University of Wisconsin-Madison

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• For the final, we recommend reviewing the following practice problems with check these solutions. as well as this practice Exam here with answers (skip the last problem). During our review time we will go over this practice exam (again, skip the last problem). Remember that you also need to remember P vs NP in this part of the course (which had sample questions on the two sample exams below).
• The review for the 202 Final Exam is Monday (12/17) from 2:00-4:00 pm in CS 1207.
• Poll for you to specify review time preferences on Monday, 12/17.
• Your next deadline for the final project is Tuesday 11/27 at 5pm. Use this web form to let us know who you will be working with.
• Your final programming project is ready for you!
• Homework 9 is available and due Monday 11/19. The assignment is all about programming in Python; mostly using Strings, Lists, and Dictionaries.
• Exam 2 will be held Thursday Nov 15 from 5:30 - 7:00 in CS 1325. To help you prepare for Exam 2 on Thursday, two practice exams are available: ONE and TWO. The answers to practice one are also available; of course, we strongly recommend that you try to answer the questions yourself before looking at the solutions. Note that the practice exams cover a small amount of additional material that we will see next Tuesday (P vs NP algorithms). Ignore the note about the practices being too long since you will have 1.5 hours for your exam.
• Homework 8 is available and due Friday 11/9. You will demonstrate your understanding of computational complexity and insertion and selection sorts. You will also start playing with Python!
• Homework 7 is available and due Friday 11/2. You will demonstrate your understanding of binary search, explore chatbots, and create a music recording program in Scratch.
• Homework 6 is available and due Wednesday 10/24. You will use Lists, lists, and more lists.
• The questions from Exam 1 are posted (mostly in case you want to look at the scripts in the Appendix).
• Homework 5 is available and due Monday 10/15. You will explore large amounts of data in three different ways.
• BYOL Day: Thursday, October 11th is Bring Your Own Laptop day. We will be learning about Lists.
• Solutions to Homework 4 Parts B and C
• Congrats to Lauren Buswell and Joshua Warwick for their bizarrely interesting interactive stories!
• To help you prepare for Exam 1 on Thursday, TWO practice exams are available: one and two. We will go over this practice on Thursday. All of the check-up questions from previous lectures have also been collected here.
• Homework 4 is available and d.e Monday 10/1. You will create a Math-Drill Game and show you understand Variables and Concurrency.
• Congrats to Stephen Sheen and Henry Klein for their amazing art!
• Solutions to Part B (Code Challenges) of Homework 2.
• BYOL Day: Thursday, September 20th is Bring Your Own Laptop day. We will be learning about Variables.
• Homework 3 to create an interactive story and explore recommendation systems is due Monday, Sept 24 at 5pm.
• Homework 2 to create a drawing in Scratch and solve Code Challenges is due Monday, Sept 17 at 5pm.
• BYOL Day: Tuesday, September 11th, is Bring Your Own Laptop Day. Please install Scratch 1.4 ahead of time.
• HW 1: Remember to friend the TWO TAs (Ben and Sharad on the Scratch website. Also, you only need to play TWO games-with-a-purpose (and not three).
• The first homework is a very straight-forward warm-up; most students find it fun. This homework is due very early in the semester (the first Friday at 5pm) so that you get started quickly!
• If you have any questions about this course, please feel free to mail the instructor.

Overview

The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. -- Richard Wesley Hamming

Computation is revolutionizing our lives, changing how we play, work, learn, and communicate. CS 202 gives all majors an introduction to the fundamentals of computation. This course, like the field of Computer Science in general, is more than just the study of how to use computers.

The Honors version of CS 202 will be limited to 25 students in order to encourage more in-depth class discussions. This section of the course will allow students to design and create more open-ended projects and receive additional feedback. In addition to programming in Scratch, students in the Honors version will also use Python to manipulate and transform images.

In this course, students will:

1. Design and implement creative applications involving art, animation, music, stories, and games. Computer science is a creative endeavor in which you can design, develop, and implement your own ideas. To obtain hands-on experience, students use a programming environment called Scratch. Scratch enables beginners to create sophisticated programs by simply dragging and dropping predefined instruction blocks. Thus, students acquire experience decomposing problems into well-defined steps without the fear of frustrating ``syntax'' errors.
2. Understand how computers solve difficult problems. This course explores algorithms which are step-by-step methods for accomplishing a complex task. Understanding how to solve problems in a step-by-step fashion is useful for more people than just computer scientists. Algorithms specify the work that must be done for large, complex tasks like sequencing the human genome, indexing and searching for web pages, finding a path out of a maze, or solving a rubix cube. In this course, students investigate the types of problems we know how to solve with computation and compare different algorithms that solve the same problem.
3. Learn how computers work. Students will learn how modern computers perform computation by covering hardware and software topics. Students will understand low-level topics such as how data is stored and how instructions are executed as well as high-level topics such as how to find web pages.
4. See a range of areas within computer science, including security, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

   CS 202 can be used to satisfy the Quantitative Reasoning A (QR-A) and Natural Sciences requirements. CS 202 can also be used as part of a certificate in Computer Sciences. CS 202 is also part of a pilot study to create a new AP course about Computer Science Principles.

   Please see the links along the left-hand side of this page for more information about the course.