CS 93: Competitive Programming - Fall 2022

Welcome to CS93: Competitive Programming. This is a directed reading course that will introduce you to what competitive programming is and give you several tools and techniques for doing competitive programming well. Students will use either Python or C++ to solve competitive programming problems. Topics include: input/output; data structures including lists, stacks/queues, priority queues, and dictionaries, graph algorithms, dynamic programming, network flow, and other topics as time allows.

This course is designed for students of all levels who want to learn how to do well in competitive programming. It is also designed for students who are preparing for coding interviews.

Meeting Times:

We will meet Tuesdays 1:05 PM - 2:35 PM in Clothier 016.

By the end of the course, we hope that you will have developed the following skills:

Above all, the goal of this course is to instill a deep understanding of how to quickly understand computational problems, derive a solution, and code that solution efficiently.

You must take this course CR/NC. To earn a credit for this course, you must:

The primary introduction to course material is through class lecture. Our expectation is that you will attend class each week, study notes from lectures as you need to, and independently seek out help when you have questions.

There are lots of opportunities to ask questions: attending class, during office hours, posting on Slack. The problems we work on will build from material throughout the semester, so if you don’t understand something one week, it is likely to reappear (and be a problem!) the next week, and the week after that, and so on.

This class is very much a class where you learn by doing. The vast majority of time you spend on this class will be coding competitive programming problems. Get into the habit of spending at least five hours each week on programming problems. Become familiar with the data structures and graph algorithms we see this semester by using them to solve more problems.

This course is designed to accomodate students of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Some students are taking this course to get better at competitive programming; others to practice for technical interviews. What you get out of this class will be largely up to you. This will be a successful class for you if you set goals for what you want out of this class and commit to achieving them.

Since this is a directed reading course, the responsibility for you getting the most out of this course lies with you. If there is some aspect of this course that isn’t working for you, or if you think part of this course could be improved, say so.

Academic honesty is required in all your work. Under no circumstances may you hand in work done with or by someone else under your own name. Discussing ideas and approaches to problems with others on a general level is encouraged, but you should never share your solutions with anyone else nor allow others to share solutions with you. You may not examine solutions belonging to someone else, nor may you let anyone else look at or make a copy of your solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, obtaining solutions from students who previously took the course or solutions that can be found online. You may not share information about your solution in such a manner that a student could reconstruct your solution in a meaningful way (such as by dictation, providing a detailed outline, or discussing specific aspects of the solution). You may not share your solutions even after the due date of the assignment.

In your solutions, you are permitted to include material which was distributed in class, material which is found in the course textbook, and material developed by or with an assigned partner. In these cases, you should always include detailed comments indicating on which parts of the assignment you received help and what your sources were.

When working on quizzes, exams, or similar assessments, you are not permitted to communicate with anyone about the exam during the entire examination period (even if you have already submitted your work). You are not permitted to use any resources to complete the exam other than those explicitly permitted by course policy. (For instance, you may not look at the course website during the exam unless explicitly permitted by the instructor when the exam is distributed.)

Failure to abide by these rules constitutes academic dishonesty and will lead to a hearing of the College Judiciary Committee. According to the Faculty Handbook:

_ Because plagiarism is considered to be so serious a transgression, it is the opinion of the faculty that for the first offense, failure in the course and, as appropriate, suspension for a semester or deprivation of the degree in that year is suitable; for a second offense, the penalty should normally be expulsion. _

This policy applies to all course work, including but not limited to code, written solutions (e.g. proofs, analyses, reports, etc.), exams, and so on. This is not meant to be an enumeration of all possible violations; students are responsible for seeking clarification if there is any doubt about the level of permissible communication.

The general ethos of this policy is that actions which shortcut the learning process are forbidden while actions which promote learning are encouraged. Studying lecture materials together, for example, provides an additional avenue for learning and is encouraged. Using a classmate’s solution, however, is prohibited because it avoids the learning process entirely. If you have any questions about what is or is not permissible, please contact your instructor.

If you believe you need accommodations for a disability or a chronic medical condition, please contact Student Disability Services (via email at studentdisabilityservices@swarthmore.edu) to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs. As appropriate, the office will issue students with documented disabilities or medical conditions a formal Accommodations Letter. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible.

For details about the accommodations process, visit the Student Disability Services website.

To receive an accommodation for a course activity, you must have an official accommodation letter from the Office of Student Disability Services and you need to meet with course staff to work out the details of your accommodation at least two weeks prior to the activity.

You are also welcome to contact any of the course staff privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged, in advance, through Student Disability Services.

Links that are related to the course may be posted here. If you have suggestions for links, let us know.