COMP9315 Notices

Final grade and supp exam

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 18 May 2023, 01:38:52 PM.

Hi everyone,

This should be the last email from COMP9315_23T1. The final marks are released by the exam unit today. If you have been granted a supp exam, you should have received my confirmation email of the supp exam.

All the best for your future career～

Dong

Exam Marking and Ass2 Test Cases

Posted by Dong Wen Sunday 07 May 2023, 12:07:33 PM.

We would not apply the exam hurdle. That means you pass the course if your overall mark is over 50. This is already confirmed with school earlier.

In fact, you should not worry about the final if you think you have already done reasonably good. Some students asked if a scale-up will be applied. As I mentioned in earlier notices before exam, a scale up will be applied. It will make the average mark similar to those of pervious terms.

All test cases for Ass2 marking are available on https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP9315/23T1/resources/86803 . Please refer to earlier emails for Ass2 marking.

Q2 log update.

Posted by Dong Wen Friday 05 May 2023, 03:10:06 PM.

The expected log of Q2 (work/q123/test/test7/expected_log_7.txt) is incorrect.

The old output is:

######

1 0

We have updated it to:

######

1 1

We will give all marks for IO to all students in this questions. That means for Q2, you would not lost mark if your output log does not match the expected result. We still need to check your updated table file structure in marking.

Final Exam

Posted by Dong Wen Friday 05 May 2023, 01:34:35 PM.

Hi,

The exam paper is available at

https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9315/23T1/exam/f23/

The submission page for the final exam on Moodle is also available. Please submit your solutions on Moodle. Just remind that the deadline is 16:30 (except ELP students).

Final Exam

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 04 May 2023, 05:14:41 PM.

We will release the exam paper and the Moodle submission page on Webcms at 13:15. You will also receive an email as usual. After receiving the exam paper link, please first take some time to read the specification carefully.

If you have any question during the exam, please post your question on the EdForum (mark is as private under the exam category). All teaching staffs will watching on the forum. Sending emails to individual staff may not be responded efficiently given the large volume of emails during the exam.

Some potential issues:

A lot of students accessing servers (e.g., vxdb server, webcms server, etc.) in a short period. If a common server issue appears, we will fix them as soon as possible, and some bonus points may be applied accordingly. Setting up a back-up developing environment in your laptop is what you can do given that personal laptops have already been allowed.

Good luck~

Some updates for ass2 mark.

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 02 May 2023, 11:29:37 PM.

Please read my last notice carefully if you have not. For all students falling in the three cases (or have compiling errors due to a wrong Makefile), you can submit a revised code by 6pm 4 May (Thursday) . Just want to claim that all those cases were clearly presented in the Ass2 spec page. We provide a second chance because they do not affect the main components of the assignment. For example, if someone perfectly implements the buffer management strategy but just forgets to invoke log_read_page(), the log output is absolutely wrong, and 0 point is given for all test cases. On the other hand, to make it fair to all students, a late penalty is applied.

Note that the potential (not guaranteed) remark is only for the cases we mentioned in the last notice (corresponding comments appear in your marking comments). More importantly, you are not allowed to update other places (selection, join, buffer management, file pointer management, bug fix, etc.) in your remark submission, since this is not a chance to allow you improve your code.

All remarking cases should only involve several lines of code. If you are worry about a great amount of job to update your code, you are probably not belonging to the cases that can be remarked. If you are not sure about your case, we have created a new category in the EdForum called " Ass2_Remark ". Post your potential updates (e.g., code screenshot) in a private thread under the " Ass2_Remark " category. For general marking questions, you should still send emails to your marking tutor because they have full context of your code.

Similar to previous assignments, you can submit multiple times on Moodle before the deadline. A pdf file is necessary to show how you update the code. If you have very very special case and have clarified on the edforum as mentioned above, attach the screenshot of the approval from any teaching staff on the EdForum to the pdf file. We will also "diff" and manually check your new code. If we think your update is not in the scope of the mentioned cases, we will use your original mark, and no other chance is provided.

Some other students lost marks because of additional test cases. We know you are busy with preparing the final exam. We will release all test cases after the final exam. After releasing them, you will have one day to argue any marking error. If you have any trouble, let us know.

Ass2 marks released

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 02 May 2023, 03:37:36 PM.

We just released Assignment 2 marks. If you find your mark is much lower than your expectation, your solution may fall in one of the cases presented at the bottom. If you have any of them in your mark comments, you are allowed to revise your solution, and we can remark your solution. Note that only modifications related to the mentioned part are allowed since they are not related to the main framework and are only about tracking your buffer and file management strategies. We would not reconsider your solution if you update other parts like buffer manage strategy, join algorithms, etc. In your new solution, you should attach an additional .pdf file to show what you have modified in the new version. The submission page on Moodle called assignment 2 remark has been re-open. For fairness, all remarked solutions will be additionally applied one day late penalty (20*0.05=1) . For the solution that cannot be correctly compiled, we can remark your solution if only Makefile is updated.

Except the three cases mentioned below, if you have any other marking question or think the mark is not correct, send your marking tutor an email and cc me. All marking questions should be raised by 6pm 4 May (Thursday) . We would not process any new argument before the deadline. Test cases can be requested after the argument deadline.

• "Invalid log read/release function invoke, so read io does not count". This comment means you did not invoke log_read_page() or/and log_release_page() in the appropriate position. As a result, we cannot track your buffer state, and your output is apparently not correct compared with the expected output. In this case, you are allowed to add/remove invocations of those functions at any place.
• "Invalid log open/close function invoke, cannot observe file pointer management". This comment means you did not invoke log_open_file() or/and log_close_file() in the appropriate position. As a result, we cannot track your file pointers state, and your output is apparently not correct compared with the expected output. In this case, you are allowed to add/remove invocations of those functions at any place. Of course, if you have not implemented any strategy for managing file pointers, just ignore this.
• "Incorrect read page id in log_read_page function". Some students did not read page id from the page. This makes your output is not the same as the expected. Please refer to the assignment 2 spec: "In marking, a different way will be used to produce page id. That means the only way you get the page id is from the first INT64 in each page, and it can be any possible value. The only guaranteed thing is that each page id is unique for each table (i.e., page id of pages from different tables may be same)."

Consultation Rescheduled to Tomorrow

Posted by Junhua Zhang Tuesday 02 May 2023, 11:32:43 AM.

Due to a time conflict that has arisen, I will need to reschedule the consultation session originally planned for this afternoon to tomorrow. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Below is the updated information:

Consultation Session:

Original Time: 4:00 PM Today (2 May)

New Time: Tomorrow at 4:00 PM (3 May)

Link: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908

​No online exam mode

Posted by Dong Wen Saturday 29 April 2023, 01:54:02 PM.

When the exam unit released the exam seat allocation for COMP9315, around 10--20 students are allocated online seats in the final exam. After discussion with the exam unit this morning, all students are allocated to the offline seats, which I think is much fair. If you received the online allocation, you should have received my email earlier, and just double check your seat allocation now ( https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~exam/23T1/seating/register.cgi/allocations/ ). The exam unit should have already updated it. If it is still online, please let me know.

Additionally, online mode is not available in the final exam. That means if you cannot attend the final exam by any reason (e.g., offshore, health issues), you should apply special consideration for a supplementary exam. Just send me an email if you have any difficulty, and we can discuss further for your personal case.

Have a nice weekend~

Solutions for Sample Exam & Information for Lab Machine

Posted by Junhua Zhang Friday 28 April 2023, 11:00:42 PM.

Several students have requested answers to the sample exam on the Ed forum. So I have created one document with probable answers for questions 4 through 8. You can access it with the following link: https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9315/23T1/exam/22t1/solution/Solutions.pdf . I think other students may also find this resource helpful. Please note that these solutions are not standard answers and different solutions, e.g., with different I/O cost, may also be correct. This solution should be used as a reference only. If you find any problems in the solution, please tell me.

Additionally, for those who are experiencing issues with your laptops, keyboards, or touchpads, I would like to remind you that you can use Visual Studio Code and install extensions in vlab. I think the lab machine should be the same as vlab, or at least you can connect to vlab using a lab machine. So you should have no problem working on your exam with the lab machine.

A quick update for exam

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 27 April 2023, 11:46:34 AM.

Just contact with the exam unit this morning.

Students are allowed to take stationery into the exam in a pencil case. UNSW-approved calculators are allowed (even I think it is not useful...). They have updated the exam instruction page.

https://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~exam/23T1/seating/register.cgi/allocations/

​About Final

Posted by Dong Wen Wednesday 26 April 2023, 10:35:03 PM.

Thanks for all students who have filled the MyExperience. The response rate just over 55%, and I confirm that the one point bonus will be added in the exam.

You should have received the exam seat from the school exam unit. Please do not ask me where is the seat because I don't even know which rooms are used for exam and how to assign the students' seats. They are assigned by the exam unit.

Many students ask can I take mice, keyboad, calculator ...

As described in the instruction, mice and keyboard are not allowed. Someone asked if it is ok to use the mice in the lab. I think that may be a good idea. The instruction mentions "You may not bring a book, pad of paper, or anything else into the exam." UNSW-approved calculator is not mentioned elsewhere and apparently belongs to the category of "anything else". Personally, I think many things like calculators are fine, but just be considerate of the invigilators. Allowing various stuffs in the exam brings huge jobs for them. The good thing is that you can take personal laptop, which means you already got the whole world...

If you have any special issue and would like to apply special consideration, just submit your application to the special consideration team. The final exam is held by the school exam unit, and I do not have permission to process exam request for any individual student. One thing you must already know is that do not attend the exam if you are not comfortable in the exam day. You do not have the second chance if you have sat the exam.

This is the first term of offline exam for 9315 since COVID19. The exam claims a 4-hours block and is worth 3-hours work. In previous terms of online exams, that is basically equivalent to 4-hours exam time given that the exam paper is released before 4 hours of the deadline. In this term, we will release the exam page (via webcms notice and email) at around 13:15 when the exam start. Based on the released the exam time, that means you have around 3 hours to finish the exam. Similar to the sample exam paper, we have 3 coding questions and 5 written answer questions. What I can do is to add one point bonus and apply a scale-up for all students. So just be relaxed. A tip is never spending too much time on one question since they are not ordered by the hardness.

I will hold an online consultation at 4pm tomorrow (27 Apr). Below is the zoom meeting link. Welcome to have a chat.

https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5770933831

Consultations Before the Final Exam

Posted by Junhua Zhang Tuesday 25 April 2023, 01:13:48 PM.

I will be hosting online consultations today, next Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm to 5pm, to answer questions during your review. The link to the consultation is: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908 . This Thursday's consultation will be hosted by Dong.

MyExperience Survey

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 24 April 2023, 02:11:08 PM.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

MyExperience survey will be end on 27 Apr. The current response rate is still quite low (31%). Please take several 2 minutes to fill the survey.

For a sweetner, we will give everyone a 1 mark bonus on the Exam if the response rate hits 50% (it's currently 31%).

​Consultation this afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Thursday 20 April 2023, 02:04:51 PM.

I'll run a consultation this afternoon from 5PM to 6PM via Zoom: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908.

Last Week

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 20 April 2023, 02:03:06 PM.

This is the last week of T1. As the course convenor, I would like to say thank you for the other teaching staff Dr. Zhang, our course admin and all marking tutors. Especially, a big hug for all students sharing your comments on the forum and taking your valuable time to help other students. I have met many of you F2F and really happy with that. Best wishes to all of you. Let us know if you need any help in the future.

MyExperience. One thing that we need your help is to fill the MyExperience survey. The current ratio is still quite low (around 20%), and the survey staff gonna cry for that.

Ass2. The result of ass2 is expected to be released in the beginning of week 12.

Final Exam. We have uploaded the final exam paper of 22T1 as a sample. You can find it on Webcms. For now, what I know about the exam is as follows.

• Exam time: Afternoon session (starting around 12:30--13:00) 5 May
• Personal laptop is allowed.
• The exam is open book.
• Peripherals are not allowed (including mouse, keyboard, headphone, etc).
• The exam is in a CSE lab.

Post your any question about the exam on the EdForum. We will watch it every day. An online consultation will be arranged on next Thursday. The meeting link will be noticed before that. You are also still welcome to come to my office (send me message before coming) and have a chat.

​Consultation This Afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Tuesday 18 April 2023, 03:25:29 PM.

I'll run a consultation this afternoon from 5PM to 6PM via Zoom: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908.

Consultation this afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Thursday 13 April 2023, 02:22:04 PM.

I'll run a consultation this afternoon from 4PM to 6PM via Zoom: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908.

​Consultation this afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Tuesday 11 April 2023, 02:37:20 PM.

As the deadline of assignment 2 is approaching, I'll run a consultation this afternoon from 4PM~6PM on Zoom: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908.

MyExperience Survey Open

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 11 April 2023, 11:54:24 AM.

This is a gentle reminder that MyExperience Survey is open. You can evaluate and provide any suggestion for every teaching staff and tutor. At your convenience, please take several minutes to do the survey. Thanks~

Ass2 extension and more test cases

Posted by Dong Wen Friday 07 April 2023, 03:45:52 PM.

Given the easter holiday, we decided to extend the Ass2 deadline to 9pm 17th Apr (Monday) . Hope this is a good news for you. We also have added more details for Ass2 marking and some tips in the Ass2 spec page. I think the difficulty of the assignment is already very low.

I also would like to clarify some points. Some of them may appear in every assignment of previous terms.

• I found the Ass1 marking comments of some students lack many details. I have asked all marking tutors to list all deduced points and make the comment clear in Ass2. You are also encouraged to request clarifying your marks and request all test cases after marking.
• You should read Ass2 (and final exam) spec carefully. If you think any part is ambiguous, or you are not quite understand the task, or you think some place is not reasonable, please do not hesitate to ask before the deadline. The marking tutors will not accept any reason like "the spec is ambiguous which makes me implement in a different way".
• Special considerations should be submitted to the Special Consideration team. Until you are granted the extension, your Ass2 deadline is still the same as others. Once the extension is granted (probably after deadline), we can accept your new submissions and count it as the new deadline. In addition, just be careful to submit the right version of your code. No consideration will be granted by reasons like "this is my last term", "I'm very busy this week", "I submit a wrong version", etc.
• Some tutors told me that there are students not quite clear about the late penalty policy even I think it is already very clear. It is a "reduction", but not a "cap". For an instance of Ass2, if you get 18/20 and submit three days late, your final mark will be 18-20*0.05*3=15. This is a common policy required by the school, not by any individual course.

Enjoy the holiday~

Ass2 Online Consultation

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 06 April 2023, 02:45:29 PM.

I will hold an online consultation today for Ass2 from 4pm to 5pm. An update for test cases will be released later.

https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5770933831

Ass1 mark updates

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 04 April 2023, 03:12:03 PM.

Some students report the error marks for assignment 1 yesterday. The marking tutors are working on them, and I have assigned a different tutor to double check each case. The updated marks for most cases are available now. A few cases are left for following-up verification. Let me know if you have any concern.

A reminder is that reporting marking questions is due by 9pm Wednesday (5 Apr) . If you have not checked your ass1 marks, you should have a look. We will not process any marking issue reported after the deadline. All mark updates for ass1 will be completed in this week.

Ass1 marks and Ass2 details

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 03 April 2023, 01:59:48 PM.

We have released assignment 1 marks. If you have any marking question, send an email to the corresponding marking tutor and cc me.

We also add some tips to the assignment 2 specification page . Feel free to ask questions on the forum if you are not quite clear about any details.

Quiz 4 is also released. The deadline is 9pm next Tuesday (11th Apr ) given the easter public holiday from 7 Apr to 10 Apr .

p.s. If you cannot access the forum, please have a look at the first webcms notice or the FAQ tab on webcms.

Assignment 2 and Quiz 3

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 27 March 2023, 03:11:51 PM.

Hope you had a good relaxing week 6.

Quiz 3 has been released. The deadline is 9pm Friday (31 Mar).

Assignment 2 has been released. The deadline is 9pm Friday Week 9 (14 Apr) . Let us know if there is any error for the source code and the assignment specification. You are free to start doing the assignment at any time, but no extension will be provided for reasons like "I got many assignments in week 9", "I am really busy this week", "This is my last term", etc. If you would like to apply any extension, please submit your request via special consideration (https://specialconsideration.unsw.edu.au/).

Please have a look the course outline and previous webcms notices if you just started working on the course recently.

Assignment 1 late penalty and flexible week

Posted by Dong Wen Friday 17 March 2023, 10:04:55 PM.

The deadline of Assignment 1 has passed. For students that have not submitted the solution, the late penalty is a per-day mark reduction equal to 5% of the max assessment mark for up to 5 days, which follows the standard school policy. Ignore this if you have an approved special consideration.

We do not have lecture, quiz or any other course activities in week 6. Feel free to contact me if you have any question/advice/comment or talk to me in my office~

Consultation Information This Afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Thursday 16 March 2023, 02:15:27 PM.

This afternoon Dr. Dong and me will run consultations, the detailed information is below:

4PM~5PM: Dr. Dong will run offline consultation in his office k17 507.

5PM~6PM: I will run online consultation using zoom: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908 .

If you are having any questions, just walk to Dr. Dong's office or join my room at the time specified above.

Online Consultation This Afternoon

Posted by Junhua Zhang Tuesday 14 March 2023, 02:26:50 PM.

I'll conduct an online consultation 4PM~6PM this afternoon as the deadline is approaching. If you have any questions, join my zoom room: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/5929602908 .

Assignment 1 Test Script Minor Update

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 13 March 2023, 09:34:42 PM.

We update the test script for assignment 1 last Friday. The new version fixes a display bug when putting longitude in front of latitude. Even though most students would not be influenced since latitude is in front by default, it is recommended to use the updated version of test scripts.

Some students' solutions work well for manually input test codes but output with errors with the test script. This usually happens caused by wrong memory allocation. If you are not quite familiar with pointer/memory allocation/structure of C programming, you need to do some research given that C programming is a pre-requisite. You are still welcome to book private consultations. We answer any question except helping you debug the code.

Census Date Approaching

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 09 March 2023, 03:54:44 PM.

This is a reminder that the census date is approaching (12 Mar 2023, 11:59pm) . You may drop the course if you are still struggling with some basic configurations or some pre-requisites. I know there are some students just coming back to Sydney and starting reading course materials. Please have a look all previous webcms notice, which includes useful information like the forum registration link. Note that COMP9315 23T1 only has offline final exam . Don't take this course if cannot attend the offline final exam.

Quiz 2 is due by 9pm Friday . Don't forget to click submit for your solution.

Just let you know we have modified the course outline on webcms to move Quiz 3 from week 6 (flexibility week) to week 7 , so you have nothing to do for 9315 in week 6. Of course, a notice will be sent when the quiz 3 is released on Monday Week 7.

If you send emails to us using a non-UNSW email and never get a response, that's probably because our uni blocks the email. Using a UNSW email may solve the problem.

If you have special consideration or any special issue to apply assignment 1 extension, let us know 24hrs before the deadline. Otherwise, we may not able to provide the extension according to the UNSW policy.

Starting from week 5, our joint lecturer Dr. Junhua Zhang will deliver lectures, but if you have any question or would like to seek my advice, just let me know.

Testing for Assignment 1, quiz 2 and quiz 1 result

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 06 March 2023, 11:24:55 AM.

Welcome to COMP9315 week 4,

Our course admin has written some test script for assignment 1 testing. You can use them if you like. You can find a new section called Testing at the end of the assignment 1 specification page .

Marks for Quiz 1 have been released. Let us know if there is any mistake.

Quiz 2 has been released. The deadline is 9pm Friday Week 4.

Assignment 1 Released

Posted by Dong Wen Monday 27 February 2023, 11:06:22 AM.

Welcome to week 3. We have released our Assignment 1 on Webcms . The deadline is 9pm Friday Week 5 . Your solutions should be submitted on Moodle .

You are required to develop codes to add a new data type. Please read the specification carefully. Questions which indicate that you haven't done this will simply get the response "Please read the spec". Coding question = reading documents + writing codes + debugging. I will briefly introduce the assignment 1 on lectures, but it is necessary for you to read some documents and source codes to complete the task.

If there is any unclear or wrong description, feel free to ask on the forum. If there are some bugs/errors when developing your solution, that happens. Just fix them by yourself, and this is why being skilful in C programming is a prerequisite.

If you understand the assignment, the task is clear, and the testing script is quite simple. You should be able to write several lines of SQL code to test your code, but of course, we will upload our test script on Monday Week 4.

Online conlustation

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 23 February 2023, 02:18:53 PM.

Online consultation starts from 4pm today. See the link under the FAQ tab on Webcms. Wiil end the meeting if there is no question for 10 minutes.

Quiz1 Announcement

Posted by Yiheng Hu Sunday 19 February 2023, 06:13:01 PM.

Several students noticed that there is a quiz submission link on webcms. That was an error entry from previous terms, and we have removed it.

The Quiz 1 has been released on Moodle. The deadline is 21:00 24th Feb, Friday.

In future weeks, each quiz will be released on 9AM Monday with an email notice.

Online Consultation

Posted by Dong Wen Thursday 16 February 2023, 02:54:22 PM.

As mentioned in the lecture, I will arrange an online consultation using zoom at 4pm today.

The entry link can be found under the FAQ tab on Webcms.

Server Issue update

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 14 February 2023, 04:28:09 PM.

The system support team just told me they have resolved one issue on the server, relating to a problem with nscd at about 14:45. If you have successfully enrolled the course but still cannot login to the server now. Let me know by replying my post on the EdForum.

Server Issue

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 14 February 2023, 02:17:08 PM.

Many students have contacted me about the server issue. I have sent emails to the system support team to figure it out.

Several students also report the low voice at the end of the lecture. I will use a different microphone. Just directly interrupt me next time whenever you cannot hear clearly.

Potential delay for lecture

Posted by Dong Wen Tuesday 14 February 2023, 11:34:20 AM.

Just let you know there is a course from 10:00 to 12:00 in the same classroom. The online lecture stream may be delayed for a while.

Welcome to COMP9315

Posted by Dong Wen Friday 10 February 2023, 02:35:34 PM.

Hi All,

Welcome to COMP9315, DBMS Implementation.

We aim to explore internal structure and knowledge (data structure and algorithms) of database management systems (DBMSs).

About the Course. Most details about the course can be found in the course outline . Have a look, and let us know if you have an question. COMP9315 will run in hybrid mode. Online students could watch lectures via live stream. I will cover most details on the lecture slides. All announcements, lecture notes, assignment spec, etc. are going to be posted on WebCMS3. Moodle provides access to online lectures and lecture recordings. All assessments (quiz, assignment, final exam) are submitted via Moodle. The online lecture entry and the recording link will be released later.

It is important to note that the final exam of COMP9315_23T1 will be arrange in CSE labs for all students . If you cannot sit the offline exam, do not take the course.

We use the Ed Forum. The registration link is presented below, which can be also found in FAQ .

https://edstem.org/au/join/PDbXtj

Look forward to meeting you on Tuesday.

Dong Wen