CS246
Mining Massive Data Sets
Winter 2013

Frequently asked questions


Q: What are the prerequisites for the course?

A: Students are expected to have good programming skills. Knowledge of Java is especially important since you will be writing lots of Hadoop code. In addition to programming basic knowledge of probability/statistics and linear algebra is required as well. You can find a more detailed description of the prerequisites on Course information.

Q: I have a time conflict with this course and cannot attend the lectures in person. Is it still possible for me to take it?

A: Yes it is. This class is recorded and televised by SCPD, and so you will be able to watch the lectures on-line at the SCPD site and any Stanford student can see them here.

Q: How do I submit my assignment?

A: Assignments will be due at the beginning of the class on Thursdays. Write down the date and time of submission on your handed-in assignment. There will be a submission box outside the classroom.

All problem sets should include the cover sheet (PDF, LATEX).

Failure to include the cover sheet will be penalized by 2 points.

Regular (non-SCPD) students need to submit assignments in class or hand it in to the submission box in 1st floor of Gates building, near the east entrance.

Students should print all their work (write-ups, and any other extra results you might have). Please do not email your assignments to us.

SCPD students should submit all their files via SCPD. Additionally, all SCPD students should also include the Homework Routing Form available here. This should appear as the very first page of your homework solutions. Without the form the staff will be unable to return the graded homework to you.

You should submit all your work (write-ups and any other extra results you might have). Make sure you include the coversheet as well as the SCPD routing form. It is best if you submit all your work to SCPD as one single big file (otherwise many times they forget printing all your files). Please do not email your assignments to us.

Submitting code (For Both non-SCPD and SCPD students): See instructions below.

Q: How do I submit code?

All code used should be submitted via the submission site: http://snap.stanford.edu/submit.

If you upload multiple files for the same question, they will all be kept for evaluation as long as they have different names or file extensions. If you upload a file for a question with the same filename and file extension as a previous submission, it will be overwritten in the submission folder.

You also have the option to put all code for a particular question into a single file and upload the parts together as one file.

We will run your code using Moss, a system for detecting software plagiarism.

If you do not have SUNetID use: <your_legal_lastname>_<your_legal_firstname>

Q: Will the recitation sessions be recorded?

A: Yes. The recitation sessions will also be available along with the other recorded lectures.

Q: How do I register to Piazza?

A: Piazza requires @stanford.edu emaill address to be used for registration. If you do not have @stanford.edu address, send us email to cs246-win1213-staff@lists.stanford.edu with your email address and we will register you manually.