COMP2521 Notices

Week 5 Summary

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Friday 06 February 2026, 02:18:25 PM.

Hi everyone!

It's the last week of the course! Almost there. Putting this out a little early to make sure you get an update prior to the myExperience closing date.

Standard stuff:

• We covered the last couple of topics this week: heaps and tries, as well as running a revision session.
• In tutorials, we went over hashing, heaps, and tries. Solutions for all tutorials are now available.
• Lab marking for lab04 will be completed this coming Saturday for those without extensions, so take a look at that before the exam.
• Quiz 4 was due on Wednesday, but if you still haven't submitted, you have until Monday to do so (with late penalty).
• Assignments are now hopefully all submitted, but late submissions are allowed until Saturday 8pm, with the appropriate late penalty.

And finally, the exam is on Monday, the 9th of February. You should have received details for this already, but you can find your seating allocation on the WebCMS sidebar as well. Check the Exam Information page and get yourself ready.

Please fill in myExperience . This is the best way to let us know what needs to be improved,or what was good and should continue. Please be constructive in your feedback; I can't do anything with "the course sucked," but I can with "this particular part of the course should have included this." The survey is due tonight at midnight!

There is also an incentive for completing this, of a hint in the exam for a random programming question for 60% participation and every additional 10% beyond that. At the moment, the participation rate is only at 42% , so please fill it in if you haven't.

Good luck everyone!

Week 4 Summary

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Sunday 01 February 2026, 01:18:15 PM.

Hi everyone!

Today marks the end of week four, so here's a summary of the week and things to look out for:

• We only had one lecture day this week, covering the hash tables topic. We'll be covering heaps and tries this coming Monday, then on to revision.
• A reminder to fill in the revision topic form if you haven't already (found here ). This will inform what we go through on Tuesday during the revision lecture. Please be specific; I will not be covering entire topics or algorithms, as you can just check the slides for those, please tell me exactly what has you stuck.
• In tutorials, we went over traversal and various algorithms on graphs.
• In labs, we went over minimum spanning tree implementations. This will be the last lab for the term! Lab 3 automarking is also available for those without extensions. Those with extensions will be available next weekend.
• Quiz 3 is still technically able to be submitted, if you haven't already. Your last quiz of the term is also available, quiz 4, covering hash tables, heaps, and tries, due this coming Wednesday. You can take a look at last term's slides if you want to finish it early, but you'll have everything you need to finish it by tomorrow afternoon.
• Tutorial 5 is available now! Your last tutorial for the term
• Please fill in myExperience . This is the best way to let us know what needs to be improved,or what was good and should continue. Please be constructive in your feedback; I can't do anything with "the course sucked," but I can with "this particular part of the course should have included this." The survey is due Friday midnight.
  • There is also an incentive for completing this, of a hint in the exam for a random programming question for 60% participation and every additional 10% beyond that.
• Don't forget to submit your assignment! This is due tomorrow 8pm, so make sure you're on top of it, else you'll be eating into your final exam revision time.

Good luck everyone!

Week 5 Revision Topics and Exam Prep

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Tuesday 27 January 2026, 02:30:16 PM.

Hi everyone!

The sample exam and past exams have been released and are now available on WebCMS, alongside the currently available information for the exam. This will be updated as dates and locations are finalised. The exam information page also includes a link to the resources available in the exam environment. Please take a look at those.

If you have topics you would like to be covered in the week 5 revision lecture on Tuesday, please fill in this form . On Monday I will look through and prepare content based on it.

We're almost done with the course! Good luck with the assignment!

Week 3 Summary

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Sunday 25 January 2026, 12:35:04 PM.

Hi everyone!

Today marks the end of week three, so here's a summary of the week and things to look out for:

• In lectures, we went over the remaining part of the graphs topic, covering several algorithms. A lot of algorithms to remember so please take the time to look back over the slides and make sure you understand them all (and what they're called). We'll be looking at hash tables this coming week.
• A reminder that Monday (tomorrow) is a public holiday, so we will not have a lecture that day. Given our pace in the content, we shouldn't need a make-up lecture either, so it'll be a little bit of a break for everyone regarding content. Please take this as an opportunity to get yourself ready for the exam by revising!
• In tutorials, we went over tree balancing and graph representations.
• In labs, we went over working with graphs representations directly, in particular the adjacency list representation. Lab 2 automarks are also available for students without an extension. For those with an extension, we will run the marking next weekend. Lab 1 solutions are also now available. Lab 3 is due this coming Tuesday (I mistakenly said Monday in the last notice).
• Quiz 2 is still technically able to be submitted, if you haven't already. Quiz 3 is also available, covering graph algorithms, due this coming Wednesday.
• Tutorial 4 and Lab 4 are both available now, with the lab due Monday week 5. This is our final lab for the term!

If you haven't already started on the assignment (75% of the cohort...) please get started soon. The exam is right after week 5 so you will not have much time between rushing for the assignment and rushing to study.

Regardless, all the best!

Week 2 Summary

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Sunday 18 January 2026, 11:39:16 AM.

Hi everyone!

Today marks the end of week two, so here's a summary of the week and things to look out for:

• In lectures, we went over trees (BSTs, balancing, and AVL trees), an intro to graphs (representations), and the assignment. The assignment involves a lot of tree traversal so please make sure you get a handle on that before attempting the assignment. We'll be continuing on with the graphs topic this coming week.
• In tutorials, we went over sorting algorithms, ADTs, and BSTs. It's a lot of content so if you haven't already I suggest going through anything your tutor didn't during the tutorial, or anything you struggled with. Solutions for it are released so you can check your answers!
• In labs, we went over creating functions on binary search trees. Again, something you'll want to get familiar with for the assignment! Lab 1 marks are also available for students without an extension. For those with an extension, we will run the marking next weekend.
• Quiz 1 is still technically able to be submitted, if you haven't already. Quiz 2 is also available, covering BSTs and graph representations, due this coming Wednesday.
• Tutorial 3 and Lab 3 are both available now, with the lab due Monday week 4.
• As a reminder, Thursday the 22nd of January is the last day to drop without penalty.
• Finally, the assignment was released on Tuesday, even with CSE going down! Please be sure to give it a read as soon as possible so you can think about how to approach it as you go about your day. We've finished the trees topic so you should have everything you need to complete the assignment for the most part. Some of the stuff we'll be covering this coming week on graphs may help with stage 3, or more likely stage 4. Also, check the forum! We've had a few questions, and as more students start the assignment you might benefit from reading the related questions. Just to be clear, you do not have to start stage 0, then do stage 1, then do stage 2, etc.. I personally suggest tackling some of the easier parts of stage 1 first, to get the basics working (such as FsTree and FsMkdir) so you can play around with a bit of confidence. For those planning to tackle stage 3, you may want to consider how symbolic links will affect your previous stage function implementations before you start on them, but I suggest getting it working without symbolic links first, and just keeping in mind to design around symbolic links so you can add them in later without too much hassle. Also, implementing error handling might be deceptively tricky - it's not as simple as just exiting the program if something goes wrong for this assignment...

Also, there are several regions in and around Sydney currently flooding. I don't know if these will be fine by tomorrow, but a reminder that the lectures are livestreamed, so if it's not safe to travel, please stay home.

All the best!

Week 1 Summary

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Sunday 11 January 2026, 02:11:00 PM.

Hi everyone!

Today marks the end of week one, so here's a summary of the week and things to look out for:

• In lectures, we went over recursion, analysis of algorithms, and sorting algorithms. Please make sure you're comfortable with these, especially recursion as we will be doing the trees topic this coming week, which involves lots of it.
• In tutorials, we went over some revision (in the prelim tute), recursion, and analysis of algorithms. Sorting algorithms will be touched on during tutorials in the coming week.
• In labs, we went over debugging using sanitisers (in the prelim lab), and recursion. If you are interested in practicing your knowledge of analysis of algorithms and sorting algorithms, take a look at the Sort Detective extra lab. Although we don't use valgrind and gdb throughout this course (sanitisers are pretty good), there's also an extra lab on those if you're interested. Please remember to submit your lab by Monday.
• Quiz 0 is still technically able to be submitted, if you missed doing it, going over some admin stuff. As for content, Quiz 1 testing recursion, analysis of algorithms, and sorting is due Wednesday.
• Tutorial 2 and Lab 2 are both available now, with the lab due Monday week 3.
• Help session schedules are drafted for the term. There may be some minor adjustments throughout the term, so please check the schedule to make sure nothing has changed before you plan to attend. These are a great opportunity to get help throughout the week.
• Consults will be held 2-3pm on Tuesdays starting this coming week, in Ainsworth 102 and online. Consult link will be posted on the Lectures page when they're happening.
• Finally, the assignment will be released on Tuesday, and we'll briefly go through the spec in lectures.

Hopefully the first week of the course is going smoothly for you all! The Summer term is very compressed so try to keep on top of things. All the best!

Prelim Tutorial and Week 1 Consultation

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Wednesday 07 January 2026, 03:39:16 PM.

Hi everyone!

Upon request, I will be running a "tutorial" for the prelim tute, and a consultation, on Friday. Both will run on zoom, and the link to join will be posted on the lectures page a bit before each session.

The tutorial will be recorded and posted on the prelim tutorial page soon after. This will be running at noon Friday, and should be around an hour.

The consult will not be recorded, and will run at 2pm Friday until 3pm.

Starting week 2, consults will be in-person and via zoom 2-3pm Tuesdays, just after the lecture. A link will be posted on the lectures page prior to the consult, and it will be in Ainsworth 102.

Change in Lecture Location

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Monday 05 January 2026, 07:55:57 PM.

Hi all, in case you haven’t received a notice, just a reminder that Tuesday lectures will now be in Rex Vowels Theatre for the entire term as there is electrical work being done in Keith Burrows over summer. This is the same room as today’s lecture.

Welcome to COMP2521!

Posted by Ethan Brown 💜 Friday 02 January 2026, 08:06:44 PM.

Welcome to COMP2521 (Data Structures and Algorithms) !

The course outline is now available, with an easy access link in the left panel. Please read it all, and ask questions in the first lecture on anything that's not clear. Quiz 0 (due Wednesday) is based partially on this information, as well.

COMP2521 does not use Moodle. The course website is at https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP2521/26T0/ . We recommend that you bookmark the page. The course material will be available on this website.

Tutorials and Labs start in Week 1. The tutorial and lab for week 1 are now available. See Tutorials, Labs, Quizzes in the left panel on the course website. You need to login using your zId and zPass to access the following course material. The login button is in the top right corner of the WebCMS page, if you're not already logged in.

Additionally, there is a preliminary tutorial and lab, for which no marks are given. These are provided for you to go through as revision and to ensure you can debug your own code. I highly encourage you to complete these.

The lectures will be delivered in person in the designated lecture theatres, and (as long as nothing goes wrong) online via YouTube livestream. A link for the livestream will be on the Lectures page once available. Lecture recordings will be available later on the same page.

Five weeks will go by very quickly, so please do not leave any materials behind. The Summer term goes by in a flash and you really need to lock in if you want to do well. I'll discuss this more in the first lecture.

We have a team of enthusiastic tutors as well! Please make sure you know where your tutorial and lab rooms are for next week. We are all looking forward to seeing you at the start of the Summer term on Monday 05 January 2026!