Important note: you may notice that the following course structure differs from previous offerings of CS 70. These changes are motivated by what we have observed in previous semesters and our subsequent desire for students to learn dense content in a structured, manageable, and fair way. While we are incredibly excited by this new format, there are still details to figure out along the way as we experiment and learn. We will do our absolute best to be transparent and clear with our students, but please be patient and communicative with us throughout the semester as we attempt to design an optimal learning experience in CS 70. Wishing you all the best!
The primary methods for engaging with the course material are through lectures, discussion sections, homework, and the notes. All are important; quizzes (weekly) and exams (midterm/final) will test a mix of the material from these sources.
This semester’s offering of CS70 will graded using specifications grading. Over the course of the semester you will gain points through passing quizzes on topics, correctly completing “synthesis” questions on exams, and engaging with the course through homework & discussion.
More specifically, for every topic we cover in CS70:
Midterms and finals will be an opportunity to show the breadth of your knowledge through “synthesis” questions and re-attempt passing a topic that you are yet to pass. Please see the “Grading” section for exact grading guidelines.
Live lecture will take place 3:30pm - 5:00pm on Tuesday and Thursday at Li Ka Shing 245. Lectures will be recorded and made available through bCourses roughly an hour after lecture is over. It is highly recommended that you attend or watch the lecture the day it is released.
At the start of the semester, you will be assigned to discussion section using a sign-up form that will be on Ed on the first day of class.
Every Wednesday (starting with the second Wednesday of the semester), your section will meet to review the previous week’s topics through a weekly worksheet. These worksheets are published at the beginning of the week. The solutions are published after all sections on Wednesday are complete.
The discussion sections are designed not to cover new material but to consolidate the material covered in lectures and in the notes. They are an opportunity for you to ask questions that came up while completing the previous week’s homework and to prepare for Friday’s quiz.
There is no textbook for this class. Instead, there is a set of comprehensive lecture notes posted on the front page for each lecture. Make sure you visit the notes after every lecture. Each note may be covered in one or more lectures.
Distinguished Alum Megan says, “When I took the course, I studied the notes until I was able to comfortably reproduce all of the proofs.”
Office hours will be in-person. The OH queue will be hosted at oh.eecs70.org. Please see the calendar for details on location and timing. Office hour schedules for staff members are listed on the staff page.
We encourage participation. Participation includes attending lectures live, contributing in discussion, asking and answering questions on Ed, visiting OH, and more. The more you engage with the class, the more fun it is and the better you do.
We will release weekly posts every week on Mondays via Ed. These weekly emails are required reading and contain important logistical information and resources to help you succeed in the course.
The course is split into two halves: discrete mathematics and probability theory. Each half has fourteen subtopics, as listed below:
| Discrete Mathematics | Probability Theory |
|---|---|
| Propositional Logic | Counting |
| Direct Proofs | Probability Foundations |
| Proof Techniques | Combinatorial Proofs |
| Induction | Conditional Probability & Bayes |
| Modular Arithmetic | Independence & Combination of Events |
| CRT | Random Variables & Discrete Distributions |
| RSA | Expectations & Linearity |
| Polynomials | Joint Distributions & Independence of RVs |
| Secret Sharing & ECCs | Variance & Covariance |
| Graphs | Concentration Inequalities |
| Graph Induction | Continuous Probability & Distributions |
| Stable Matching | Gaussian Distribution & Central Limit Theorem |
| Countability | Markov Chains & Conditional Expectation |
| Computability | TBC |
Each topic will appear once on a quiz. Due to the midterm, there will not be a quiz on stable matching. Instead, there will be two opportunities to pass this topic in the midterm.
The probability theory topics may change before the probability section of the course begins.
Likewise, due to RRR week, there will not be a quiz covering: Gaussian Distribution & Central Limit Theorem, and Markov Chains & Conditional Expectation. There will be two opportunities to pass these two topics on the final.
Homework is assigned after lecture on Thursday of each week and covers the topics from both lectures that week. It is due the following Wednesday at 4:00pm, with a grace period until 6:00pm. We will also release the solutions that Wednesday (after the due time).
Homework is graded based on completion. To receive a passing grade, each problem should have a fully written solution, whether right or wrong. Additionally, pages must be correctly assigned on Gradescope.
Some questions on the homework will be marked as “stretch” questions. For these questions, write-ups do not need to be complete but, for a passing grade, you should write a proof to the point that you got stuck on.
If, after reading the official solutions, you are unsure about one of your solutions to a question and would like feedback from a member of course staff, you can request feedback using that week’s request for feedback form. This form will be released on Ed every Thursday morning alongside the official solutions and will be due the next Monday at 11:59pm. Our aim is to respond within a week to feedback requests. We’re able to offer feedback on one question per week, but additional support / questions can be asked in office hours.
Every Friday (starting with the second Friday of the semester), during your section, you will take a quiz on the previous week’s topics. These quizzes will be thirty minutes long and start at thirty minutes past the hour. Due to limited room capacity, you are required to take the quiz with your assigned discussion section.
Quizzes will have two sections, one section will cover the previous Tuesday’s lecture topic, and one section will cover the previous Thursday’s lecture topic. Parts will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. See more in the “Grading” section below.
Solutions to the quiz will be released on Saturday. If you miss a quiz, you can attempt to pass the topic in the midterm or final.
Midterms and finals will feature a small set of “synthesis questions”, these are more challenging questions compared to the questions asked on quizzes and they will assess your ability to use knowledge from multiple areas of the course to answer questions.
Additionally, during the midterm and final, you will have the opportunity to re-attempt any topics that you did not pass the initial quiz for. For each topic covered before the midterm, you will be able to attempt it again on the midterm. For topics covered after the midterm, you’ll be able to make a second attempt on the final. The topic questions will be equivalent to the difficulty of the questions in quizzes.
We will have one midterm and a final and both will be conducted in-person. If you are unable to attend the exam in-person, please email fa26@eecs70.org with details about your situation.
Unfortunately, due to large enrollment, we are unable to accommodate final exam conflicts with other classes; we strongly discourage enrollment in another class with conflicting lectures and/or final exam.
There will be no alternate exams except as required by campus rules. If you have extended time accommodations for tests from DSP, please make sure that you have enough available hours around the times of the regularly scheduled exams.
You must attend all exams to pass the class. We will consider granting an incomplete given extenuating circumstances that are communicated with appropriate documentation to course staff.
We will use Ed as the ‘one-stop shop’ throughout the semester: for a Q&A forum and official announcements. Enrollment in Ed is mandatory. If you have questions about anything related to the course, please post them on Ed rather than emailing the professors or TAs. Please do not post anything resembling a solution to a homework problem before it’s due. See the Ed Etiquette section for more on using Ed. To join the class on Ed, click the link in the header of the page.
All homework will be submitted through Gradescope. All homework, quiz, and exam grades will be returned through Gradescope. If you have not been enrolled in our Gradescope, please see Ed for instructions.
Please use Ed for all technical questions. If you have a more specific administrative question or any feedback, please send an email to the course administrative account fa26@eecs70.org. Emails sent to this account are only seen by the instructors and head TAs.
As mentioned earlier, this semester’s offering of CS 70 will be based on specifications grading. Our goal is for you to know where your grade stands at any given time. Your final letter grade will be determined by:
Topic passes are determined by your score on weekly quizzes on Friday. These quizzes will cover the topics you had been seeing in the previous week’s lectures, the homework due the week of the quiz, and the discussion section on the Wednesday before the quiz. Each quiz will list its passing criteria; typically, quizzes will have one question per topic and passing a topic requires answering its question fully correct.
If you are unable to pass a topic, you will have another attempt to pass the topic on the midterm and final exams. More details about the midterm and final exams will be released closer to their dates.
Synthesis questions are more difficult and overarching questions that will be on the midterm and final exams. These can be on any topic covered in the class up to that point and can:
There will be two synthesis questions on the midterm and three on the final.
Mastery points can help you get a solid or plus letter grade (A- to A/A+, B- to B/B+, C- to C/C+). You gain 1 mastery point for each topic or synthesis question passed beyond what is needed for the base tier you are currently in.
Engagement points can help you get a solid letter grade (A- to A, B- to B, C- to C). You gain 1 engagement point for each complete HW turned in (14 total) or (non-quiz) discussion section attended (12 total). Engagement points should be thought of as a safety net for a solid letter grade even if not enough mastery points could be achieved.
Given these definitions, your final grade is determined as follows:
1) What grade tier (C- tier, B- tier, A- tier) are you in?
| Requirement | C- | B- | A- |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topics passed (out of 28) | 17+ | 21+ | 25+ |
| Synthesis questions passed (out of 5) | 1+ | 2+ | 3+ |
| Minimum number of discrete math & probability topics passed |
7 each | 9 each | 11 each |
To achieve a grade tier, you must fulfill all three requirements. We reserve the right to change the grading tier criteria throughout the semester. We do not expect to make changes, however, any potential changes will only ever be in your favor.
2) How do you go beyond the minus (A-/B-/C-)?
To get to the solid letter grade of your tier (A- to A, B- to B, C- to C), you can either: earn 13/26 engagement points or earn 2 mastery points
Finally, to get to the plus letter grade of your tier (A- to A+, B- to B+, C- to C+), you must earn 4 mastery points.
UC Berkeley is committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of its diverse student body including students with disabilities. If you anticipate or experience any barriers to learning in this course, please feel welcome to send your concerns to fa26@eecs70.org.
If you have a disability, or think you may have a disability, you can work with the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) to request an official accommodation. The Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) is the campus office responsible for authorizing disability-related academic accommodations, in cooperation with the students themselves and their instructors. You can find more information about DSP, including contact information and the application process here: dsp.berkeley.edu.
Students who need academic accommodations or have questions about their accommodations should contact DSP, located at 260 Student Center. Students may call 642-0518 (voice), 642-6376 (TTY), or e-mail dsp@berkeley.edu.
We take academic misconduct very seriously. Using any kind of homework or exam solutions (for example, from previous semesters) on a currently active assignment is strictly prohibited and is academic misconduct. Consequences of academic misconduct include negative points for the corresponding assignment, a failing grade in the class, and/or a referral to the Office of Student Conduct.
Your attention is drawn to the Department’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty. In particular, you should be aware that copying or sharing solutions, in whole or in part, from other students in the class (or any other source without acknowledgment) is a violation of our policies. Any student found to be violating policies risks automatically failing the class and being referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
Regarding usage of LLMs, we’ve created the following guidelines to help ensure that your homework submissions align with our policies for academic conduct.
You are welcome to work on homework problems in study groups of two to five people; however, you must always write up the solutions on your own. Similarly, you may use books or online resources to help solve homework problems, but you must always credit all such sources in your writeup and you must never copy material verbatim or with minor changes.
We believe that most students can distinguish between helping other students and violating the policies described above. You may discuss approaches but your solution must be written by you and you only. You should acknowledge everyone whom you have worked with or who has given you any significant ideas about the homework.
We are excited to teach you this semester! For tips and advice on how to do well in this course, please see our survival tips page.
Always feel free to contact us via email or visit us during office hours if you feel unsure about your progress in the course, or would just like to reach out. We are here to support you and help you succeed!