COMP3121: Algorithms and Programming Techniques

4 x 10% Assignments
60% Final

Prerequisite: COMP1927 or COMP2521

Will start by praising the lecturer who made lectures worth showing up to - personable, clear, appropriate amounts of detail for literally everything.

As for the course itself, it was a great course! Probably one of the most useful courses I've taken to date. Course content and the course itself were really well set out and I don't recall ever being lost. While I can have my complaints about the course forum, that's about where the complaints stop. The assessments were relatively chill and the workload was comparatively low; any stress I had with this subject was due to other subjects having assessment due dates converging, and was not as a result of this subject alone. What feedback I got on assignments was valuable, and the tutorial questions covered most variations of concepts taught, with good solutions that explained pretty much everything. It's impossible not to come away from this course having learned nothing of value, and having not enjoyed it (with the caveat of some engagement). While some students can claim to have been confused at one point with the content, the administration of the course is something I feel cannot be complained about, everything ran smoothly. Any enjoyer of COMP2521 should definitely take this course, as should any other interested party

2 x 2hr lectures

2.5/5

Yes

Dr Aleksandar Ignjatovic

Lecture notes, slides, exercise set for each topic (with solutions)

4.5/5

Kleinberg and Tardos: Algorithm Design
Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein: Introduction to Algorithms

21T2

93 HD

- 5 assignments (each worth 10%).
- 1 final exam (worth 50%).

Pre-requisite for the course is either COMP1927 or COMP2521.

Pre-requisite for the course is COMP9021.

This course is another core course for anyone doing a computer science degree and it is the lower one to COMP3821. The course was brilliant and it really shined in comparison to COMP2511 in terms of quality of assessments. The assessments were well spaced out and Aleks' decision to give us hints a week into the assignment was a step up as it allowed students who struggled with the course to appreciate the complexities (no pun intended) of designing an algorithm. The tutorial sets were really useful, not just for understanding the logic under the hood, but it also demonstrates a way for us to write our responses. Would recommend for those who don't need to take the course, to take the course.

Depends each week. We had lecture recordings this term instead of an actual lecture so contact hours differed each week.

3.5/5

Yes.

Dr. Aleksander Ignjatovic.

Lecture notes were sufficient.

4/5.

Two textbooks that are recommended for the course are Algorithm Design by Kleinberg and Tardos, and Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leierson, Rivest, and Stein. The former is a bit more friendly to those students who may not have a mathematical background, while the latter is the standard textbook for anyone who's keen on doing more algorithmic study beyond this course. Both textbooks are sufficient reading for the course and their pdf's can be found online.

20T2

100 HD