COP 3503H CS II Honors

Fall 2025

Prof. Joseph J. LaViola Jr.

BA1 0110 TTh 9:00am - 10:15am

Welcome to COP 3503H! -- Midterm Exam is posted.

Course Syllabus and Info

Some Lecture Notes courtesy of Arup Guha

Date Lecture Description Readings Assignments Resources
8/19/25

Introduction
   -course mechanics
   -role of algorithms
   -role of analysis

Getting Started
   - Insertion Sort

 Cormen et al., Chapter 1
Cormen et al., Chapter 2, pgs. 17-34
Insertion Sort Applet
8/21/25

Getting Started
   - Merge Sort

 Cormen et al., Chapter 2, pgs. 34-48
Merge Sort Animation 1
Merge Sort Animation 2
8/26/25

Mathematical Preliminaries
   -summations
   -logarithms and exponents

Growth of Functions
   -theta notation
   -big and little o notation
   -big and little omega notation

 Cormen et al., Appendix A,C,D
Cormen et al., Chapter 3

8/28/25

Solving Recurrences
   -iteration method
   -substitution method
   -master method

 Cormen et al., Chapter 4, pgs. 90-107
 Homework 1
9/2/25

Divide and Conquer
   -matrix multiplication
   -Strassen's algorithm

 Cormen et al., Chapter 4, pgs. 80-90

9/4/25

Heap Sort
   -Heap property
   -Building a heap
   -Priority Queues

 Cormen et al., Chapter 6
HeapSort Applet 1
9/9/25

QuickSort
   - randomized partitioning
   - average case analysis

 Cormen et al., Chapter 7
QuickSort Applet 1
QuickSort Applet 2
9/11/25

Linear time sorting
   - counting sort
   - radix sort
   - bucket sort

 Cormen et al., Chapter 8 Homework 2
 Counting Sort Applet
Bucket Sort Applet
Radix Sort Applet
9/16/25

Order statistics
   - minimum/maximum
   - selection

 Cormen et al., Chapter 9

9/18/25

Dynamic Programming
   - rod cutting
   - matrix chain mutliplication

 Cormen et al., Chapter 14, pgs. 362-382 Homework 3
 Matrix Chain Animation
9/23/25

Dynamic Programming
   - longest common subsequence

 Cormen et al., Chapter 14, pgs. 393-399
LCS applet
9/25/25

Dynamic Programming
   - optimal binary search tree

 Cormen et al., Chapter 14, pgs. 400-406 Homework 4
9/30/25

Dynamic Programming
   - optimal BST cont'd
   - finishing up

 Cormen et al., Chapter 14, pgs. 382-392

10/2/25

Greedy Algorithms
   - Activity Selection

 Cormen et al., Chapter 15, pgs. 417-425 Midterm exam
10/7/25

Greedy Algorithms
   - elements of greedy strategy
   - Huffman codes

 Cormen et al., Chapter 15, pgs. 426-439
Huffman Code Applet
10/9/25

Elementary Graph Algorithms
   - breadth first search
   - depth first search

 Cormen et al., Chapter 20, pgs. 549-572
BFS Applet
DFS Applet
10/14/25

Elementary Graph Algorithms
   - strongly connected components

Minimum Spanning Trees
   - constucting a MST

 Cormen et al., Chapter 20,21 pgs. 573-591
Con nected Component Applet
10/16/25

Minimum Spanning Trees
   - Kruskal's algorithm
   - Prim's algorithm

 Cormen et al., Chapter 21, pgs. 591-597 Homework 5
 Kruskal Applet
Prim Applet