Programming Challenges

CSE 30872

CSE 30872 is an elective course in the Computer Science and Engineering program at the University of Notre Dame. This course encourages the development of practical programming and problem solving skills through extensive practice and guided learning. The bulk of the class revolves around solving brain-teaser and puzzle-type problems that often appear in programming contests, online challenges, and job interviews. Additionally, basic software engineering practices such as planning, debugging, testing, and source code management may be discussed.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Parse a variety of inputs and model problems.
Utilize appropriate data structures to represent and solve problems.
Implement common problem solving techniques and algorithms.
Employ modern software development methods and tools.
Debug and test code within an automated testing environment.

All slides shown during the tutorial will be available here after the lecture is delievered. If you have any specific questions or topics you would like to see covered please enter them in the google form below. This form is anonymous. Before every lecture I will select a few of the most common questions to cover in addition to the stated topics.

Question submission link

Logistics

Lecture: M/W/F 11:30 AM - 12:20 AM
Location: Debart 131
Zoom Meeting: 948 3826 0745
Mailing List (Class): fa23-cse-30872-01-group@nd.edu
Mailing List (Staff): fa23-cse-30872-01-staff-list@nd.edu
Slack: #cse-30872-fa23

Instructor: Bill Theisen (wtheisen@nd.edu)
*Professor Theisen, Professor Bill, Bill
Office Hours: M/T/W/R 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM, and by appointment
Office Location
Undergraduate TAs: Katherine Morales (@nd.edu)
Office Hours: TBD 3:00PM - 4:30PM
Office Hours Location: TBD; Mark Rumsey (@nd.edu); Sophia Lombardo (guhran@nd.edu)

Schedule

Unit	Date	Topics	Assignments
Introduction	`Wed 08/23`	Syllabus, I/O	Reading 00

Requirements

Component	Points
Readings Weekly reading assignments.	11 × 3
Challenges Weekly programming challenges.	23 × 7
Externals External programming contest.	2 × 17
Contests In-class programming contests.	2 × 36
Total	300

Grade	Points	Grade	Points	Grade	Points
		A	285-300	A-	270-284
B+	260-269	B	250-259	B-	240-249
C+	230-239	C	220-229	C-	210-219
D	195-209	F	0-194

Policies

Students are expected to attend and contribute regularly in class. This means answering questions in class, participating in discussions, and helping other students.

Recalling one of the tenets of the Hacker Ethic:

Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not criteria such as degrees, age, race, sex, or position.

Students are expected to be respectful of their fellow classmates and the instructional staff.

Any student who has a documented disability and is registered with Disability Services should speak with the professor as soon as possible regarding accommodations. Students who are not registered should contact the Office of Disabilities.

Any academic misconduct in this course is considered a serious offense, and the strongest possible academic penalties will be pursued for such behavior. Students may discuss high-level ideas with other students, but at the time of implementation (i.e. programming), each person must do his/her own work. Use of the Internet as a reference is allowed but directly copying code or other information is cheating. It is cheating to copy, to allow another person to copy, all or part of an exam or assignment, or to fake program output. It is also a violation of the Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor to observe and then fail to report academic dishonesty. You are responsible for the security and integrity of your own work.

In the case of a serious illness or other excused absence, as defined by university policies, coursework submissions will be accepted late by the same number of days as the excused absence.

Otherwise, there is an automatic 25% late penalty for assignments turned in 12 hours pass the specified deadline.

This course will be recorded using Zoom and Panopto. This system allows us to automatically record and distribute lectures to you in a secure environment. You can watch these recordings on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. In the course in Sakai, look for the "Panopto" tool on the left hand side of the course.

Because we will be recording in the classroom, your questions and comments may be recorded. Recordings typically only capture the front of the classroom, but if you have any concerns about your voice or image being recorded please speak to me to discuss your concerns. Except for faculty and staff who require access, no content will be shared with individuals outside of your course without your permission.

These recordings are jointly copyrighted by the University of Notre Dame and your instructor. Posting them to other websites (including YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat, etc.) or elsewhere without express, written permission may result in disciplinary action and possible civil prosecution.

Honor Code

CSE Guide to the Honor Code

For the assignments in this class, you may discuss with other students and consult printed and online resources. You may quote from books and online sources as long as you cite them properly. However, you may not look at another student's solution, and you may not copy any significant portions of other's solutions. Furthermore, you may not utilize AI powered tools such as Co-Pilot or Tabnine for any of your programming assignments.

The following table summarizes how you may work with other students and use print/online sources:

	Resources	Solutions	AI Tools
Consulting	Allowed	Not Allowed	Not Allowed
Copying	Cite	Not Allowed	Not Allowed

See the CSE Guide to the Honor Code for definitions of the above terms.

If an instructor sees behavior that is, in his judgement, academically dishonest, he is required to file either an Honor Code Violation Report or a formal report to the College of Engineering Honesty Committee.