CSE 312: Foundations of Computing II, Autumn 2026

Announcements and Updates

Schedule

For future lectures, this is a tentative schedule. The exact contents are subject to change. Links to future materials may also be broken.

Week 1
Topic
Week 1
Lecture 1
(Wed, Sept 30)
Introduction
So you think you can count?
slides
set theory review Reading: 1.1-1.2.1
PSet1 Out
Section 1
(Thu, Oct 1)
Counting practice
materials
Lecture 2
(Fri, Oct 2)
Combinations and Binomial Coefficients
slides Reading: 1.2.2-1.3.1
Week 2
Lecture 3
(Mon, Oct 5)
Inclusion-Exclusion, Pigeonhole Principle and More
slides Reading: 1.3
Lecture 4
(Wed, Oct 7)
Discrete Probability
slides Reading: 2.1
PSet2 Out PSet1 Due
Section 2
(Thu, Oct 8)
Probability problems
materials
Lecture 5
(Fri, Oct 9)
Conditional Probability
Bayes Theorem
slides Reading: 2.2
Week 3
Lecture 6
(Mon, Oct 12)
Bayesian Inference & Independence
slides Reading: 2.3
Lecture 7
(Wed, Oct 14)
Intro to Random Variables & Expectation
slides Reading: 3.1
PSet3 Out PSet2 Due
Section 3
(Thu, Oct 15)
Conditional Probabilities, Chain rule
materials Naive Bayes Slides
Lecture 8
(Fri, Oct 16)
Linearity of Expectation
slides Reading: 3.1.3-3.2.1
Week 4
Lecture 9
(Mon, Oct 19)
Variance
Independence of RVs
slides Reading: 3.2.2-3.3
Lecture 10
(Wed, Oct 21)
Bloom Filters
slides Reading: 3.4, 9.4
PSet3 Due PSet4 Out
Section 4
(Thu, Oct 22)
Discrete Random Variables
materials
Lecture 11
(Fri, Oct 23)
Zoo of Discrete RVs
slides Reading: 3.4-3.5, 9.4
Week 5
Lecture 12
(Mon, Oct 26)
Poisson RVs
slides Reading: 3.5-3.6
Lecture 13
(Wed, Oct 28)
Continuous RV Basics
Uniform RVs
slides Reading: 4.1-4.2.1 PSet4 Due
Section 5
(Thu, Oct 29)
Discrete Zoo Practice
materials
Lecture 14
(Fri, Oct 30)
Expectation & Variance of Continuous RVs
Exponential RVs
slides Reading: 4.2.1-4.2.3
Week 6
Lecture 15
(Mon, Nov 2)
Normal Distribution
Central Limit Theorem
slides Reading: 4.3, 5.7
Midterm
(Wed, Nov 4)
Midterm
PSet5 Out
Section 6
(Thu, Nov 5)
Continuous RVs
materials
Lecture 16
(Fri, Nov 6)
Application: Polling
slides Reading: 5.7
Week 7
Lecture 17
(Mon, Nov 9)
Continuity correction
Application: Distinct Elements
slides Reading: 5.7.4, 9.5
(Wed, Nov 11)
No Lecture: Veterans Day
Section 7
(Thu, Nov 12)
Central Limit Theorem
Joint Distributions
materials
Lecture 18
(Fri, Nov 13)
Joint Distributions
slides
Reading: 5.1-5.3
PSet6 Out PSet5 Due
Week 8
Lecture 19
(Mon, Nov 16)
Joint Distributions
Tail Bounds: Markov's Inequality
slides Reading: 5.3-5.4, 6.1
Lecture 20
(Wed, Nov 18)
Chebyshev's Inequality
Chernoff Bounds
slides Reading: 6.1-6.2
PSet6 Due PSet7 Out
Section 8
(Thu, Nov 19)
Tail Bounds
materials
Lecture 21
(Fri, Nov 20)
Chernoff Bound
Union Bound
slides Reading: 6.2, 6.3.1
Week 9
Lecture 22
(Mon, Nov 23)
Maximum Likelihood Estimation
slides Reading: 7.1-7.2
Lecture 23
(Wed, Nov 25)
Maximum Likelihood Estimation
continued
slides Reading: 7.1-7.2
PSet8 Out PSet7 Due
(Thu, Nov 26)
No Section: Thanksgiving Holiday
(Fri, Nov 27)
No Lecture: Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 10
Lecture 24
(Mon, Nov 30)
Markov Chains
slides Reading: 9.6
Lecture 25
(Wed, Dec 2)
Markov Chains + PageRank
slides Reading: 9.6 PSet9 Out PSet8 Due
Section 9
(Thu, Dec 3)
MLE
materials
Lecture 26
(Fri, Dec 4)
Differential Privacy
slides Reading: Dwork-Roth book
Week 11
Lecture 27
(Mon, Dec 7)
Information Theory
slides
Lecture 28
(Wed, Dec 9)
Informtion Theory & Victory Lap
slides slides
Section 10
(Thu, Dec 10)
Review
materials
Lecture 29
(Fri, Dec 11)
TBD
PSet9 Due
Final Exam
(Mon, Dec 14)
The final exam is scheduled at 12:30-2:20 pm: Section A in BAG 131, Section B in BAG 154.

This course website heavily follows the example of the website of CSE373 2019 Spring.