Optimizing Purdue CS

optimizing-purdue-cs.md

Now hosted at http://opcs.cart.moe/

This is an outstanding read, wish I had this earlier. Glad to have been part of the review process!

Very interesting read! Ever since high school I've always had a fascination with schedules and being incredibly intentional with planning my classes/future coursework. I love that you are helping people get the most out of their college education while encouraging people to go their own route rather than copy your intense workload verbatim. Inspirational work!

needed this 4 years ago fr

Great guide for those looking to get every last bit out of their Purdue CS journey. Kart is the one of the most passionate and hardworking CS friend I know and this document shows just how far he can take things. Thank you for the review mention!

This is some fire
Actually listen to him because you shouldn't just be existing in CS

Really nice read! I wish this had been around when I started attending Purdue.

This is by far one of the best article relevant to Purdue.

As a member of the competitive programming community, I want to add a few points.

• There is a club (https://purduecpu.com/) that runs Purdue competitive programming events. Give it a spin if you like it.
• I highly recommend CS 21100, Competitive Programming I, if you need a study primer on technical interviews.
• If you want to master technical interviews and get more involved with competitive programming, CS 31100/41100, Competitive Programming II/III, can be a good choice. It has seen some of the most talented students here at Purdue who went on to achieve great things.

Disclaimer: I have been teaching CS 41100 for the past two years (https://zhtluo.com/teaching/cs411-spring2025/index.html). Feel free to ask me anything else about CP as well.

I'm honored to have @zhtluo comment. I've added CPU to the list of cool clubs! (I know a bunch of people from it and they're all indeed awesome.)

As an incoming CS major, this has been incredibly helpful in seeing what I should be focusing on. Thank you!

Good read, I love it.

gg ez

@kartva, I have a question about this line: "Note that certain grad courses are reskinned undergrad courses -- not all that glimmers is gold. Exercise wisdom."

Do you know which ones in particular? And how can you tell?

@ronilmitra7 an example of a reskinned undergrad course would be CS 502 with Prof. Tiark Rompf. The content and assignments are the same; iirc the biggest difference is that there are less office hours.

To be clear, CS 352 / 502 with Prof. Rompf is a very fun and sometimes challenging course; just don't expect it to be radically different from his version of CS 352.

Another example would STAT 511 which is "easier STAT 350" according to what I've heard.

@ronilmitra7 an example of a reskinned undergrad course would be CS 502 with Prof. Tiark Rompf. The content and assignments are the same; iirc the biggest difference is that there are less office hours.

To be clear, CS 352 / 502 with Prof. Rompf is a very fun and sometimes challenging course; just don't expect it to be radically different from his version of CS 352.

Another example would STAT 511 which is "easier STAT 350" according to what I've heard.

Thank you! I was looking to take some of the grad courses on AI/ML and was curious. You wrote a fantastic guide, thank you so much!

Awesome doc and really good to read!

Amazing guide, I definitely wish I had this coming into Purdue. This could've given my freshman year self in particular a lot more direction and I can still find so many things to learn from this even today. I know many others who expressed similar sentiments about your guide and feel like this is a must-read for any student coming into Purdue CS.

I'm an incoming CS freshman (Class of '29) and was considering graduating early. I was never completely sure if it was the correct decision to take, until I found this guide. I have to say it was an amazing read, something thats not commonly seen commented on a github post... but it was. Condensed perfectly to only fit essential and really good info. Thank you Kartavya!

I've found almost all "college guides" tend to lack actionable advice, but yours is filled with it, so I respect it a lot. Thanks for writing this!

I have been having a hard time at college as an international student, and I have been lost. This guide gives me some direction because it isn't filled with generic advice but gives actionable advice, as someone else mentioned. Thank you so much for this!

What an interesting read! Most definitely something that all aspiring Purdue CS grads should consider checking out.

What a goated guide. Kart is the goat

As a current freshman, this was a very helpful guide! Thank you for writing this, Kart!

Thank you, Kart! This is helping me decide whether to stay at Purdue, having flown from the West Coast as an incoming freshman and now entering my second semester.

This was amazing Kart, thank you! It was extremely helpful and interesting! Very happy to have met this beast in person :)

Great writeup and amazing guide Kart, definitely will be using this information for the rest of my time here at Purdue!

Fact: You can replace CS 182 with MA 375 if you want. This is especially good if you have covered a decent amount of the calc sequence, since MA 375 has a pre-req of Calc III, while CS 182 has a pre-req of Cal I. Note that, even though Calc III is a pre-req, it is not actually used, but you will need to talk to the professor teaching the course for permission.

If you would like to consider grad school take CS 584 (or 585) during your junior/senior years. They will make you re-consider your intelligence for grad classes..

Holy guacamole the goat strikes again. Incredible guide.