COMP 360: Algorithm Design

School of Computer Science

Fall 2024
Draft of August 26th, 2024

Prerequisites:
• One of COMP 251/252, and one of MATH 240/235/363.
Restrictions:
• Not open to students who have taken COMP 362

Course schedule:
• MW from 4:35pm — 5:55pm in MAASS 112
Head Chef:
• Robert Robere, robert.robere@mcgill.ca, Office: MC 309, Office Hours: TBD
Sous Chefs:

• Ben Davis, benjamin.davis2@mail.mcgill.ca

• Stefan Grosser, stefan.grosser@mail.mcgill.ca
• Kusha Sareen, kushagra.sareen@mail.mcgill.ca
• Ben (Tsun Ming) Cheung, tsun.ming.cheung@mail.mcgill.ca
• Rohit Vasishta, rohit.vasishta@mail.mcgill.ca,
• Dmytro Fedorenko, dmytro.fedorenko@mail.mcgill.ca

Course Description/Overview:
Advanced algorithm design and analysis. Linear programming, complexity and NP-completeness,
advanced algorithmic techniques.

Required Course Materials:

The textbook for this course is Algorithm Design by Kleinberg and Tardos (the version does not matter).
There will also be typed lecture notes which follow our daily lectures that will be posted on myCourses.
We will be following the typed lecture notes more closely than the textbook, but the textbook is
exemplary supplementary material.

Course Topics:
Time permitting, we hope to delve into the following topics (actual topics covered may vary from what is
listed below, depending on the progress during the semester).
Network Flows, ∼3 Weeks. Motivation, the Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm and variants. The Max-Flow/Min-
Cut Theorem. Integrality. Applications, including Bipartite Matching, Scheduling, Circulation and More.

Linear Programming, ∼3 Weeks. Motivation and Geometric Intuition. Duality Theory and
Complementary Slackness. The Simplex Algorithm. Applications. Zero-Sum Games and Minimax.

Complexity Theory, ∼3 Weeks. Motivation, Decision Problems and Models of Computation. Complexity
Classes: P, NP, coNP, EXP. Reductions, NP-Hardness and Completeness. The Cook-Levin Theorem.
Applications.

Advanced Topics, ∼3 Weeks. (A sampling of the following topics.) Randomized Algorithms. Integer
Programming and Linear Programming Relaxations. Applications, including Vertex Cover, Set Cover, Load
Balancing, Center Selection. Freivald’s Algorithm and Simple Randomized Approximations. The Fast
Fourier Transform. Karatsuba’s Algorithm for Integer Multiplication. Strassen’s Algorithm for Matrix
Multiplication.

Grading Schemes

Considerations and
Scheme 1 Weight Description Due Date
Late Penalties

Midterm Exam 10% In-person exam, Week of October Weight will be

short- and long- 21st (exact date shifted to final exam
answer questions, TBD) for students who
cumulative up to this miss the midterm for
point. a valid reason.

Final Exam 40% Cumulative, short- To be scheduled Missed final exams

and long-answer during the final are handled by
questions. exam period. Service Point.

Homework (5) 5 x 10% (50% total) Short and long- Released every Late assignments
answer questions. two weeks. receive a 10%
penalty per day.

Considerations and
Scheme 2 Weight Description Due Date
Late Penalties

Midterm Exam 15% In-person exam, Week of October Weight will be

short- and long- 21st (exact date shifted to final exam
answer questions, TBD) for students who
cumulative up to this miss the midterm for
point. a valid reason.
 Final Exam 55% Cumulative, short- To be scheduled Missed final exams
and long-answer during the final are handled by
questions. exam period. Service Point.

Homework (5) 5 x 6% (30% total) Short and long- Released every Late assignments
answer questions. two weeks. receive a 10%
penalty per day.

The final grade will be the maximum of the two grading schemes.

Assignments:

The assignments in this course will be posted on Crowdmark with their deadlines; the link to Crowd-
mark is reachable through myCourses. In general, assignments will be posted and due on Wednesdays at
5:00pm, with two weeks given for each assignment. Assignments must be submitted on the due date
through Crowdmark. Assignments that are submitted by e-mail will not be accepted. Assignments must
be cleanly handwritten or typeset using a suitable program (e.g. LATEX). If they are handwritten and
scanned, please ensure that the assignment is readable — if a solution is not readable, it will not be
graded.

Note that this is a “proofs course”: assignment questions will ask you to formally prove or disprove
various formal mathematical statements. The mathematics background for this course is covered by its
prerequisites, and what is essentially required is fluency in basic discrete mathematics. This means
comfort with things like mathematical induction, graphs, sets, counting, basic discrete probability, and
algorithmic thinking.

Late Policy for Assignments

Late assignments can be submitted after the deadline for up to 2 days, with a 10% penalty for each late
day. Assignments are due by 5:00pm on Wednesdays, so, submitting after the deadline but before
5:00pm on Thursday will incur a 10% penalty, and similarly submitting after 5:00pm on Thursday but
before 5:00pm on Friday incurs a 20% penalty. Assignments will not be accepted after Friday evening.

If you plan to submit an assignment late, then please do not upload a partial version of the assignment
to Crowdmark before the deadline, only to upload a final version later. Crowdmark will not let you
upload an assignment after the due date if you have already submitted. If you find yourself unable to
submit your assignment for this (or any) technical reason, get in contact with the instructor ASAP.

In special circumstances (e.g. serious illness or medical emergencies for yourself or a close relation,
religious observances, bereavement, conflict with a McGill-sanctioned activity, unforeseeable events
such as natural disasters or civil unrest), extensions for assignments will be granted; however, such
extensions must be arranged directly with the instructor. Extensions will not be granted for reasons
such as employment, vacations or other travel, or other assignments due around the due date. For
such reasons you must use the above late policy, and leniency will not be given. If you find yourself
unable to submit an assignment because of special circumstances, please get in contact with the
instructor as soon as possible. In such a situation, arrangements must be made no more than 5 working
days after the due date.

Regrade Policy for Assignments

Regrade requests for any assignment or midterm can only be made up to two weeks after the graded
material in question has been returned to the student. (For example, if Assignment 2 was returned to
you graded on October 8th, then you have until October 22nd to make a regrade request.) To make a
regrade request, the student must e-mail the grader responsible for the question directly, with a
detailed description of the perceived error in grading. Any “general” regrade request without a detailed
argument describing the error will be rejected out-of-hand. If the grader and student are unable to
resolve the disagreement internally, then the disagreement will be resolved directly by the course
instructor.

Communication Policy

Communication in this course (outside of lectures or office hours) will be through two channels: either
the discussion board hosted on Ed or e-mail. Questions about course content must be posted on Ed, so
that all students of the course can benefit from the answers. Please add descriptive titles to the
questions. Please allow up to 24 hours for your questions to be answered on Ed (in general I will be
checking the discussion board every evening). Note that any questions about course content sent to the
instructor or TAs via e-mail will not be answered — you will simply be redirected to ask the question on
the course forum. Email is the preferred way to contact the instructor and the teaching assistants for
personal or administrative issues. Please include “COMP 360” in your subject lines and be descriptive.
Finally, please refer to Ed at least once a week for announcements.

Grading Rubric

Pursuant to the McGill PASL, which came into effect in Fall 2024, we will be using the following rubric to
guide the grading of problem sets and examination questions. In the rubrics below, we have used four
performance standards for each criterion:

1. Mastery: This level signifies exceptional performance that meets or exceeds all
expectations. The student demonstrates a thorough and deep understanding of the
material, showing excellent problem-solving skills, clear and precise communication, and
high-quality work that is virtually error-free.
2. Proficient: This level indicates strong performance that meets most expectations. The
student shows a good understanding of the material, with minor errors or omissions. Work
is generally well-executed, with clear communication and solid problem-solving skills.
3. Developing: This level represents performance that meets some expectations but requires
improvement. The student demonstrates a basic understanding of the material but may
have notable errors, omissions, or misunderstandings. Work shows an attempt at clear
communication and problem-solving but lacks completeness or accuracy.
 4. Beginning: This level reflects performance that does not meet expectations. The student
struggles to understand the material, resulting in significant errors and a lack of clarity in
communication and

Beginning Developing Proficient Mastery

Understanding of the Struggles to Shows a basic Shows a good Demonstrates a deep

problem understand the understanding of the understanding of understanding of the
problem and its problem but may miss the problem, problem, identifying all
requirements, leading some key components identifying most key components and
to significant or misunderstand key components potential challenges.
inaccuracies in the certain aspects. and challenges.
solution.

Strategy Fails to provide a Articulates a strategy Articulates only Articulates a clear

strategy to address that is only partially parts of an strategy to correctly
the problem. useful, key elements appropriate solve the problem,
might be missing, or strategy, but most according to their
inappropriate steps are key elements are understanding of the
provided. present. task at hand.

Communication Provides an Provides an unclear, Provides a Provides a clear,

incoherent inconsistent, or complete complete,
explanation or fails to incomplete explanation. explanation but unambiguous, and
give one. may lack clarity or concise explanation.
conciseness in
some areas.

Calculations and Applies an Applies an imprecise or Applies a mostly Applies a completely

Procedures inappropriate incomplete procedure appropriate appropriate procedure
procedure or fails to that may contain procedure with and makes no
provide it. serious computational minor omissions or computational or
or logical errors. computational logical errors.
Computations are errors.
mostly incorrect.

Validation The validation Implements a weak Implements a good Implements a

strategy is weak and strategy to validate the strategy to validate structured strategy to
incomplete. satisfaction of few of the satisfaction of validate the satisfaction
the problem's some of the of all the problem's
requirements. problem's requirements.
requirements.

Assessments in this course are governed by the Policy on Assessment of Student Learning (PASL), which provides a set of
common principles to guide the assessment of students’ learning. Also see Faculty of Science-specific rules on the
implementation of PASL.

Legally mandated academic accommodations are handled by Student Accessibility and Achievement. For more information see
https://www.mcgill.ca/access-achieve/
Academic considerations for assessments that are missed or late for valid reasons will be provided at the instructor's discretion.
As per the new Quebec guidelines, medical notes are not required for absences of less than 5 days. Note that repeated, similar
requests for academic considerations in this course are unlikely to be granted.

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in
French written work that is to be graded. This does not apply to courses in which acquiring proficiency in a language is one of
the objectives.” (Approved by Senate on 21 January 2009)

Conformément à la Charte des droits de l’étudiant de l’Université McGill, chaque étudiant a le droit de soumettre en français ou
en anglais tout travail écrit devant être noté, sauf dans le cas des cours dont l’un des objets est la maîtrise d’une langue.
(Énoncé approuvé par le Sénat le 21 janvier 2009)

McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of
cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures” (Approved
by Senate on 29 January 2003) (See McGill’s guide to academic honesty for more information).

Having said this: please work with and talk to other students in the course! I absolutely encourage you to work together — it is
the best way to learn. What is important is that the final, submitted work is your own.

In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or assessment tasks in this course
are subject to change and students will be advised of the change.