Announcements

From all of us on course staff, we loved teaching everyone and hope you were able to get something from this class! If you’re interested in studying the topics in this class further, see the professors’ live Q&A for the last lecture.

Have a great summer!

• Final: The final exam will take place from 7-10 on May 17th
  • You musttake the exam in your assigned room in accordance to this spreadsheet
  • DSP and approved alternates will receive an email soon with details
  • What you can/should bring to the exam:
    • You are allowed 3 double-sided standard-sized cheat sheets (6 sides total). Cheatsheets can be handwritten or typed.
    • Student ID
    • Pencils and erasers
  • All topics covered in lecture, discussion, homework, and the textbook chapters listed on the website are in scope
    • There will be an emphasis on material covered after the second midterm
  • EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Because we are offering an alternate final from 10-1am, nobody is allowed to leave their exam room until 10pm.
    • We realize this in inconvenient, but it is the only way we can preserve exam integrity while accommodating everyone
    • You may show up to your exam room late if you so choose, but will not get time past 10pm
  • All topics covered in lecture, discussion, homework, and the textbook chapters listed on the website
• Course Evaluation Extra Credit: We are offering one point of extra credit on the final for those who fill out the course evaluation
  • In order to receive credit, you must submit a screenshot to the Gradescope assignment proving you filled out the course eval with your name present
  • There is an example below
  • You must do so by May 13th, 11:59pm – no exceptions
• Project Presentation Make-ups: We will be allowing students one last chance to sign up for project presentations tomorrow, 5/7.
  • Make sure you have submitted your outline by 11:59PM TONIGHT, even if you are presenting tomorrow
  • Please use this link to sign up: Google calendar bookings. Check the event to see who/where you will meet. Make sure you can make the time you booked
  • You will be meeting with either Vinay in Brewed Awakening or Sean in Cory 258– please show up on time, there will be no other make ups
    • It may again be useful to look at staff photos so you know who you’re meeting with
• Project Grades will be released during Finals week
• Homework 13 grades have been released (distribution here).
  • You have till May 13th 11:59pm to submit regrade requests
  • We will try respond to homework 11 regrade requests by tonight
  • Homework 12 regrade requests will be responded to by Monday next week
  • Homework 13 regrade requests will be responded to by Wednesday next week
  • Homework 14 regrade requests will be responded to by Friday next week
• We’ll be adding an optional Homework 15 to the website for extra practice later today (with solutions)

course evaluation example

• Project Submission
  • Get a group token by 5/1 11:59pm using the group token generator assignment on Gradescope. The process is described here and should not take your group more than 5 minutes. You must do this in order to receive an evaluation score. If you run into issues, send an email to cs170@
  • The deadline for 1% additional drops is 5/1, 11:59pm. You must submit a submit token to the evaluation rescues assignment by this deadline to have the additional drops.
  • Evaluation rescues are due 5/6 11:59pm. As before, you must submit a submit token before this deadline to be graded. We will not give grades for rescues you have run, but not submitted with a submit token by this deadline.
    • Be advised that running all evaluation rescues can take several hours, so you should start and run the majority of your rescues before this deadline.
• Project Final Presentations and Outline
  • Read the directions on the website to prepare for, sign up for, and give a final presentation. We will ask you three questions (listed on the website) to see how the project went for you, and to get a feeling for how much you explored the problem.
  • The website also describes how to sign up for a slot. Slots are first-come, first serve, so do this ASAP. Sign up for a slot by Thursday 11:59pm.
  • Do not overwrite another group’s sign ups. We will be monitoring the edit history, and anyone caught doing so will receive a 0 on this portion of the project.
  • Submit an outline before your presentation describing the answers for the three questions so that we can reference it during the presentation
• Project Design Doc grades have been released. Please check Gradescope for comments.
• Project OH: Sean’s office hours today will be held 3-4pm in Cory 258.
• Homeworks
  • Homework 14 was released Monday, will be due Monday 5/6, and covers Lectures 23 and 24. It is the last graded homework.
  • Homework 12 grades have been released. Distribution here
• RRR Week Schedule
  • All sections for RRR week will be cancelled
  • All HW party for RRR week will be cancelled
  • All OH will still be happening
  • We will be holding 2 review sessions during RRR week: One covering pre MT2 material and one covering post MT2 material
    • Further details will be in a separate post

• Project
  • Group registration form:
    • EVERY GROUP MEMBER MUST SUBMIT THEIR OWN COPY OF THE GROUP REGISTRATION FORM, EVEN FOR 1-PERSON GROUPS.
    • If you have not done this yet, do it ASAP: group registration form
  • Evaluation rescues:
    • Due to technical issues with Gradescope, we cannot release the group token generation assignment until this Wednesday, 4/24. To compensate, we will extend the early evaluation/1% additional drop deadline to 5/1, 11:59PM.
    • All 600 evaluation rescues will also be released 4/24. Evaluation rescues can only be run once each.
    • For any deadline relating to evaluation rescues (the early deadline, 5/1, or 5/6 the final deadline), you must submit your submit tokens to Gradescope before 11:59pm as well. Just having the rescue run on the server doesn’t count, you need to submit the token.
  • Skeleton:
    • The skeleton has been updated since release. Please merge the new commits or clone the repo again.
    • Do note that the skeleton provides many test instances for you to use, so you do not have to exhaust your evaluation rescues. Please see here for instructions on how to test your solver.
    • Evaluation rescues are drawn from the same distribution as test rescues given in the skeleton.
  • Design doc is due today at 11:59pm. Absolutely no submissions will be accepted past 3am, which is the grace deadline for technical issues.
    • Submit the design doc AS A GROUP. You can select your group members on Gradescope, only one person needs to submit the assignment but they must select everyone in their group.
    • The design doc is graded on effort. We only will give a 0 if we feel that your understanding of the problem is not adequate, in which case you can meet with us to get that point back.
  • We have started a clarifications thread here: @866. We hope to not make many changes, but please check it every few days for updates. The project website will always be the most up-to-date version of the spec.
  • Read the skeleton getting started guide. We recommend you use NetworkX, which the guide tells you how to install.
  • See https://guavabot.cs170.org/support/ for office hours. We have project office as usual (except Matt’s 2-3pm Tuesday is cancelled as per @861):
    • Sean Wed 3-4pm @ Soda 380
    • Matt Fri 2-4pm @ Wozniak Lounge
• Homeworks
  • There are 2 homeworks left: Homework 13 and 14 will be graded, and an optional Homework 15.
  • Homework 12 is due TODAY 4/22.
  • Homework 13 will be released today/early tomorrow, will be due Monday 4/29, and covers Lectures 21 and 22
  • Homework 11 grades will be released later today/early tomorrow. Distribution will be posted here
  • Homework 12 was much longer and more involved than we intended, and we apologize for that. We have recalibrated for the remaining homeworks in the class, they should be of a reasonable length.
  • We have discussed issues concerning OH queue times among staff since at least spring break, and we think that the adjusted homeworks will release some of the stress on homework parties and office hours. We think it is too late to fairly apply a time limit for homework party questions this semester, and we will consider this for next semester.
  • Homework 9 regrade requests will be responded to by tonight
• Midterm regrades should be responded to by tonight.

• Project
  • The website has been updated with more information on using the skeleton! https://guavabot.cs170.org/skeleton/getting-started/
  • See Guavabot policies to see grading, due dates, etc.
  • The design doc is due Monday, 4/22 at 11:59pm. It has some good starting questions for you to work on the project.
  • The group registration form was due 4/15 at 11:59pm. Each person in your group must submit it individually, or else you will not be able to get a score on the evaluation part of the project.
  • We recommend this week that your group should work on the design doc and write some basic solvers, and test them with the local inputs in the skeleton.
• Project Office Hours
  • Please see https://guavabot.cs170.org/support/ for the most up-to-date information about project office hours.
  • Max, Sean, and Matt will answer project questions first during their office hours. All other office hours will remain the same
  • We will also have project-specific office hours. Again see https://guavabot.cs170.org/support/ for most up-to-date information, but for this week:
    • Sean Wednesday 3-4pm @ Cory 258
    • Matt Friday 2-3pm @ Wozniak Lounge (colocated with Homework Party)
• Midterm 2 regrade requests will be responded to by 4/22 at 11:59pm.
• Assignments
  • Homework 12 is released today. It covers material from lectures 19 and 20. It is due Monday 4/22
  • Homework 8 regrade requests will be responded to by tonight

• Project spec and group form are being released today!
  • Please see https://guavabot.cs170.org for the project spec. All information on the project will be kept there.
    • Please read the problem statement and post questions in the project thread @795
    • The design doc instructions are a good starting point if you want to think about your solver
  • Please see https://forms.gle/XAgSABTEytHpqV278 for the group registration form. You must fill this out by Monday 4/15 at 11:59pm, or else you will not be able to get a score on the evaluation part of the project. Everyone in your group must fill out the group registration form.
  • Homework load will be adjusted accordingly for the duration of the project.
• Midterm 2 regrade requests are open! They are due Monday 4/15 at 11:59pm.
• Assignments
  • Homework 11 is released today. It is not optional.
  • Homework 9 grades have been released. Distribution here. We will give you till April 15th to submit regrade requests.
  • Homework 7 regrade requests will be responded to by tonight

• Midterm 2 will be Wednesday, April 3 8-10pm. Alternate and DSP exams have been sent emails. Please see @581 for logistics.
  • We are still working on responding to emails regarding additional accommodations – if you are still awaiting a response we will try to get back to you today
• Review Sessions: We will have 3 review sessions on 4/2:
  • Review Session 1 (3:30-5:00pm, Pimentel 1): Greedy Algorithms (MSTs, Huffman, Horn-SAT, Exchange Arguments).
  • Review Session 2 (9-10pm, Dwinelle 145): Linear Programming (LP Basics, Duality).
  • Review Session 3 (9-10pm, GPB 100): Max Flow
  • We are aware that the second two review overlap – we will post all review session resources in this thread: @708
• Discussion: Discussions this week will focus on midterm review
• Assignments
  • Homework 10 is optional and contains problems on midterm content. We recommend that you do it, but will not be grading the assignment this time.
  • Homework 9 scores will be released April 8th . Solutions will be posted on the website shortly
  • Homework 8 grades will be released very soon (this post will be updated with the distribution). Sorry about the delay.
    • We will give you till April 9th (one extra day) to submit regrade requests.
  • Homework 6 regrade requests should have all been responded to
• Project: The course project spec and group signup form will be released April 8th.
  • The project will involve groups of size 1-3 (though we strongly recommend you work in a group with at least one other person)
  • For now, you need not do anything else to prepare
  • Homework load will be adjusted accordingly for the duration of the project.
• Cancellations: We have several cancelled events this week
  • Everything on Thursday except Lecture will be cancelled – discussions, OH, etc. This is so we can get your exams graded as soon as possible
  • Friday homework party will be cancelled.
  • Wednesday HW party will be cancelled (due to the exam itself).
  • We will still have all All Tuesday/Wednesday discussions and OH, as well as all Friday OH.

Spring break!

• Assignments
  • Homework 9 was released yesterday. It is due April 1st at 10:00pm (the Monday after spring break). It covers material from lectures 14 and 15.
    • Homework 9 is of normal length, as we do not expect you to have to work on it over break.
  • Homework 10 will be optional and will contain problems on midterm content. We recommend that you do it, but will not be grading the assignment this time.
    • It will be released as soon as we have it ready, but by Monday after spring break at the latest
  • Homework 8 scores will be released March 25th. Solutions will be posted on the website shortly
  • Homework 7 grades have been released. Distribution here. You have till April 1st to submit regrade requests.
  • Homework 5 regrade requests should have all been responded to
• Midterm 2
  • Midterm 2 will take place on April 3rd from 8-10pm (note that this is a Wednesday and not a Tuesday)
    • There will be an exam logistics post with more details later this week
  • We will be holding two review sessions for this midterm
    • There will be one on April 1st, and one on April 2nd
    • More details will be released in a separate post
• Project
  • The course project will start after the second midterm. Homework load will be adjusted accordingly for the duration of the project.
    • The project will involve groups of size 1-3 (though we strongly recommend you work in a group with at least one other person)
    • For now, you need not do anything else to prepare

Assignments

• Homework 8 was released yesterday. It is due March 18th at 10:00pm. It covers material from lectures 12 and 13. Please note that Q6 was updated, it is now textbook problem 3.28 parts d), e), f)
• Homework 7 scores will be released March 18th. Solutions have been posted on the website
• Homework 6 grades have been released. You have till March 18th to submit regrade requests. Distribution here
• Homework 4 regrade requests should all be responded to by tonight

• Assignments
  • Homework 7 will be released today. It is due March 11th at 10:00pm. It covers material from lectures 10 and 11.
  • Homework 6 scores will be released March 11th. Solutions will be added to this post when they are ready for release.
  • Homework 5 grades have been released. You have till March 11th to submit regrade requests. Distribution here
  • Homework 3 and Midterm 1 regrade requests should all be responded to by tonight
• Reminder: Please fill out the midsemester survey here for a single point of extra credit on the next midterm! We take feedback quite seriously, so please fill it out honestly and thoroughly
• Warning: Please be sure to clearly delineate sections in your 3-part solutions. Starting with HW7, we will introduce a small penalty for not doing so.
• Note: Since we’ve been getting asked quite a bit recently, I’d like to clarify the timeline for regrade requests on homework
  • For a homework submitted Monday of week N:
    • You will receive your grade for that homework on Monday of week N+1
    • You will have till Monday of week N+2 to submit any regrade requests for that homework
    • We will respond to your regrade request by Monday of week N+3
  • For midterms you will similarly have one week to submit regrade requests, and we will have one week after that one to respond.
  • In general if you miss the window to submit regrade requests, or are unsatisfied with the response to your regrade request:
    • We open up a form at the end of the semester for any/all outstanding regrade requests/appeals. We will look at them if they end up affecting your final grade
    • Please hang tight until then – its much easier for us to have consistent well-defined periods during which we respond to regrade requests for various assignments, rather than having various regrade requests and regrade request appeals that drag out over the course of the semester

• Assignments
  • Homework 6 has been released today. It is due March 4th at 10:00pm. It covers material from lectures 8 and 9.
  • Homework 5 scores will be released March 4th. Solutions here
  • Homework 4 grades have been released. Since this homework was optional, I decided to leave comments instead of assigning scores to the submissions. Do read them! There will be no regrade requests for this homework.
  • Homework 2 regrade requests should have been responded to by this point
• Midterm regrades closed at 11:59pm last night. If you missed this deadline, don’t worry - we will reopen regrades for all exams at the very end of the semester, with the caveat that we will investigate them only if it could potentially affect your final grade.
• Note: When submitting homework, please make sure you clearly label each part in your three part solution. It makes it much easier for us to grade. Additionally, it is helpful when you state clearly what you want to prove before attempting to do so. This is beneficial for you as well, as it allows you to establish a clear premise, and forces you to sanity check your argument.
• We have created a mid-semester feedback form you can fill out here
  • You will receive 1pt extra credit on the second midterm if you fill out the survey.
  • We must collect your SIDs in order to assign extra credit, but we really do promise we will not attempt to de-anonymize your survey responses
    • Further, Max and I are the only ones with access to the survey results at the moment – we will remove your SIDs before sending the results to any of the other TAs
  • We really do take feedback seriously! Please do your best to fill out the form honestly and constructively :)
  • Individual discussion sections will have their own feedback forms to be filled out next week
  • Responses are due by Monday, March 11.

• Discussions: If you found the midterm really challenging, we recommend you try attending James’ section Wednesday 2-4pm @ Dwinelle 79. The section builds off of a minimal understanding of lecture material, and will spend more time addressing specific confusions from students. Please submit questions for this section each week using this form.
• Assignments
  • Homework 5 has been released today. It is due February 25th at 10:00pm. It covers material from lectures 5, 6, and 7.
  • Homework 4 scores will be released February 25 (however remember that these scores are purely for your own interest and do not affect your grade).
  • Homework 3 grades have been released, distribution here. Regrades due Feb 25, we will resolve them by Mar 4.
• PSA: It is not OK to look up an exact HW question and then cite an online website. We understand that you may find these things accidentally when looking at a related topic, but it is quite easy for us to tell what has and hasn’t been found on accident, and we will start to penalize those who look up exact questions going forward. We want you to learn as much as you can from this class, so we disincentivize cheating, copying, and over-collaboration this way, as we find those tactics actually result in lower exam scores and worse overall comprehension of material in the class. Please let us know in office hours or by email to cs170@berkeley.edu if you have any questions!
• PSA 2: We do a mixture of rough and coarse grading for homework. As such it is possible you might get full credit on a question, while still having some minor errors in your solution. Be sure to read homework solutions, even to questions you got full points on.
• Midterm 1 regrades are open. READ THE SOLUTIONS AND QUESTION RUBRIC BEFORE SUBMITTING A REGRADE. It is in your best interest to do so to maximize your chance of the regrade getting accepted. We offer regrades because we’re not perfect, and we want to make sure your answer is graded fairly with respect to our rubric.We will not adjust the rubric at this point out of fairness to the entire class. Thanks!

• Midterm 1 will be this Thursday, February 14th at 8-10pm.
  • You must take the exam in the room you been assigned to in this spreadsheet. Go to the room indicated based on the last 2 digits of your SID.
  • DSP students should have gotten an email a few minutes ago. If not, email cs170@berkeley.edu.
  • What you can/should bring to the exam:
    • You are allowed one cheat sheet. It can be at most two sides of one sheet of paper, and it can be handwritten or typed.
    • Student ID
    • Pencils and erasers
    • Water and your knawledge :)
  • All topics covered in lecture, discussion, homework, and the textbook chapters listed on the website up to and including Dijkstra’s are in scope for this exam
• Review Sessions: We have two review sessions planned from 8-10pm in 2050 VLSB:
  • Review Session 1 (Feb 11): Asymptotics, Recurrences, Divide and Conquer, FFT. Piazza post here.
  • Review Session 2 (Feb 13): Graphs, BFS, DFS, Graph Decomposition, and Shortest Paths. Piazza post upcoming.
• Discussions: Tarun’s section will be held in Soda 310 Wednesdays 12-1pm for the rest of the semester. Apologies for the confusion!
• Assignments
  • Homework 4 has been released today. It is completely optional and is not worth any credit, but we strongly recommend you do it as practice for the midterm this week.
    • Solutions will be posted Wednesday to give you time to work on it.
    • We will even “grade” your homework on Gradescope to let you know what you did right (but again, the grade on Gradescope will not contain any points as the homework is not worth any credit).
      • This will only happen after the midterm, however
  • The next homework, Homework 5, will be graded and back to normal, and will cover material from lectures 5, 6, and 7.
  • Homework 3 grades will be released Monday, February 18.
  • Homework 2 grades have been released. A distribution has been included here.
    • You will have until Monday, Feb 18 to submit regrade requests
    • These requests will be processed a week after this deadline (Monday, Feb 25)
    • Please be sure to read solutions fully before submitting any regrade requests
• Office Hours and Homework Party will be cancelled on Friday as we grade for the midterm.
• Logistics: We have resolved most alternate exam requests and DSP accommodations by email. The exam conflict form and DSP accommodation forms are now closed. If anything comes up during the semester, please email cs170@berkeley.edu.
  • If you are still awaiting an email from us please bump us ASAP so we do not forget

• Assignments
  • Homework 3 has been released today. It will be due on Monday, February 11 at 10PM.
  • Homework 2 grades will be released Monday, February 11. Solutions are here.
  • Homework 1 grades have been released. The distribution is here.
    • You will have till Monday, Feb 11 to submit regrade requests
    • These requests will be processed a week after this deadline (Monday, Feb 18)
    • Please be sure to read solutions fully before submitting any regrade requests
• Office hours and homework parties
  • Please keep using the office hour queue!
  • See the schedule for our office hours. Wednesday 5-8pm homework parties are back to normal in Cory 540AB.
• Discussion
  • Please see the load balancing spreadsheet to check for less-attended discussions!
• Midterm
  • Midterm 1 will be on Thursday, February 14th at 8-10pm. Logistics will be coming in the next announcement
    • If you are in DSP, you will receive an email detailing where and when to take the exam
  • We have two review sessions planned in from 8-10pm in 2050 VLSB
    • Review Session 1 (Feb 11): Asymptotics, Recurrences, Divide and Conquer, FFT
    • Review Session 2 (Feb 13): Graphs, BFS, DFS, Graph Decomposition, and Shortest Paths
  • We are still working on processing alternate exam requests. Please bear with us, and thank you for your patience so far.

• Assignments
  • Homework 2 has been released today. It will be due on Monday, February 4 at 10PM. This is substantially longer than homework 1, and better reflects the workload for the semester. We strongly encourage you to start early and take advantage of our ample office hour and homework party resources.
  • Homework 1 grades will be released Monday, February 4.
• Office hours and homework parties
  • We have set up the office hour queue. Please use it to during homework parties and office hours to get your question answered as quickly as possible
  • Homework parties begin this week, see the schedule for more details. For homework party on Wednesday 5-8pm we will host it on Soda 6th floor (the two alcoves 611 and 651). In addition, we will also have staff in Soda 411 6-8pm. The 6th floor locks after 6:30, so the staff in 411 can help you come upstairs if it gets too full. In future weeks Wednesday homework parties will be in Cory 540AB.
  • Office hour attendance was low this week, but we expect it to pick up by around 3x-5x.
    • In general, we expect Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday office hours to be less crowded.
• Discussions
  • This week we will start our slower- and faster-paced sections.
    • James’ section Wednesday 2-4pm @ Dwinelle 79 will be a slower-paced section. The section will build off of a minimal understanding of lecture material, and will spend more time addressing specific confusions from students. Please submit questions for this section each week using this form.
    • Fotis’ section Thursday 12-1pm @ Dwinelle 259 will be a faster-paced section. The section assumes a strong understanding of the relevant lectures, and is intended for those who want to go beyond material relevant for the class.
  • We have released a load balancing spreadsheet for you to see which office hours and discussions have less attendance. We strongly encourage you to attend a less-populated discussion/office hour for more individualized help and a better experience. We find that section attendance is mostly determined by convenience of time/location; all our TAs are dedicated to bringing you a good discussion experience.

Welcome to CS 170! 🥳 Every week, we’ll send out a Piazza announcement (and also put it on the website) with a collection of things that are important for you to read. Please make sure that you read these announcements, as they are our primary means of communication with you.

Important: There are more students enrolled in this course than there is space in the lecture hall. Unfortunately we will not be able to accommodate everyone for the first lecture today. Priority goes to students who are officially already enrolled in the course (not waitlisted). Lectures ARE webcast, so do not worry about missing out on content.

• Our course website is https://cs170.org.
• Homework 1 has been released today. It will be due on Monday, January 28 at 10PM. It will be very short, consisting of primarily administrative questions.
• Sections will begin the coming Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A full schedule is now available on https://cs170.org, and you can attend any section you like. All sections will cover the same material.
• Office Hours will begin this week starting on Wednesday, and homework parties will begin next week. For the most up-to-date schedule of office hours and homework party, please see https://cs170.org
• If you are enrolled in DSP, please fill out this form by Monday, January 28.
• Our exam dates are available on https://cs170.org/policies/.
• Gradescope: You should have been added. If not, the course entry code is 9GP476
• @17 is a student run index post! Please look for (and post) important links there.