CS 31 Fall 2023 Syllabus (2024)

CS 31: Introduction to Computer Science I

Computer Science Department
University of California, Los Angeles
Fall 2023

SYLLABUS

Course Objectives

Course Website

Instructor and Class Meetings

Office hours for the instructor, TAs, and LAsare on the main class web page.

Schedule of Lecture Topics and Exams

Textbook

The required course textbook is an interactive online zyBook that offers anumber of advantages over static text-dense textbooks. To purchase asubscription ($89):

1. Sign in or create an account (upper right corner) athttps://learn.zybooks.com
2. Enter zyBook code: UCLACS31SmallbergFall2023
3. Subscribe

Lecture and Discussion Sections

Lectures will present the material you'll need to know for this class,expanding on material from the course textbook. In discussion sections,your TA along with a learning assistant (LA) will pose problems to solvecollaboratively in class to help build your problem solving skills andensure you understand key concepts. They may answer questions that ariseabout these concepts, lecture topics, and programming projects.

Assignments

You cannot learn how to write programs without writing programs.There will be several programming projects. Each project specification willdetail any requirements that differ from thegeneral project requirements. Yourprogram correctness score is based on your program's correctness asdetermined by our testing. The amount of time you spent working on theprogram is irrelevant; indeed, if you follow our software development advice,you'll probably spend less time and get a higher score than if you don't.

Some assignments will be activities in the course text designed to help ensurethat you understand important concepts.

Occasionally you'll be asked to fill out a brief online form (e.g., becausewe need to gather some information for planning purposes) in a timely manner.These "responsibility assignments" will be so labelled and completing themwill be worth a small part of your grade.

Every C++ program you turn in for this class outside of the course text mustrun successfully using two compilers, as specified in theProject Requirements document.

Programming projects are due at 11 PM on the dates below. Unless statedotherwise, late submissions will be penalized by 0.0034722% per second (whichcomes to 12.5% per hour), making a submission worthless if submitted after 7AM the next morning. It is your responsibility to start early andto make backups to removable devices or to online storage.

Examinations

The midterms will cover material from the lectures. The final examinationwill cover material from the entire course. Missing the final for anyreason will result in a final exam score of zero.

Grading

Your grade in the course will be determined from your total score,although a final exam score below 40 may subject you to a failing graderegardless of your total score. The total score is determined from thegraded materials as follows:

The weights of these components may be altered if unforeseen circ*mstancesaffect an exam offering.

The total points you earn from assignments (scaled to 0 through 100) willbe capped at 30 points above the mean of your exam scores (scaled to 0through 100). For example, if you average 90 on the assignments, yourmidterm scores are 50 and 60, and your final is 40, then your assignmentaverage is treated as only 80 (because that's 30 more than the mean of 50,60, and 40). In other words, your assignment scores won't count fully if youcan't show from your exam scores that you learned what you should have fromthe assignments.

A request for reconsideration of the grading for an item must be madewithin one week of our sending you your score for that item.

Be sure that you have read and understood our expectations aboutacademic integrity.