Software Engineering (CSE 403), Autumn 2026

Software engineering goes well beyond programming. It includes processes from defining a product to shipping and maintaining that product. Software engineering requires strong technical skills, but also strong teamwork and communication skills. Get ready to learn software engineering principles first hand, improve your technical skills, and ship a product.

Meetings

Lectures: Mon/Wed/Fri 12:30pm-1:20pm (G10)
Team meetings: Tue 1:30pm-2:20pm (G10)
Project meetings: Thu 1:30pm-2:20pm (G10)

Staff

Please send all general inquiries to cse403-staff(at)cs.washington.edu

Instructor: Michael Ernst <mernst@cs>; OH: immediately after class and by appointment
Magnus Fulton <mjfulton@cs>; OH: by appointment
Tijana Minić <tminic@cs>; OH: by appointment
Nina Uchtmann <ninaucht@cs>; OH: by appointment
Lucas Varotto <lvarotto@cs>; OH: by appointment
Yuki Yang <yukyang@cs>; OH: by appointment

If necessary, you can provide anonymous feedback.

To request an appointment, send an email listing several times you are available.

Communication

Course project

Overview (markdown)

Syllabus

Course description

In this course, students learn software engineering principles, techniques, and tools, and students gain practical experience with them. Topics in this course include requirements analysis, specification, design, abstraction, programming style, testing, maintenance, communication, teamwork, and software project management. The practical experience centers on a quarter-long team project, in which a software development project is carried through all the stages of the software life cycle. Particular emphasis is placed on communication skills and on developing maintainable software. In-class activities further provide a hands-on experience in using state-of-the-art techniques and tools.

Prerequisites

CSE 331
CSE 332

Course format

The class meets three times a week for lectures. Additionally, individual groups meet twice a week during section (Tuesday and Thursday) for team and project meetings. The Tuesday and Thursday meetings are required. All class meetings are in-person. Classroom material is enhanced with assigned readings and in-class activities. A major component of the course is teamwork on a group project. Individual contributions include reading assignments, peer review, and participation.

Grading

Grades will be based on a group project, in-class exercises, assignments, and participation:

45%: Group project (project milestones: 70%; final project review: 30%)
20%: In-class exercises and assignments
20%: Exams
15%: Participation

Late policy

Assignments must be submitted on Canvas by the due date and time. Unless otherwise noted, all times are given in PDT (Pacific Time). The submission site remains open for 24 hours after the deadline. Assignments submitted within 24 hours after the deadline will incur a 20% penalty. Assignments will not be accepted after the submission site is closed.

You can find the general course policies here.

Schedule

Date	Topic	Materials	Readings	Assignments

09/30	Introduction	Slides (4-up)		Pitch pairs (due 10/01) Project pitch (due 10/06)
10/01	Project pitch work			Due: Pitch pairs
10/02	The Joel Test	Slides (4-up)	Joel Test Joel Test: 20 years later

10/05	Software development life cycle	Slides (4-up)	What is Agile? Agile vs. traditional Test-driven development
10/06	Scrum and teams	Slides (4-up)	Learn Scrum	Due: Project pitch
10/07	Requirements and use cases	Slides (4-up)	Use Cases 1 Use Cases 2 User Scenarios	Project preferences (due 10/07) Team setup (due 10/08)
10/08	Project group forming			Due: Team setup Requirements (due 10/13)
10/09	In-class activity

10/12	In-class activity
10/13	Team meeting			Due: Requirements
10/14	Architecture	Slides (4-up)		Architecture & Design (due 10/20)
10/15	Project meeting
10/16	Design and style	Slides (4-up)

10/19	Data modelling	Slides (4-up)	ER Modeling exercise
10/20	Team meeting			Due: Architecture & Design
10/21	Best practices	Slides (4-up)		Testing & CI (due 10/27)
10/22	Project meeting
10/23	Version control and Git	Slides (4-up)	SW design theory; Git case study (Sections 1-6)

10/26	Build systems	Slides (4-up)
10/27	Team meeting			Due: Testing & CI
10/28	Testing and CI	Slides (4-up)		Beta Release (due 11/03)
10/29	Project meeting
10/30	In-class exercise (Git)			In-class: Git (due 10/30)

11/02	Test automation	Slides (4-up)	Automated testing in practice
11/03	Team meeting			Due: Beta Release
11/04	Coverage-based testing	Slides (4-up)	Code coverage at Google	Refinement (due 11/10)
11/05	Project meeting
11/06	In-class exercise (Code defenders)			In-class: Code defenders (due 11/06)

11/09	Mutation-based testing	Slides (4-up)	Mutation testing efficacy Mutation testing at scale Mutation testing in code review
11/10	Team meeting			Due: Refinement
11/11	*No class (Veterans Day)*			Peer Review (due 11/17)
11/12	Project meeting
11/13	In-class exercise (Testing)			In-class: Testing (due 11/13)

11/16	Debugging	Slides (4-up)	Delta Debugging
11/17	Team meeting			Due: Peer Review
11/18	SE and Code Review at Scale (Shauvik Roy Choudhary, Uber)			Users (due 11/24)
11/19	Project meeting
11/20	In-class exercise (Debugging)			In-class: Debugging (due 11/20)

11/23	*Hack day*
11/24	Team meeting			Due: Users
11/25	Program analysis	Slides (4-up)		Final Release (due 12/01)
11/26	*No class (Thanksgiving)*
11/27	*No class (Native American Heritage Day)*

11/30	In-class exercise (AI-assisted coding)			In-class: GenAI (due 11/30)
12/01	Team meeting			Due: Final Release
12/02	Advanced program analysis	Slides (4-up)		Individual reflection (due 12/08)
12/03	Project meeting
12/04	Optional in-class exercise (Z3)			In-class: Z3 (due 12/04)