COMS W4995

Offering archive · Current offering

Fall 2026

Competitive Programming
Columbia University · COMS W4995

Open CourseWorks ↗

01 · Overview

Fall 2026

Current offering
Section(s)
007
CourseWorks
251639
Format
Mondays, 7:00–9:30 PM · 451 Computer Science Building · in person
Instructor
Christian Yongwhan Lim
Archive status
Official logistics confirmed; topics may move with the contest calendar and the pace of the class

02 · Syllabus snapshot

Workload and assessment

Roughly four homework problems per week, at least one solution presentation, and optional credit paths through interview practice, individual contests, ICPC team contests, independent problems, reviews, and problemsetting.

Assessment record: Flexible point-based assessment: 40 points for a Pass, 60 for a B, and 80 for an A. There is no curve, ranking quota, rating requirement, live-solve gate, midterm, or final exam.

Context.

The first half emphasizes interview-relevant patterns and reliable implementation. The second half develops regional ICPC breadth and team execution, then closes with an explicit bridge to the North America Championship. Detailed assignments and deadlines are published in CourseWorks.

03 · Topic record

Known topic coverage

  • Contest workflow, complexity, testing, debugging, arrays, strings, and scanning patterns
  • Core data structures, greedy methods, trees, graph traversal, and interview communication
  • Shortest paths, disjoint sets, spanning trees, and dynamic programming
  • Range queries, strings, number theory, combinatorics, flow, matching, and geometry
  • Regional contest strategy, upsolving, and team execution
  • North America Championship bridge and NAC-style team simulation

This list reflects recoverable syllabus or offering evidence; it is not expanded beyond the source record.

04 · Materials and provenance

What is publicly available

A public six-section syllabus aligned with the E6998 course format, a thirteen-meeting schedule, and a downloadable calendar are available on this site.

Privacy boundary.

Student names, grades, submissions, announcements, and restricted course files are not reproduced. Original Drive and CourseWorks documents remain in their existing access controls.