15-418/15-618: Parallel Computer Architecture and Programming, Spring 2022: Exams

Exam Format

• This semester's exams will be conducted as a take-home tests.
• You will prepare your answers, using the answer form that you can obtain in either PDF or TeX format.
• Here are example instructions that will accompany the exam (from last Spring; ignore dates and other details).
  • They describe a very strict set of policies regarding what resources you may use at what forms of communication you can have about the exam.
  • When you submit the exam, you will be required to sign the following pledge:

    “ I do hereby swear that, in generating my answers to this exam, I made use of only the resources explicitly listed in the exam document. I did not have any communication of any form with anyone other than the course instructors and teaching assistants about the contents of this exam. ”

  • You will be given 48 hours to complete the exam, i.e., until 4pm EST of the following Friday.
    • If there is some reason you do not believe you will be able to make this deadline, you must inform us by the Tuesday before the exam and get an explicit waiver from us.
    • Be sure to read the protocol for requesting clarifications or additional information. These requests must be made within the first 24 hours of the exam.
    • The exam will be designed so that someone with complete preparation can complete it in two hours. We are allowing 48 hours only to provide more flexibility, and to account for the fact that students may be operating in different time zones.

Exam Schedule

• Exam 1: Released Thu Feb. 24 at noon, Due Sat Feb 26 at 11:59 pm EST
  • Coverage: Lectures up through Monday, Feb. 21
  • Study aids:
    • Be sure you have studied and understand the official solutions to exercises/written assignments.
    • Here is a practice exam, based on questions from previous exams, and here is the solution. These are only a representative sample of the types of problems you may encounter. You might find the exercises a more reliable indicator of the test coverage.
    • Here is the first exam from Spring 2021 plus a clarification. Here is the solution.
• Exam 2: Wednesday, April 13
  • Coverage: All lectures through Friday, April 8, with emphasis on material covered since Monday, Feb 21.
  • Study aids:
    • Review the problems of Exercises F, G, H, and I and their solutions carefully.
    • Here is the Exam 2 from Spring 2019 and Spring 2020 (plus clarifications). You should attempt to fully solve the exam problems before looking at the solutions.
    • Here is the Spring 2019 Exam 2 solution.