Excelsior College BSCIS

I was guessing the "data structures and algorithms" prereq is referring to a course exclusively in data structures (BSTs, queues, graphs, stacks, etc.).

you have basic and intermediate courses that involve algorithm analysis and design, procedural, and basic OOP concepts THEN, once you are fairly fluent in designing algorithms (and programming fundamentals), you take a course in data structures.

Just like taking an architecture/assembly language course before taking a more advanced OS concepts course.

Bill

 

From what I've seen, the first steps are to get you used to the program and to teach you a language or two. After that, one of the first courses that you take would be one in data structures. As you point out, the main purpose of this course is to go over stacks, queues, trees and the like. You would also learn some basic algorithms such as bubble sort and binary search, because a big part of the course is learning how to use these data structures to solve such problems. I remember studying over 5 different algorithms in this course. We also touch on big O notation. Data structures is also an ideal co-requisite with Intro course in Discrete Math/Structures because that course usually introduces you to complexity and a more in depth look at the nature of algorithms.

After both of those courses, you would then take a course dedicated to algorithms, and 99.9% of the time, you would use the big white book on Algorithms by Cormen. In this course you really study the works of Knuth and Djikstra in detail. You make a science out of measuring complexity, and you understand more than the basics. This course is really important because most MSCS programs I have seen involve taking a course in "Advanced Algorithms" which builds on top of it.

I understand that this is going to vary from institution to institution. For instance, most schools require discrete before a course in linear algebra, but I have seen at least one school where Linear is a PreReq for discrete, and the latter is upper level! I'd like to know the rationale behind that! Anyway, good information for all, and I still think that for some one pursuing an MSCS, courses in both data structures and algorithms are good ideas. The order in which you take them depends on the schools....

Daniel