CS371p: Final Entry

How well do you think the course conveyed those takeaways?

I think that the course conveyed the takeaways very well. Prior to taking this class, a lot of the concepts, library functions, and data structures were black boxes to me — working with them was like with magic. However, through taking this class, learning extensively and thoroughly about everything, I was able to better understand the concepts, the implementations, and the things that go under the hood.

Were there any other particular takeaways for you?

I thought a particularly important takeaway is being able to thoroughly understand why particular certain differences happen to influence the code the way they do. For example, what the difference is between all the different constructors, the differences between similar data structures, etc.

How did you feel about cold calling?

Cold calling can be kind of nerve-wracking, but I do think it is a useful mechanism to get students involved and participating in the class. Furthermore, I think it really helps the student understand the concept well to be grilled about the behaviors of the topic at hand.

How did you feel about office hours?

Unfortunately, I did not attend office hours, but I did make sure to ask questions and clarifications on Piazza!

How did you feel about lab sessions?

Unfortunately, I did not attend lab sessions, but I did make sure to ask questions and clarifications on Piazza!

What required tool did you not know and now find very useful?

I didn’t know about checktestdata! It seems very useful for generating random inputs to test the robustness of our implementations.

You should have read five papers that describe SOLID design : Single responsibility, Open-closed principle, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation, Dependency inversion. What insights have they given you?

I think the information that i’ve gotten is super interesting — there are many things I learned that were formerly just “this is tradition”, or things that I chose to do solely because I had seen them done that way, but the articles gave a very convincing argument on why things are the way they are.

You should have read two papers that advised minimizing getters and setters. What insights have they given you?

Getters and setters have always been a cornerstone of my APCS class, so it was pretty strange to see it trying to get minimized. However, the points provided make sense, and I will be utilizing them less in the future.

Give me your suggestions for improving the course.

I thought this was a great course that helped me really learn the fundamentals very thoroughly. I loved the structure of the class, but perhaps there could be more time for the daily quizzes. Some of them were quite involved, and I felt like I didn’t have enough time to finish all of them.