We're gearing up for a fun quarter beginning on Monday, March 29th. Enrolled students should read the Zoom info handout for details about how to get on the 1pm webinar on the first day of class.

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