I can't believe they still teach red-black trees. The complexity distracts so much from learning. Both AVL and weight-balanced trees are simpler to implement and easier to understand.
CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
61–70 of 76 posts
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#62Has anyone had any success using course pages like this for guiding their FAANG interview prep? thinking about trying some of these projects to refresh my brain for an upcoming interview.
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#63Forgive me for the ignorance (I'm a front end dev), but can someone explain to me why this made it to the front page of hacker news when there are already many resources for learning data structures? I feel like I could just go through the docs for for java / kotlin collections lib and cracking the code interview, and get a good understanding of DS / algos. What would this offer beyond that? (this is a genuine questi…
CTCI is not really useful for learning data structures, and I personally don’t think it’s a great book for learning how to interview either. Leetcode IMO is more effective, and once you feel comfortable I would look at classes like 61B and 170 (another Berkeley CS class) because they teach you the details of how data structures and algorithms work.
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#64Has anyone had any success using course pages like this for guiding their FAANG interview prep? thinking about trying some of these projects to refresh my brain for an upcoming interview.
I wouldn’t do 61B projects to learn how to interview; they aren’t too relevant because they focus more on writing software rather than data structures (and aren’t of the greatest quality IMO).
The lectures on heaps, arrays, linked lists, and MST are worth reviewing. Also, I would try implementing each DS/A from scratch, and do Leetcode to brush up. If you want to learn algorithms super well, then do the first half of CS170 (stop after DP) from Berkeley, including the homeworks, which are challenging.
Credentials: did undergrad at Berkeley, also worked at FAANG.
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#65I can't believe they still teach red-black trees. The complexity distracts so much from learning. Both AVL and weight-balanced trees are simpler to implement and easier to understand.
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Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#66If you like this, I strongly encourage you to also check out Harvard’s CS50. Lectures are all on YouTube. https://cs50.harvard.edu
I’ve been curious for a while now, if anyone’s had success completing these courses via YouTube or open courseware or whatever, and citing them as a proxy to an actual undergrad degree on a resume. The content seems great, and other than, I guess, interaction with professors and other students, I’m unsure what the difference would be in outcomes?
For the full CS61A course experience, you would want to do the assignments and even try the exams, which are fairly difficult (they are the grade differentiator, for the most part). I wrote up a post about how to audit 61A as an external learner:
http://blog.pamelafox.org/2022/07/how-to-audit-cs61a.html
(I taught it for a few semesters)
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand what your question is? How is the 2023 course material taught at UC Berkeley being publicly accessible not exactly the thing you're asking about?
I'll simplify. In 2023, there are much more effective ways to teach computer science than tossing lecture videos up on a web site with homework assignments. MIT pioneered that in the nineties with OCW. It was a good idea at the time. Now, we have ways of doing online learning which are an order of magnitude more engaging, and lead to much better learning outcomes. I would never use the Berkeley stuff with kids. I mig…
> MIT pioneered that in the nineties with OCW
It was early 2000s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare#History
> The OpenCourseWare movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online for its timms initiative (Tübinger Internet Multimedia Server).[1] The OCW movement only took off with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University[2] in October 2002.
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#68I can't believe they still teach red-black trees. The complexity distracts so much from learning. Both AVL and weight-balanced trees are simpler to implement and easier to understand.
Red-black trees are much more common in the industry and have the advantage of building on 2-3-4 trees (though arguably the only reason to know 2-3-4 is red-black).
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#69Forgive me for the ignorance (I'm a front end dev), but can someone explain to me why this made it to the front page of hacker news when there are already many resources for learning data structures? I feel like I could just go through the docs for for java / kotlin collections lib and cracking the code interview, and get a good understanding of DS / algos. What would this offer beyond that? (this is a genuine questi…
Data structures are often the key to making things fast. Knowing which and why is important. Courses like this are also very well organized and delivered making time spent learning this content more rewarding.
Re: CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll simplify. In 2023, there are much more effective ways to teach computer science than tossing lecture videos up on a web site with homework assignments. MIT pioneered that in the nineties with OCW. It was a good idea at the time. Now, we have ways of doing online learning which are an order of magnitude more engaging, and lead to much better learning outcomes. I would never use the Berkeley stuff with kids. I mig…
Hi, I used to TA for 61B. This isn’t an online course though. You’ll notice a small detail at the top “245 Li Ka Shing” which is the lecture hall used. Granted most students don’t attend because the lectures are diligently posted online on the website. What’s not captured on the website are twice a week discussion small groups where one TA to 20-30 students work through problems in a group setting. There’s a lot of c…
I got that, and it's great that it's public. That has a lot of impact, a lot of it auxiliary.
The key question is suitability-to-purpose. Without the small group work and the collaboration, a web site like this isn't what I'd like to point strangers on the internet wanting to learn algorithms. Without that, something more is needed. Two decades ago, we were figuring out what that "something more" ought to be so learners can be successful independently online. Today, we know.
I'm not asking Berkeley to do that additional work. It's a ton of work (probably a half-million dollars in human time). I'm just surprised no one has done it.
To make an analogy, if someone needs a car, giving them plans to build one is less than constructive. But that doesn't take away the merits of having an open-source car. It's just a different purpose.