Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms using Python

By Prof. Madhavan Mukund | Chennai Mathematical Institute

Learners enrolled: 46907 | Exam registration: 10376

ABOUT THE COURSE :

This course is an introduction to programming and problem solving in Python. It does not assume any prior knowledge of programming. Using some motivating examples, the course quickly builds up basic concepts such as conditionals, loops, functions, lists, strings and tuples. It goes on to cover searching and sorting algorithms, dynamic programming and backtracking, as well as topics such as exception handling and using files. As far as data structures are concerned, the course covers Python dictionaries as well as classes and objects for defining user defined datatypes such as linked lists and binary search trees.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Students in any branch of mathematics/science/engineering, 1st year

PREREQUISITES: School level mathematics.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: This course should be of value to any company requiring programming skills.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Computer Science and Engineering Artificial Intelligence Data Science Foundations of Computing Programming
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	22 Jul 2024
End Date :	13 Sep 2024
Enrollment Ends :	05 Aug 2024
Exam Registration Ends :	16 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	22 Sep 2024 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1:
Informal introduction to programmin, algorithms and data structures viagcd
Downloading and installing Python
gcd in Python: variables, operations, control flow - assignments, condition-als, loops, functions

Week 2:
Python: types, expressions, strings, lists, tuples
Python memory model: names, mutable and immutable values
List operations: slices etc
Binary search
Inductive function denitions: numerical and structural induction
Elementary inductive sorting: selection and insertion sort
In-place sorting

Week 3:
Basic algorithmic analysis: input size, asymptotic complexity, O() notation
Arrays vs lists
Merge sort
Quicksort
Stable sorting

Week 4:
Dictionaries
More on Python functions: optional arguments, default values
Passing functions as arguments
Higher order functions on lists: map, lter, list comprehension

Week 5:
Exception handling
Basic input/output
Handling files
String processing

Week 6:
Backtracking: N Queens, recording all solutions
Scope in Python: local, global, nonlocal names
Nested functions
Data structures: stack, queue
Heaps

Week 7:
Abstract datatypes
Classes and objects in Python
"Linked" lists: find, insert, delete
Binary search trees: find, insert, delete
Height-balanced binary search trees

Week 8:
Effcient evaluation of recursive definitions: memoization
Dynamic programming: examples
Other programming languages: C and manual memory management
Other programming paradigms: functional programming

Instructor bio

Prof. Madhavan Mukund

Chennai Mathematical Institute

Madhavan Mukund studied at IIT Bombay (BTech) and Aarhus University (PhD). He has been a faculty member at Chennai Mathematical Institute since 1992, where he is presently Professor and Director. His main research area is formal verification. He has active research collaborations within and outside India and serves on international conference programme committees and editorial boards of journals.

He has served as President of both the Indian Association for Research in Computing Science (IARCS) (2011-2017) and the ACM India Council (2016-2018). He has been the National Coordinator of the Indian Computing Olympiad since 2002. He served as the Executive Director of the International Olympiad in Informatics from 2011-2014.

In addition to the NPTEL MOOC programme, he has been involved in organizing IARCS Instructional Courses for college teachers. He is a member of ACM India's Education Committee. He has contributed lectures on algorithms to the Massively Empowered Classroom (MEC) project of Microsoft Research and the QEEE programme of MHRD.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: 22 September 2024 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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