CompSci 161 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms - Spring, 2026 (Dillencourt)

Accessibility of digital content

At the University of California, Irvine, providing a culture of inclusion and equal opportunity for students with disabilities is a campuswide responsibility and commitment. If you have difficulty accessing any materials for this course, please let us know by email to compsci161-questions at uci dot edu as soon in the course as possible.

Class announcements

Class announcements will be made on canvas. The most recent ones will appear at the top of the course home page on canvas. Please check there frequently.

Class meetings

Lectures: 9:00-10:50AM Tu Th in EH 1200 [EH is Engineering Hall, building number 308.]
- The first lecture will be held on Tuesday, March 31.
Discussion sections:
- There are three discussion sections (A1). They meet at the following times and places.
  - A1: 9:00-9:50AM M W in HG 1800
  - A2: 12:00-12:50PM M W in RH 101
  - A3: 3:00-3:50PM M W in RH 104
- Here are the building codes and locations of the buildings where the discussion sections are held.
  - HG is Humanities Gateway, building number 611.
  - RH is Rowland Hall, building number 400.
- The first discussion section meetings will be on Monday, March 30

Information about the tests

Here is a link to the Test Information Page. This page has information about the midterms and the final exam, including exact dates and times.

Course staff

Instructor:
- Professor Michael Dillencourt
- Email: dillenco at ics dot uci dot edu. But please note:
  - Questions of general interest about the course material, the homework, the online quizzes, and the tests should be posted to Ed Discussion.
  - Regrade requests will be handled through GradeScope.
  - It is much better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
- Office hours:
  - My office is DBH 4086. (To get there, take the elevator to the fourth floor and keep taking left turns until you come to my office on the right. If you find yourself on the fire escape, you have gone too far.)
  - Office hour times: To be announced.
  - I am also available after each lecture.
Teaching Assistants:
- Alvin Chiu:
  - Email: chiua13 at uci dot edu. But it is better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
  - Office hours: Will be posted on the home page of the course Canvas space.
- Billy Chen:
  - Email: poanc at uci dot edu. But it is better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
  - Office hours: Will be posted on the home page of the course Canvas space.
- Kourosh Mirsohi:
  - Email: mmirsohi at uci dot edu. But it is better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
  - Office hours: Will be posted on the home page of the course Canvas space.
- Nick Cohen:
  - Email: cohenn1 at uci dot edu But it is better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
  - Office hours: Will be posted on the home page of the course Canvas space.
- Rummana Rahman:
  - Email: rummanar at uci dot edu But it is better to use the compsci-161 questions list as discussed in the section on email.
  - Office hours: Will be posted on the home page of the course Canvas space.

Sending us email

Rather than sending email to one of us individually, it is much better to send email to the address: compsci161-questions at uci dot edu This is an alias for the instructor and the TAs. Sending your question here ensures that all of us see your message and the response. This usually gives you better turnaround time.
Please put the string "CompSci 161 - " in the subject line, followed by something meaningful.
- NOTE: It is very important to put spaces around 161. UCI and ICS email accounts are actually GMail accounts, and the GMail search engine has problems when there is a word preceding a number with no intervening space. If we search for emails with "CompSci 161" in the subject line and cannot find yours, we will not know it exists. If we do not know it exists we cannot answer it.
If you are posting a question of general interest, please post it on Ed Discussion instead

Ed Discussion question-and-answer forum

We will be using the Ed Discussion question-and-answer forum. Access to the Ed Discussion forum will be made available through the class Canvas space.
Although posters can hide their identity from other students, the instructor and the teaching assistants are able to determine the identity of posters.
The forum is intended as an open and respectful forum for the exchange of questions and answers about the class and the course material. Inappropriate, insulting, or offensive posts will not be tolerated. Such posts will be deleted, and may result in the suspension or termination of access to the forum. In extreme cases, offensive posts may be referred to other University entities for appropriate disciplinary action.

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty (cheating) is a serious offense in the eyes of the instructor, the instructional assistants, ICS, and the university. Incidents of academic dishonesty will usually result in your receiving a grade of F in the course and not being allowed to drop the course. Additional consequences may occur at the academic unit or campus level. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to:
- Copying from others during an examination
- Using unauthorized materials during an examination.
- Sharing answers or allowing another student to copy off your work during an examination.
- Tampering with an examination after it has been corrected, then returning it for more credit.
- Intentionally disrupting the educational process in any way.
For more complete information about academic honesty policies and procedures, consult the following resources:
- UCI Office of Academic Integrity & Student Conduct (OAISC) Manual on Academic Integrity for Students.
- UCI Academic Senate Policy on Academic Integrity. [The policy on Academic Integrity is Appendix VIII, which begins on page 173 and continues through page 182.]

Required Textbook

We will be using the online, web-based version of the textbook
- [GT] Algorithm Design and Applications, by Michael T. Goodrich and Roberto Tamassia, published by Zybooks.
You are required to subscribe to the book if you are enrolled in the class. The material in the book includes interactive exercises which will count as a small portion of your grade.
Here is a link to the instructions for subscribing to the book.
Copies of the book in traditional (non-Zybook) form are available in hard copy from the usual sources, and an online PDF is available for free.

Signing up for GradeScope

Here is a link to the instructions for signing up for GradeScope.

Additional resources

Optional additional reading:
- You may find the following books helpful as well. These are not required, but they may provide useful additional perspective and, in for some topics, more detailed coverage. I have requested that a copy of each of them be placed on reserve in the Science Library:
  - [BvG] Baase and van Gelder, Computer Algorithms, Addison-Wesley.
  - [KT] Kleinberg and Tardos, Algorithm Design, Addison Wesley.
  - [CLRS] Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein, Introduction to Algorithms, MIT Press.
Prerecorded lectures from previous quarters:
- Prerecorded lectures from previous quarters can be found on the class canvas page. Please note the following:
  - These prerecorded lectures are intended as a supplement to the in-class lectures, not as an alternative to or a substitute for attending the in-class lectures.
  - The material covered in the prerecorded lectures will overlap considerably with the in-class lectures, but it will not be identical. There will be topics covered in the in-class lectures that are not covered in the prerecorded lectures, and you will be responsible for these topics on exams.
  - On occasion I may explicitly assign you to watch one or more prerecorded lecture. If I do so, you will be responsible for the material covered on those specific prerecorded lectures.
  - I will not fix errors in the prerecorded lectures. Here is a list of known errors. If you think you have found an error, let me know, and once I have verified it I will add it to the list of known errors.

Grading

Based on two midterms, a final exam, an online self-assessment quiz on the prerequisite/introductory material, assigned readings in the online textbook, and online quizzes based on the homework assignments.
The individual components will be weighted as follows when computing the course grade. More information about each component can be found later in this section on "Grading."
- Test score (weighted average on midterms and final exam): 90%.
  - The test score will be computed as follows:
    - Midterm 1: 33%
    - Midterm 2: 33%
    - Final Exam: 34%
- Self-assessment quiz on the prerequisite/introductory material: 2%
- Homework/Homework Quizzes: 4%
- Readings in the online textbook: 4%
Midterms and Final:
- There will be two midterms.
- The midterms will be given Thursday of weeks 4 and 8.
- Makeup exams midterms will only be given in extraordinary and documentable circumstances, and only at the discretion of the instructor. If the circumstances are foreseeable in advance, notify me as far in advance as possible. Failure to do this may result your forfeiting your opportunity to take a makeup.
- The final exam will be given during finals week, in the time period designated by the registrar.
- Here is a link to more information about the midterms and the final exam, including exact dates and times.
Self-assessment quiz on the prerequisite/introductory material:
- Here is a link to more information about the prerequisite/introductory material.
- This quiz is to be taken online, on GradeScope.
  - Here is a link to instructions for signing up for GradeScope.
- The quiz will be released on or before Friday, April 3 (end of week 1).
- To receive credit, you must take the quiz by 11:59 PM on Monday, April 6.
- The quiz will be autograded.
- Since this is a self-assessment quiz, you will receive credit for taking the quiz by the deadline, irrespective of your score.
- If you do poorly on the self-assessment quiz, you are strongly encouraged to drop the class, study the prerequisite/introductory material, and take the class after you have learned this material.
- Note that the midterms and the final exam may contain questions specifically testing your knowledge of the prerequisite/introductory material.
Homework and Homework quizzes:
- There will be weekly homework assignments. The homework assignments will be posted on GradeScope. The homework assignments will not be collected or graded.
- For each assignment, there will be a recommended date and time by which the assignment should be completed.
- After the recommended completion time of each homework assignment, there will be an online quiz (on GradeScope) about the homework. You will have a fixed window of time in which to complete the homework quiz. The homework quiz questions will be easy to answer if you have successfully completed the corresponding homework assignment
- The first homework quiz will be given during week 2. More information will be announced during the first week of classes.
- Your lowest homework quiz score will be dropped.
  - A consequence of this policy is that if you do not submit a homework quiz in the time window and hence receive a zero on it, this homework quiz score will be dropped. This means that failing to complete one homework quiz will not negatively impact your grade as long as you do well on all the other homework quizzes.
Reading Assignments:
- There will be reading assignments from the online Zybook textbook.
- In each section you are assigned to read, you will need to complete the Participation Activities.
- Generally there will be a reading assignment due one minute before the start of each lecture.
- You will be deemed to have satisfactorily completed the reading of a particular section if and only if the Zybook log says that you completed all Participation Activities in the section by the deadline.
- Here is a link to the Reading assignment page.

Class Notes:

The class notes consist of the slides used in the lectures.
Other material may be added to the class notes page over the course of the quarter.
A link to the class notes can be found in the class Canvas space.

Homework Assignments

The homework assignments will be posted on GradeScope. After the recommended completion date of each assignment, and after the due date of the associated homework quiz if there is one, the solutions will be posted on GradeScope.
Here are a few thought and suggestions on how to get the most value out of doing the homework problems.

Reading Assignments

Reading assigment page: Here is a link to the Reading assignment page.

List of topics:

Here is a link to a preliminary, prospective list of topics.
Here is a link to a retrospective list of topics that were covered in each lecture.

Last modified: March 27, 2026