Effective for the January 2012 Qualifying Examination
Document Date: February 2009
Specific chapters are indicated where relevant. If not indicated, then entire book is covered.
The content of the Level 1 Qualifying Exams is dictated by readings lists for each area. Courses are taken as an aid to learn the material of the reading lists.
Please see the webpages below for the reading lists for Applications, Systems, and Theory. Specific chapters are indicated where relevant. If not indicated, then entire book is covered.
Graduate courses are one way for the student to learn the material on the Level 1 reading lists. In the majority of cases, a PhD student will take all of these courses, even when they have a background in the course. This issue should be discussed with your graduate advisor. A course may not cover all of the topics on the reading list for a given subject, so even if the course if taken, the reading list must be examined independently.
The courses that help to teach the student the contents of the reading list are as follows:
Applications:
- CS 710 Database Systems I
- CS 760 Principles of Artificial Intelligence
- CS 770 Computer Graphics
Systems:
- CS 501 Programming Languages (typically taken before entering the PhD program)
- CS 720 Advanced Software Engineering
- CS 730 Computer Systems
Theory:
- CS 303 Algorithms and Data Structures (typically taken before entering the PhD program)
- CS 750 Automata Theory
- CS 780 Numerical Computing Foundations
