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CMU 15-112: Syllabus
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| Lecture3/4 |
Lecture3/4 is a special invitation-only experimental version of 112.
All 112 students had the entirely-optional opportunity to engage in
semi-self-study over
winter break (with some TA-led office hours and piazza support). Students
who made substantial progress
are eligible to opt-in to lecture3/4 (on a form we posted to such
students). Students who were not eligible or did not opt-in will
be in lecture1/2 as normal. But those who are eligible and opted-in will
be in lecture3/4 this semester.
Some additional important details:
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| Winter Break Credit | Students who made the required progress to be eligible for lecture3/4 completed a substantial amount of work over winter break. We will count this work towards your semester grade in the form of several homework assignments. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Covid |
Almost all required lecture3/4 events will be taught in-person. Due to covid,
however, this continues to be a time of flux for all of CMU.
Bear in mind the following:
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| Time Zone |
Unless otherwise stated, all times in all course-related documents and correspondence will be in Pittsburgh time (ET). Note that Autolab in particular may show times in your local time, but our course website uses Pittsburgh-time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous Versions |
Previous versions of 15-112: F22-3, S22-3, S22, F21, S21, F20, S20, F19, S19, F18, S18, F17, S17, F16, S16, F15, S15, F14, S14, F13, S13, F12, S12, F11, S11, F10, S10, F09, S09, F08, S08, F07 Some Previous Summers: N21, M20, N19, M19, N18, M18, M12, APEA-09, APEA-08 |
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| Description | A technical introduction to the fundamentals of programming with an emphasis on producing clear, robust, and reasonably efficient code using top-down design, informal analysis, and effective testing and debugging. Starting from first principles, we will cover a large subset of the Python programming language, including its standard libraries and programming paradigms. This course assumes no prior programming experience. Even so, it is a fast-paced and rigorous preparation for 15-122. Students seeking a more gentle introduction to computer science should consider first taking 15-110. NOTE: students must achieve a C or better in order to use this course to satisfy the pre-requisite for any subsequent Computer Science course. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning Objectives |
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
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| Topic List and Schedule |
See the topic list and schedule here (includes schedule of homeworks, quizzes, and exams). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Schedule of Classes: |
Important notes:
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| Lecture Flow: |
While there will be exceptions, this is the general flow of lectures (note
that all lectures and recitations are required):
Tue Lecture (80 minutes)
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| Office Hours and More |
Instructor Open Office Hours:
Lecture3/4 will have its own TA office hours. These will generally be in-person, though we may add remote OH as needed (perhaps due to covid restrictions, should they arise). You should attend lecture3/4 office hours for homework questions or Fix-its. Note that you should not attend lecture1/2 office hours. Please be sure to join the "15-112 Lecture3/4" OH queue (rather than the lecture1/2 OH queue), and join the zoom link in the Lecture3/4 Zoom Links spreadsheet if office hours are remote.
Lecture1/2 TA Office Hours: You should only attend lecture3/4 OH. Please do not attend lecture1/2 OH. Piazza Virtual Office Hours: Lecture3/4 will also have its own piazza. Please use lecture3/4's piazza and not lecture1/2's piazza. Large-Group Sessions: Lecture3/4 will have its own large-group sessions. Please use lecture3/4's large-group sessions. You may also attend the Optional/Advanced Lecture if there is one that week, or (in addition to your own recitation) the Spicy Recitation for lecture1/2 if you would like. See the lecture1/2 syllabus for details.
(**) Note that zoom links for remote large groups will be in the zoom links spreadsheet. |
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| Required Software: |
There is no required textbook for this course. We will primarily use
the CMU CS Academy notes and resources instead.
You should have a computer (ideally a laptop), however it does not need to be very new or powerful. We recommend an Apple or Windows laptop, though common distributions of Linux (such as Ubuntu) will also work. Chromebooks will also work with CMU CS Academy, though may not work with other Python graphics packages. Please email the course faculty if you cannot reasonably access a computer. Every required software package we use is available for free on the web. This includes:
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| Course Requirements: |
Participation with earnest effort in this course is required and consists of the following activities:
Responsiveness is required. You need to monitor your andrew email and respond to course-related emails promptly, preferably the same day and in any case within two days. Also, you must read all Piazza posts carefully. You are responsible for knowing this information, including any changes or additions to policies, deadlines, etc. Important Note: failure to satisfy these course requirements will result in deductions in your semester grade, up to and including course failure, at the sole discretion of the course faculty. |
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| Grading: |
Lecture3/4 will use these weights and policies for semester grades:
Exam Policy: There are three (3) exams -- 2 midterms and 1 final. Your lowest exam score is dropped -- except if you take the final, it cannot be dropped. This also means that you can entirely skip one exam (unexcused) if you wish. For most of you, this would likely be the final exam, which due to this policy is optional (though, again, if you opt to take the final, then it cannot be dropped). Midsemester and Semester grades will be assigned using a standard scale, as will each homework, quiz, midterm, term project, and final, as such: A: 90 - 100 B: 80 - 89 C: 70 - 79 D: 60 - 69 R: 0 - 59 Note that graduate students will be assigned +'s and -'s according to the following scale (generalized across letter grades): B-: [80-83) B: [83-87) B+: [87-90) The course instructor may choose to change the scales at their discretion. You are guaranteed that your letter grade will never be lowered as a result of changing scales. |
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| Homework: |
Hw Due Date and Time: Homework assignments are generally due Friday at 11:59pm Pittsburgh-time, as listed in the course schedule. Solo Hw: Homeworks are entirely solo unless the assignment very explicitly allows you to collaborate. See the "Academic Integrity" section below for more details. That said, you always have access to extensive help provided by the TA's and course faculty. CS Academy Lecture3/4 homework is on the CS Academy website. Each CS Academy assignment has a required number of "stars" listed like this: "Section Exercises: ⭐ 0 / 11." If you complete fewer than the required number of stars, you will receive a score equal to the percentage of required stars you completed. For example, if there are 16 required stars and you complete 8, you will receive 50%. If you complete all of the required stars you will receive 100% on the assignment. Each star you complete over the required number is worth 0.5 percentage points of bonus on the assignment. Thus, if there are 16 required stars and you complete 19, you will receive a 101.5% on the assignment. Hw Code Reviews: Some subset of the assigned hw's will include a "code review", sometimes between you and a TA, other times between yourself and a small group of other students (these are called "peer code reviews"). In these sessions, you will discuss the quality of your code, and in a peer review you will also discuss the quality of your peers' code -- regarding its design, algorithms, style, user interface, and perhaps more. Code reviews are an invaluable tool used in industry to help software professionals become all the more effective at their craft. Our code reviews share the same purpose. For hw's that have code reviews, they are worth 10% of that hw, and your grade is entirely based on your thoughtful, active, fully-engaged participation. Hw Grace Days A grace day is a penalty-free hw extension day, intended to give you some flexibility in hw deadlines. You may use up to 2 grace days on any given hw, and up to 4 total grace days over the entire semester. Note that excused absences and other excused extensions do not count towards your grace day total. You do not sign up for grace days. Instead, you simply keep working on a hw after the original deadline, for up to 2 additional days. Then, each Monday, we will automatically assign your ideal use of grace days for all hw's up to that point. Note that a hw may at first use a grace day or two, only to have that change later in the semester if a later hw would earn more total points for you by using those grace days. In any case, we will always assign grace days to optimize your total points. In this way, you can safely work for a short while past a hw deadline if necessary, without worrying about whether you should save grace days that you may need later in the semester. On the other hand, since you only have 4 total grace days, you should in general try to actually meet the hw deadlines, and only plan on using grace days to provide a small bit of deadline flexibility for you as needed. Green-Check Errors Sometimes we will cover CS Academy exercises in lecture or recitation, and then we will give you "green-check credit" for attending (and paying careful attention, of course). If for any reason you did not fill out the attendance form for a day you attended, and thus did not receive green-check credit for that day, contact Lynn (lckim@andrew.cmu.edu) (one of our Head TA's) immediately. If we approve your request, you will get "green-check credit" on the date of the request (and not the original date of the lecture or recitation). This may result in you using a grace day or two, or if it is more than two days after a homework deadline, simply not receiving credit for these exercises. Thus:
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| "Fix-Its": |
Most quizzes this semester will include "fix-its". Fix-its allow you to earn back some partial points that you lost on quizzes by studying and fixing your errors on FR's (Free Responses). Note that fix-its only apply to Free Responses (FR's) and not Code Tracing or other Short Answers. Some more details for quizzes that include Fix-Its:
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| Attendance Forms: |
It is an AIV (Academic Integrity Violation) to share an attendance form link
with anyone who is not in attendance. It is also an AIV to fill out an
attendance form for an event that you did not attend, or that you attended
only in part and were not present when we filled out the attendance form.
In general, attendance is based on attendance forms. If you attend, but are not listed in the attendance form, then you will not get credit for attending, no exceptions. Attendance forms are due when the form is posted, during the event. You may not fill out the form after the event, again no exceptions. If for some reason you cannot fill out the form at the event, then you must contact a TA or course faculty immediately at that time to resolve the issue. We will not update attendance forms after events. |
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| Academic Integrity: |
Philosophy: We begin by choosing to trust each of you individually. Do not be one of the few who loses that trust. If you cheat, expect to be caught, and expect significant consequences. Use common sense and understand these rules. These rules are meant to convey the spirit of our academic integrity expectations. For example, when we say "do not copy" we always mean visually, verbally, electronically, or in any other way, even if you copy and modify it. We additionally expect you to uphold CMU's more general academic integrity standards. Attempting to exploit technicalities simply reduces our assurance that you fully learned from the mistake. If you are unsure of something, you only need to ask us beforehand. If you do this and strive to understand the intent of this policy and exercise common sense, you have nothing to worry about. Generally, examples of academic integrity violations include but are not limited to:
Unless otherwise noted, all homework exercises are solo, meaning that you must not collaborate or discuss them with anyone in any way. Note that 'anyone' includes but is not limited to other past, present, or future students, friends, parents, siblings, tutors, etc. Remember: you always have access to extensive help provided by the TA's and course faculty. We strongly encourage you to use this support! Note: If at any point we offer a hw solution session, you may not turn in an assignment after attending/watching any part of its solution session, even with an extension or grace day. Term Project: Details about the term project will be added here later this semester. Assessments (Quizzes and Exams): Examples of cheating on assessments (Quizzes and Exams) include but are not limited to:
If you are repeating 112, your prior work in this course is treated just as anyone else's work. Consulting or copying your prior homework answers or term project solutions will only hurt your learning, and will be treated as an academic integrity violation. Plagiarism Detector: Programs are naturally structured, which makes them very easy to compare. Here is a short video demonstrating one of several automated detection methods we use on every assignment. In short: if you copy (or even reference code), including work from prior semesters, we will be able to tell. Penalties: Course penalties are decided by the course faculty, and vary based on the severity of the offense. Offenses can be severe even if the assignment/assessment is worth very few points (for example, cheating during a quiz). Possible penalties include:
Penalties may also be accompanied by a report to the Dean of Student Affairs and/or the Office of Community Standards and Integrity. This can lead to additional university-level penalties, such as being suspended or expelled. University policy states that you generally may not drop the course if you have an academic integrity violation. Honesty: To end this section on a more positive note, you should know that we put a high premium on honesty. If you get into an Academic Integrity situation, then the sooner and more completely you tell the entire truth, by far the better it is for you and for everyone else involved. The bottom line: If you regret a lapse in judgment, it is always better to let us know right away, to come clean and be honest and truthful. You will feel better about it, as will we, and it will probably result in a better outcome for you as well. |
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| Extensions and Excused Absences |
See the Forms page for this semester's
Extension and Excused Absences Request Form.
Here are the generally accepted reasons for approved extensions and excused absences from required course events (chiefly lectures and recitations):
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| Late Policy: | No late or make-up quizzes or exams will be administered, except in the cases covered under the Extensions policy. Approved missed quizzes will be excused; approved missed exams will be taken at the earliest possible date as approved by course faculty. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Regrade Requests: | We occasionally make mistakes while grading (we're only human!). If you believe that you found a mistake which you would like us to correct, please submit a regrade request using the form in the Forms page. Regrades must be requested within one week of the time when the contested grade was released. Note: regrade requests will result in the entire problem being regraded, not just the possibly-incorrectly-graded part and thus may result in perhaps lower grades. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recording: | Students may not record audio or video of lectures or recitations
or any other faculty-led or TA-led course events (online or in-person)
without explicit permission in writing from the instructor or the TA
in the instructor's absence. Exceptions will be granted in accordance with
university guidelines for accessibility concerns, but even then such recordings
may not be shared publicly or privately.
We may record certain large group events, and make these available to currently-enrolled students until the end of the semester. Camera policy: We request that you to keep your camera on during all remote events, as this will provide the best learning experience for you and your classmates. We suggest you use a virtual background if you are uncomfortable with your environment being visible to others. You may alternatively use a face-tracking virtual avatar if you wish. That being said, if you have accessibility or equity concerns that are not solved by either of these solutions, please let us know. For 1-on-1 meetings, assessment proctoring, or group events of 5 or fewer people, we do require your camera to be on unless you have approval from the attending TA or the course faculty. |
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| Accomm- odations: |
We gladly accommodate students with disability-related needs (as approved by the Office of Disability Resources (ODR), as explained here). If you are eligible for accommodations, please ensure that the Office of Disability Resources has sent us your Summary of Accommodations Memorandum within the first week or two of class. We will contact you within a few days of receiving this form with any relevant instructions for using your accommodations in 15-112. Please note: At the guidance of the University, we can only provide disability-related accommodations which have been explicitly approved by ODR and are on the most recent Summary of Accommodations Memorandum we have received. If you require accommodations that have not been approved by ODR, you should contact them as soon as possible. Also according to University guidance, we cannot retroactively apply your accommodations if we receive them from ODR later in the semester (for example, a modification on an assignment due before we received official approval of your accommodations). Extended Time: students who receive Office of Disability Resources (ODR) approved extended-time on assessments will be proctored either by ODR's testing center or the course staff, depending on ODR's capacity. The course faculty will email you with instructions for scheduling your assessments during Week 1, or upon receipt of your memorandum. In order to meet the logistical challenges of additional proctoring, we ask that you schedule extra-time assessments at least five days in advance. Extra-time assessments must take place on the same day as the in-class assessment unless otherwise approved by the course faculty. Important: to use extra time, you must sign up for a proctoring time outside of lecture with ODR (or you must attend the extra-time quiz or exam time if proctored by the course staff), and not the normal-duration quiz or exam. You do have the option of attending the normal-duration quiz or exam, but then you will have to complete it in the assigned time (without extra-time). If you plan to take an extended-time quiz, you do not need to be present in lecture until the standard-time quiz is over (usually in the first 20-25 minutes) We are here to help. If you have any questions or concerns relating to 15-112 and how we can best accommodate you during this unusual semester, please contact the course faculty and we will work together for your success. |
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| Auditing: | We have found that students who audit 15-112 do not tend to succeed, as they generally cannot dedicate the requisite time and focused discipline to the course. We must also strictly limit in-person events to ensure that we do not violate room capacities. Therefore, auditing will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, and must be approved by the course instructors first. Rather than auditing, in some cases you may take the course as Pass/Fail instead, which can be a better option in some cases (say, for graduate students who want to learn how to program but already have an over-full load of graduate courses). Note: you may not take the course Pass/Fail if you plan to use 15-112 as a prereq. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Waitlist: | If you are on the waitlist, we hope to get you into the class, but because of room restrictions, you may not attend in-person events without faculty approval, or once you are officially off the waitlist. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Diversity and Inclusion: |
It is our intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is our intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. Whether in education or industry, inclusive representation creates richer experiences and equips us to solve new and exciting challenges. As we begin the semester, we want you to know:
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| Well-being & Happiness: |
We care very much about your well-being and
happiness. Yes, CMU students (and faculty) work hard, sometimes very hard.
But we must keep our balance and always attend to our well-being and happiness.
That comes first, academics follow. Achieving a better grade is almost never a matter of putting in more time!
So be sure to get enough sleep, eat
right, exercise regularly, and attend to your well-being and happiness.
Also, please know that we do care about you and take your well-being seriously. We want to help you learn while minimizing stress. Meeting the learning goals of 15-112 necessitates significant effort and a fast pace, but do not fall in the trap of working endlessly, as this will only reduce your efficiency (and more importantly, your happiness and well-being). It is not necessary, expected, or something to be proud of. We can help you improve your efficiency and work less, not more. We also seek to minimize the workload as much as is possible, while still meeting the learning goals of the course. Finally, if you are feeling overly stressed, or anxious, or unhappy about your performance or your general experience in this course: please come talk to us. We will listen. We are here for you and we will try to help. Addendum: Here is a great summary of many CMU Student Support Services. |