Welcome to CS 2! We’re super excited to have you here this term!
Announcements
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Please fill out the course survey. We will use this to facilitate several important aspects of CS 2. Note that you will have to log in with your Caltech account to fill in the survey.
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Lectures for the first two weeks will be on Zoom. You can click here to get the Zoom link (and other course related private links).
Due Next
Calendar
Wellness and Inclusion
It is very important to us that you succeed in CS 2. We provide many extra resources to help you. Adam and the TAs hold many office hours, and we have a Ticketing System where you can ask questions asynchronously.
It is also very important to us that you maintain your mental wellness throughout the course. A few points are not worth losing sleep over. Everyone on the course staff is available to chat, and you can always attend office hours for a non-academic conversation if necessary. You can also visit the counseling center if you find you need help beyond the course staff. If you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (either mental health or physical health related), you should contact accessibility services if you have not already. Additionally, if there is something we can do to make your experience better, please let us know.
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are all core values of this course. All participants in this course must be treated with respect by other members of the community in accordance with the honor code. If you feel unwelcome or unsafe in any way, no matter how minor, we encourage you to talk to Adam or one of the Deans. We view these sorts of honor code violations as completely unacceptable, and we take them very seriously.
Tools
Course Staff
Instructor
Teaching Assistants
Handouts
The following is a list of handouts that you might find helpful throughout the course. We’ve categorized them by when they are useful.
Course
Syllabus – an overview of the course and administrative information
Pair Programming – introduction to pair programming
Collaboration Policy – the course collaboration policy
Getting Help in CS 2 – a description of the course policy for questions and office hours
Pushing a new branch to Gitlab – a tutorial on making a new branch to push code when master is locked
Week 0
Python2Java ‘Finger’ Exercises – some exercises to help you acclimate to Java coming from a Python world
Java/Python Comparison – a comparison of the basic syntax of Python with Java
Software Setup – instructions on how to get Java, IntelliJ, and git for the course
Schedule
| L00 | Mon, Jan 04 |
Introduction and OOP
[ pdf |
code
]
Course administrivia. Designing Java classes. Designing data structures. Object oriented programming.
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| L01 | Wed, Jan 06 |
Problem Decomposition
[
code
]
Using an API. Helper methods. Quadgrams. Log likelihoods. Java String API. Reading documentation.
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| Lab01 (debugging) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Jan 07 | ||
| L02 | Fri, Jan 08 |
Basic Data Structure Trade-Offs
[
code
]
Lists. Sets. Maps. Nested data structures. Efficiency.
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| L03 | Mon, Jan 11 |
Implementation: ArrayIntList
[
code
]
Arrays. Implementing an ArrayList. Designing a class to fit an API.
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| Project01 (ciphers) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Jan 11 | ||
| L04 | Wed, Jan 13 |
Generics and Implementation: ArrayList
[
code
]
Generics. Java types. Interfaces.
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| Lab02 (adventure) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Jan 14 | ||
| L05 | Fri, Jan 15 |
Iterators and Implementation: SimpleArraySet, SimpleSortedArraySet
[
code
]
Iterators. Implementing a set. Data structure trade-offs.
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| :( | Mon, Jan 18 | No Class: MLK Day |
| Project02 (hangman) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Jan 18 | ||
| :( | Tue, Jan 19 | No Lab: Mental Health Break! |
| L06 | Wed, Jan 20 |
Stacks, Queues, and Implementation: LinkedList
[ pdf |
code
]
Collections. Stacks. Queues. Nodes. Implementing a linked list.
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| L07 | Fri, Jan 22 |
The Power of Recursion
[ pdf |
code
]
RECURSION
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| L08 | Mon, Jan 25 |
Trees and BSTs
[ pdf
]
The tree data structure. Binary search trees.
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| Project03 (synthesizer) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Jan 25 | ||
| L09 | Wed, Jan 27 |
Tries
[
code
]
The trie data structure.
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| Lab04 (decision trees) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Jan 28 | ||
| L10 | Fri, Jan 29 |
Recursive Backtracking
[ pdf
]
More tries. The recursive backtracking pattern.
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| L11 | Mon, Feb 01 |
Asymptotic Analysis
[ pdf
]
How do we measure "efficiency" of code? What does it mean for an algorithm to be "more efficient" than another one?
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| Project04 (movies) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Feb 01 | ||
| L12 | Wed, Feb 03 | We're Now In Person Starting Next Lecture! |
| Lab05 (anagrams) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Feb 04 | ||
| L13 | Fri, Feb 05 |
Hash Tables I
[ pdf
]
The hashtable data structure.
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| L14 | Mon, Feb 08 |
Hash Tables II
[ pdf
]
More hashtables. Collision resolution. Rehashing.
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| :( | Tue, Feb 09 | No Lab! |
| L15 | Wed, Feb 10 |
Hash Tables III
[ pdf
]
More hashtables.
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| L16 | Fri, Feb 12 |
Heaps & Priority Queues I
[ pdf
]
The heap data structure.
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| :( | Mon, Feb 15 | No Class: President's Day |
| Project05 (markov) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Feb 15 | ||
| :( | Wed, Feb 17 | No Class: Blackouts |
| Lab07 (grundy) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Feb 18 | ||
| L17 | Fri, Feb 19 |
Heaps & Priority Queues II
The heap data structure, part 2.
|
| L18 | Mon, Feb 22 | Interlude |
| L19 | Wed, Feb 24 |
Interlude: P & N Positions and Nim
[ pdf
]
Combinatorial Game Theory!
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| Lab08 (pebbling) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Feb 25 | ||
| L20 | Fri, Feb 26 | Graphs I: Representation [ pdf ] |
| L21 | Mon, Mar 01 | Graphs II: DAGs [ pdf ] |
| Project06 (chat) due @ 11:30 pm on Mon, Mar 01 | ||
| L22 | Wed, Mar 03 | Graphs III: Single-Source Shortest Paths |
| Lab09 (dfs) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Mar 04 | ||
| L23 | Fri, Mar 05 | Sorting |
| L24 | Mon, Mar 08 | Partizan Games, Minimax, and Alphabeta |
| L25 | Wed, Mar 10 | Victory Lap |
| Lab10 (steganography) due @ 11:30 pm on Thu, Mar 11 | ||
| Project07 (maps) due @ 11:30 pm on Fri, Mar 12 | ||
| Project08 (othello) due @ 11:30 pm on Fri, Mar 12 | ||