Midterm Exam Details


Midterm Exam Materials

  • To Bring: pencil and eraser, UW student ID
  • Provided: midterm reference sheet, printed exam with white space for work, time keeping


Midterm Exam Topics

  • Memory, Data, and Addressing: pointers, endianness, data sizes, bitwise operators
  • Number Representation: binary, integers, floating point
  • x86-64 Topics: registers, instructions, control flow
  • Procedures and the Stack: stack structure, calling conventions, register conventions, recursion
  • Building and Executable: compiling, linking, loading

Some of the old exams contain questions on topics that we did not cover this quarter; you should skip over such questions.



Midterm Review Materials

The following document outlines the midterm format and provides a set of suggested problems to help prepare for the exam. Make sure you check the Errata from the textbook for all problems and solutions.

The following Midterm Review packet is from Autumn 2017. It has a collection of questions from past quarters that you may find useful as well



Past Midterm Exams

Older exams (prior to Autumn 2016) assume Intel's 32-bit architecture (IA-32), which differs from the x86-64 taught now, so some questions and/or answers will not make total sense and would not be correct for us.

IA-32 Questions: Spr 2015 1E, 2, 4, 6; Aut 2014 3A; Spr 2014 1B; Aut 2013 4, 5A; Sum 2013 3, 4F; Win 2013 2, 3, 4, 5; Aut 2012 2, 3, 4; Spr 2012 2; Win 2011 4, 8; Aut 2010 2, 3; Spr 2010 2, 3


Autumn 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2015
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2015
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2015
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2014
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2014
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Summer 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2012
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2012
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2011
Exam Solutions
Autumn 2010
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2010
Exam   |   Solutions

Final Exams


Final Exam Materials

  • To Bring: pencil and eraser, UW Student ID
  • Provided: final reference sheet, printed exam with white space for work, time keeping


Final Exam Additional Topics (cumulative)

  • Arrays and Structs: alignment, fragmentation, buffer overflow
  • Caching: locality, associativity, cache parameters and performance, AMAT
  • Processes: fork, execv, exceptions, context switching, zombies
  • Virtual Memory: paging, address translation, disk and swap space, protection and sharing
  • Dynamic Memory Allocation: fragmentation, free lists (implicit, explicit, segregated), garbage collection, memory bugs
  • C and Java: object representation, dynamic dispatch

Some of the old exams contain questions on topics that we did not cover this quarter; you should skip over such questions.



Final Review Materials

The following is a list of problems from past exams (and one from lecture) that will be used during Section 10 ("Final Review") and should be helpful when studying for the final exam.

  • QF7 from AU’17 final exam – Processes
  • Q4 (esp. d) from WI’17 final exam – Processes
  • QM1 from AU’17 final exam – Number Representation
  • Q2 from WI’17 final exam – Buffer Overflow
  • Lecture 21 (VM II) slides 18-27 – Virtual Memory
  • QF5 from AU’16 final exam – Caching
  • Q4 from WI'18 midterm exam – Procedures & The Stack
  • Q3 from SP’17 final exam – Virtual Memory

The following Final Review packet will be used in Section 10 ("Final Review") as well as the actual Final Review session.



Past Final Exams

Older exams (prior to Autumn 2016) assume Intel's 32-bit architecture (IA-32), which differs from the x86-64 taught now, so some questions and/or answers will not make total sense and would not be correct for us.

IA-32 Questions: Win 2015 1; Spr 2012 5; Aut 2010 4;


Autumn 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2017
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2016
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2015
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2015
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2014
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2014
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Summer 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Winter 2013
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2012
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2012
Exam   |   Solutions
Autumn 2010
Exam   |   Solutions
Spring 2010
Exam   |   Solutions