COMP3142 Notices

Help Session Notice

Posted by Jamison Ding 2 days ago.

Dear all,

This is a friendly reminder that we will be holding a Help Session on:

• Date: Tuesday , August 12, 2025
• Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
• Location: Room K17 508

You are welcome to attend in person to ask questions and discuss.

If you are unable to join us on campus, you can connect via Microsoft Teams:

Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 473 016 830 554 4
Passcode: mx2qv3mB

Note : For online participants, please remain in the waiting room until admitted. We will address questions individually to ensure that assignment content remains confidential.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Best regards,
Jamison

Please Update crash_folder to crashes_folder

Posted by Zihao Xu 5 days ago.

Dear all,

We’ve identified a naming inconsistency in the codebase.
Please update:

conf_dict['crash_folder']

to

conf_dict['crashes_folder']

Reference: https://github.com/Remarkably-Mind-Blowing-Lab/mini-lop/blob/main/main.py#L96

Thanks for your attention.

Kind regards,
Zihao

Reminder for Quiz 2

Posted by Yuekang Li 5 days ago.

Dear class,

Don't forget to do quiz 2! It will be due on next Monday (11th Aug), at 10:00pm.

Here is the link: https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3142/25T2/activities/quizzes/2351

Cheers,

Yuekang

Environment Setup and Debugging for Assignment 2 (mini-lop)

Posted by Yuekang Li 5 days ago.

Dear Class,

Many of you have started working on Assignment 2 and have been asking some questions.

I prepared a document based on commonly asked questions:
https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3142/25T2/resources/114567

It covers 3 topics:

• environment setup for developing with the docker container
• debugging crash detection
• checking the correctness of feature 1

If you have any issues, please feel free to come to the help sessions and see you around!

Cheers,

Yuekang

Last Lecture of This Term

Posted by Yuekang Li 7 days ago.

Today’s lecture is our last one for the term.

We used it to recap everything we’ve covered so far.
You can find a visual summary of the course content here:
👉 https://prezi.com/view/Cw3bRhTGJ8ucD4R3xAXT/

Feel free to navigate through the above presentation — zoom in/out, move around, and explore the final page.

Notice how the topics are interconnected. Understanding these connections can help reinforce your memory and deepen your understanding. As you explore the graph, try to recall the key concepts and ideas associated with each part.

Cheers,
Yuekang

Help Session Notice

Posted by Jamison Ding 8 days ago, last modified 8 days ago.

Dear all,

A friendly reminder that this Friday, August 8, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM we will hold another Help Session in Room K17 G05 . Feel free to drop by in person to ask questions and discuss.

If you can’t make it on campus, you can join us on Microsoft Teams:

Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 436 731 796 314 6
Passcode: 4zJ3jy2g

Please note: For online students, please wait in the waiting room, we need to answer your questions one by one to ensure that the content of your assignments will not be disclosed.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Best regards
Jamison

COMP 3142 Help Session

Posted by Zihao Xu 9 days ago, last modified 8 days ago.

Dear students,

We will be holding a help session for Assignment 2 5th,August from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in K17 113 .

Based on your feedback, we’ve optimized the session format:
You may now choose to attend either in-person or online via Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams (Online Option):
Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 456 790 979 808 9

Passcode: KE7uT9LH

Best regards,

Zihao

Solution for the Timeout Error in Assignment 2.2

Posted by Yuekang Li 12 days ago, last modified 12 days ago.

Dear Class,

Some of you may have encountered an issue when running the default implementation of Mini-Lop, particularly the following error:

If you see this message of "Seed xxx caused a timeout during the dry run", it means a particular seed is taking too long and exceeding the default timeout limit. This is often due to the default timeout being too short for most hardware configurations. 🫠

Please do not modify the system.exit() behavior in the dry run logic. It may affect the global coverage you can get if the timeout issue is silently ignored!

Here is the proper fix:
Go to the execution.py file, and find the TIMEOUT variable.

Changing the TIMEOUT value to a larger value, like 10000, should fix the problem.

For any issues related to setting up your development environment (e.g., Docker or other tooling), please attend the help sessions—either in person or online. These setup issues tend to be case-specific, and direct support will be much more effective.

We are booking help sessions with the school admins and will inform you about the time and locations later.

Cheers,

Yuekang

Assignment 2 Filename Update

Posted by Zihao Xu 13 days ago.

Dear Class,
Just a quick update — I’ve renamed test.py to test_airport.py in the PDF to match the filename used on GitHub.

Help Session Announcement

Posted by Jamison Ding 14 days ago.

Dear students,

We will be holding a help session for Assignment 2 tomorrow from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM in K17 G05 .

Based on your feedback, we’ve optimized the session format:
You may now choose to attend either in-person or online via Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams (Online Option):
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 455 602 522 112 0
Passcode: 2jL2Tf3W

We’re also in the process of booking a room for next week’s help session. Once confirmed, we’ll notify you with the details.

Best regards,
Jamison

Quiz 1 Reminder and Assignment 1 Breakdown

Posted by Yuekang Li 19 days ago.

Hi Class,

Just a quick reminder to complete the quiz here : https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3142/25T2/activities/quizzes/2350

It’s due by Monday, 28th July at 10:00 PM.

Regarding the Assignment 1 breakdown, it appears that some emails sent to the course address may not have reached the admins. We've noticed a few cases like this.

If you've sent a request and haven't received a response, please post it in this forum thread:
https://discourse01.cse.unsw.edu.au/25T2/COMP3142/t/assignment-1-marks-break-down/177/6
And one of our admins will get back to you.

Have a nice weekend.

Best regards,

Yuekang

Quiz 1 Announcement

Posted by Jamison Ding 23 days ago, last modified 23 days ago.

Hi everyone,

Quiz 1 will be released tonight at 10:00 PM on WebCMS .

You can access it via: Activities → Quiz-1

• Deadline: 28 July 2025 at 10:00 PM
• Format: The quiz is untimed , so you can complete it at your own pace. You may also submit multiple attempts before the deadline.
• Results will be released on: 8 August 2025 at 10:00 PM

Best of luck — we hope you all do well!

Best regards,
Jamison

Assignment 2 Released & Help Session Announcement

Posted by Jamison Ding 24 days ago, last modified 22 days ago.

Hi everyone,

Assignment 2 has been released, and the due date is Sunday, 17 August 2025 at 10:00 PM .

To support your progress, we will be holding a help session focused on Assignment 2:

Location: The venue was changed to UNSW Engineering, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering due to a temporary need for a larger classroom for a course . The venue is directly across the street from the original venue.

Time: Tuesday, 22 July, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

You are welcome to attend and ask any questions related to the assignment.

Best of luck, and we hope everyone achieves a great result!

Assignment 1 – Help Session

Posted by Jamison Ding 28 days ago, last modified 28 days ago.

Hi everyone,

To assist with any questions regarding Assignment 1, we will be holding help sessions where you are welcome to ask for clarification or request feedback.

Help session times and location:

• This Thursday (Week 7): 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
• Next Monday (Week 8): 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
• Location: CSE K17 G05

If you would like feedback on your submission, please feel free to attend during the above times.

Additionally, to check your Assignment 1 marks, please log in to the Give .

Please note: Due to system limitations, marks may not be visible on WebCMS, so we recommend checking through Give directly.

Best regards,
Jamison

Class Notice: Assignment 1 Results Released

Posted by Zihao Xu 30 days ago, last modified 28 days ago.

Dear everyone,

7.16 Update:

--------------------------------------------------------------

The assignment results have now been released.

Please note that it may take a few days for the school system to fully process and display the marks.

If you still haven't received your results by the middle of this week, please reach out.

If you would like to see a breakdown of your scores per question, please send us an email, and we’ll respond to individual requests accordingly.

Please provide your zid when sending the email.

Kind regards,
Zihao

Updates for the Second Half of Term

Posted by Yuekang Li about a month ago.

Dear class,

I hope you had a restful flex week!

Here are some updates for the second half of the term:

Assessments

1. Marks for Assignment 1 and the specifications for Assignment 2 will be released by the end of Week 7.
2. We will have two quizzes on WebCMS: one in Week 8 and one in Week 10.

Practical learning materials (in addition to lecture slides):

• Python Basics
• pytest
• Docker Basics
• Practice Blackbox Fuzzing
• Practice Greybox Fuzzing

These materials may not be directly related to your assessments (except for pytest and Docker, which we will cover in lectures), but they will enrich your practical understanding and preparation for industry contexts.

We will also organise some help sessions to assist you with setting up the environments, etc., for Assignment 2, or to help you practice with these extra materials. Please stay tuned.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Yuekang

COMP3142: Wednesday 2 July class will run online only

Posted by Yuekang Li about a month ago.

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed that some courses are moving online due to the weather. While there is currently no UNSW-wide advice, the heavy rain is expected to continue into Thursday morning, making travel to campus potentially difficult or unsafe for some students.

To ensure everyone’s safety, tomorrow’s COMP3142 lecture (Wednesday, 2 July 2025) will be held fully online .

Please join the lecture via Microsoft Teams:

• Meeting ID: 446 913 960 785 4
• Passcode: Tz9se9P7

Thank you for your understanding, and please stay safe.

Best regards,
Yuekang

24 June Q&A wrap up for Assignment 1.

Posted by Zihao Xu 2 months ago.

Dear Class,

This is the wrap-up from today's Q&A for Assignment 1.

Q1.1.2:

Comments are only for explanatory purposes . You do not need to include them in your submission. (but it's okay if you do).

Q1.2 – Test Case Values:

You can use either string-form equivalence class ranges like "[1,3]" or just include a representative value from the class. Both are acceptable.

A logic error here means: your modified program should execute different program parts for new test cases , but the same parts for the original test suite.

“Unfold 3 times” means the body of the loop should be repeated three times.

Kind regards,
Zihao

Assignment Submission Channels Confirmed

Posted by Jamison Ding 2 months ago.

Hi everyone,

We’ve just received confirmation that the give command is now working properly again. Submissions made via give will now be correctly received and recorded.

You’re free to submit your assignment however you prefer — whether it’s through the give online submission or directly via the WebCMS interface. Both options will work just fine!

Let us know if you run into any issues. Good luck with your assignment!

Best regards,
Jamison J. Ding

Notification of submission on CSE webserver

Posted by Zihao Xu 2 months ago.

Dear Class,

We’ve received reports that the give command on the CSE server is currently not working. The issue has been reported and is being addressed.

In the meantime, please submit your work via WebCMS3 through the browser , which is functioning normally.

Thanks for your understanding.

Best,
Zihao

Summary of Today's Q&A and Forum Posts

Posted by Zihao Xu 2 months ago, last modified 2 months ago.

Dear Class,

I’d like to share a few clarifications and reminders regarding Assignment 1 to help you stay on track and avoid common mistakes.

For 1.1 , boundary value testing is required (not worst-case testing). It should be done with 6n + 1, totaling 19 test cases.

For 1.2 , the Q1_2.txt file should list all equivalence classes, and the Q1_2_test.txt file should list the full test suite.

For 1.2 , if some variables’ equivalence classes overlap, that’s fine. Just keep them for now. Only deduplicate ranges that are exactly the same.

For 1.2 , the "Valid" and "Invalid" categories are just formatting requirements. Do not treat them as if this variable only has two equivalence classes.

For 1.2 , the weekly_hours variable is a complex case. Just aim to include test cases that span different equivalence classes across academic roles, terms, and FTE levels. Format this accordingly in your .txt file.

For 1.3 , for rules G and H, two different input combinations that pass Rules A–F are sufficient (i.e., name them G1 and H1).

For 1.3 , at Rule C1, using - for week is acceptable and equivalent to writing 1–10 . It means the week passes both Rule A and Rule B (i.e., the program hasn’t returned at A or B). Think of the inputs as being evaluated from top to bottom—each rule is checked in order. If a specific rule is reached, all prior rules must have failed for that input.

For 1.3 , N/A means unreachable. This applies when some input combinations are already returned by prior rules and will never reach the current rule. The program has already returned, and there is no way for that rule to ever be triggered. That is why it’s marked as N/A.

For 1.3 , invalid inputs will result in ERROR . Although the assignment mistakenly says "Rejected", we will accept both "ERROR" and "Rejected" as correct.

For 1.3 , ranges like 1–3 mean inclusive of 1 and 3.

For 1.3 , !1–3 means not (1 and 2 and 3) ; !1/2/3 means not 1 OR 2 OR 3 ; !1/!2/!3 means not 1 OR not 2 OR not 3 — use this format cautiously, as it’s always true and is meant only to illustrate syntax.

For 2.1 , unfold the CFG up to 3 iterations. The subpaths can be directly derived from the original CFG.

For 2.2 , there’s a typo in the assignment. It should be Q2_2_2.txt , not Q2_3_1.txt . You won’t lose marks for the wrong filename, but please correct this.

Python code quality is not marked . We just want to see that you generated the test cases correctly and didn’t hard-code them.

All files must be submitted as a single zip archive. If you're using CSE, use the following command:

zip -r assignment1.zip assignment1_folder

Help Sessions in Week 4

Posted by Yuekang Li 2 months ago.

Dear Class,

To support you ahead of the Assignment 1's due date, we will organise two drop-in help sessions next week. If you have any questions about the assignment or recent lecture material, please feel free to come:

Monday, 23 June – 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Tuesday, 24 June – 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Location for both sessions: Consultation Room, Level 5, Room 508, Building K17.

Zihao and I will be available during both sessions and will be happy to help with any queries.

Best regards,

Yuekang

Release of Assignment 1 (Updated)

Posted by Zihao Xu 2 months ago, last modified 2 months ago.

Dear class,

Hello everyone,

1. Logical Notation

• !/3/4 → means not 1 OR 3 OR 4 .
• !1/!3/!4 → means not 1 OR not 3 OR not 4 .
• !1–3 → means not 1 to not 3 .
• "-" used as “don’t care” means the value that does influence the program output for this rule. You can assume In Rule B and later, - will only contain valid ranges inputs, as invalid ones are captured by Rule A.

2. Term Limits

term_limit = {"T1": 20, "T2": 25, "T3": 30}.get(period, 0)

```

3. Categorical Values – Invalid Equivalence Classes (If you need) Q1.2
Use the ¬ symbol to express invalid sets.
Example: Invalid: ¬{"a", "b", "c"}

4. Question 1.3 – Rule Dependencies Q 1.3
When checking Rule C , assume Rules A and B have already passed .
So the inputs are valid with respect to A and B.
Therefore, for Rules G and H , simply write two different valid cases that pass A–F or A–G.
(Passing G is assumed in the latter.)

5. Reminder

Please try not to post your full answers directly in the forums, as others will be able to see and copy them.

_______________________________________history message________________________________________________
Thanks to everyone in the forum for posting questions regarding the unclear instructions and typos in the assignment.

The PDF has now been revised, with changes highlighted in yellow color.

_______________________________________history_____________________________________________________

The specification for Assignment 1 has now been released: https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3142/25T2/resources/112259

The due date of this assignment is 25th June (next Wednesday), 10:00 pm.

You can submit your answers via give .

You can find the submission link under:

Home → Upcoming Due Dates → Assignment 1

If you encounter any difficulty submitting the assignment, please feel free to reach out.

Best regards,
Zihao

Lecture Recordings and Python Learning Materials

Posted by Yuekang Li 2 months ago.

Dear Class,

The issue with Echo360 in Wednesday’s lecture theatre remains unresolved (and I don't know when they can fix it), so we’ve continued using MS Teams for recording. Please note that Teams recordings display participant names. To address privacy concerns, I’ve uploaded the lecture recordings to YouTube with access restricted to direct links only.

You can find all the recordings here:
👉 Lecture Recordings on YouTube

Regarding Python learning materials, they are available here:
👉 Python Resource

Based on feedback from the previous term, I’ve decided to include some Python content to support your assignments. This resource doesn’t cover the basics but instead focuses on common pitfalls and tricky areas in Python programming. While not all of it may apply directly to your current assignments, I hope you’ll find it useful both now and in the future. After all, learning isn't just about passing assessments—it's also about building skills to do interesting things.

Best regards,
Yuekang

Lecture Recording Issues

Posted by Yuekang Li 2 months ago.

Dear class,

I just found that the classroom's default system hasn't been recording the screen properly. Apologies for the inconvenience!

To address this, I’ll be taking the following steps:

1. I’ll report the issue to the University to see what can be done about it.
2. In the meantime, I’ll use Microsoft Teams to livestream and record the lectures. Recordings will be uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel for easy access.

The meeting link for Wednesday classes is:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZWYxOGQwNTgtYmEzNS00OWRmLTg5ZDEtMjdmNjVmYmM0M2Iz%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%223ff6cfa4-e715-48db-b8e1-0867b9f9fba3%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2241c0cf0f-29e0-49f6-bd06-26ab4cebd9f4%22%7d

The meeting link for Friday classes is:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDQ5ODg4NzAtNzE0Mi00YTYzLWIzMmQtZTRmMWM5NGY5MWJj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%223ff6cfa4-e715-48db-b8e1-0867b9f9fba3%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2241c0cf0f-29e0-49f6-bd06-26ab4cebd9f4%22%7d

Thanks for your understanding, and see you this Friday!

Welcome to COMP3142 – Important Course Information

Posted by Yuekang Li 2 months ago, last modified 2 months ago.

Hello Class,

Welcome to COMP3142! I’m excited to have you on board, and I look forward to a great learning journey with you this term.

Before we kick off our first lecture on Wednesday, please take note of the following important information:

1. Course Website – WebCMS3
   The primary platform for all course materials (lecture slides, assignments, quizzes, etc.) is WebCMS:
   https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3142/25T2/
2. Lecture Recordings – Moodle & Echo360
   Moodle will be used solely for accessing Echo360, where you can find live streams and recordings of lectures:
   https://echo360.net.au/section/b517554d-c4ec-4c0b-b065-c0a7390cb464/home
3. Course Forum – Discourse
   We’ll be using Discourse for discussions and announcements:
   https://discourse01.cse.unsw.edu.au/25T2/COMP3142/
   If you’re not yet enrolled, please join using this invite link:
   http://discourse01.cse.unsw.edu.au/25T2/COMP3142/invites/UjXEibTcDx
4. Assignments – Individual Work
   All assignments in this course are to be completed individually. Any outdated information you might see on ECLIPS/ECOS regarding group work can be ignored.

Looking forward to seeing you in class!

Cheers,
Yuekang