cs24-26fa

Introduction to Computing Systems (Fall 2026)

Staff Handouts Schedule

Welcome to CS 24! We’re super excited to have you here this term!

Most Recent Announcements

Due Next

Calendar

Wellness and Inclusion

It is very important to us that you succeed in CS 24. We provide many extra resources to help you. Prof. Ordentlich and the TAs hold many office hours.

It is also very important to us that you maintain your mental wellness throughout the course. A few points are not worth losing sleep over. Everyone on the course staff is available to chat, and you can always attend office hours for a non-academic conversation if necessary. You can also visit the counseling center if you find you need help beyond the course staff. If you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (either mental health or physical health related), you should contact accessibility services if you have not already. Additionally, if there is something we can do to make your experience better, please let us know.

Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are all core values of this course. All participants in this course must be treated with respect by other members of the community in accordance with the honor code. If you feel unwelcome or unsafe in any way, no matter how minor, we encourage you to talk to Prof. Ordentlich, or one of the Deans. We view these sorts of honor code violations as completely unacceptable, and we take them very seriously.

Tools

Project Registration | Extension Request | DUEs Signup

Course Staff

Instructor

Prof. Ordentlich
he/him
Book an appointment!
Annenberg 122
eordentl@caltech.edu

Teaching Assistants

Reiden Walker
he/they
rrwalker@
Aaron Zhou
he/him
azhou7@
Carolyn Ruan
she/her
cruan@
Max Lim
he/him
mclim@
Maya Yie
she/her
myie@

Handouts

The following is a list of handouts that you might find helpful throughout the course. We’ve categorized them by when they are useful.

Course Information

Syllabus – an overview of the course and administrative information

Policies – an overview of specific course policies (assessments, DUEs, grades)

Collaboration Policy – the course collaboration policy

Projects

Code Quality Guidelines – a list of style requirements for the projects

Tools of the Trade – tutorials for tools that you will need to use in this course

Manual Pages – documentation for relevant standard C functions

Schedule

L00 Mon, Sep 28 Perspectives on Computing Systems
What is this course about? How will grading work? What will the notes look like? What is hexadecimal and why do I care? How do computers represent information?
L01 Wed, Sep 30 Memory
What does an abstraction for memory look like? Give me the details!
DUE Thu, Oct 01
11:30 pm		 pretest (disk) [ guide ]
The main goal of this pre-test is to orient you to what CS 24 will be like. It will also cover representation, use number bases, and review pointers.
L02 Fri, Oct 02 Fixed-Width Integers
How do computers represent integers? What about negative numbers? How does this affect me as a programmer?
DS 4.1-4.7
DUE Sun, Oct 04
09:00 am		 DUEs
L03 Mon, Oct 05 ARM64 Introduction
What is ARM64? Why should I care about assembly? How can I understand basic assembly programs and instructions such as mov and others?
DS 9.1-9.3
L04 Wed, Oct 07 ARM64 Conditionals
How does branching work in ARM64? What is a label? How can we translate if statements into assembly?
DS 9.4
DUE Thu, Oct 08
11:30 pm		 project01 (jvm) [ guide ]
This project involves building a simplified Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to processes bytecode and allow for Java programs to be executed on a custom virtual machine.
L05 Fri, Oct 09 ARM64 Procedures
How do function calls and returns work? What is 'the stack' really?
DS 9.7-9.9, 12
DUE Sun, Oct 11
09:00 am		 DUEs
L06 Mon, Oct 12 More ARM64 Procedures
How does recursion work using the stack?
DS 9.7-9.9, 12
L07 Wed, Oct 14 ARM64 Recursive Procedures
DUE Thu, Oct 15
11:30 pm		 checkpoint
L08 Fri, Oct 16 Midterm Review
DUE Sun, Oct 18
09:00 am		 DUEs
DUE Mon, Oct 19
11:00 am		 Midterm 1
L09 Mon, Oct 19 Midterm 1
L10 Wed, Oct 21
DUE Thu, Oct 22
11:30 pm		 project02 (asmgen) [ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to build a small BASIC-to-ASM compiler to gain a basic understanding of how compilers work.
L11 Fri, Oct 23
DUE Sun, Oct 25
09:00 am		 DUEs
L12 Mon, Oct 26
L13 Wed, Oct 28
DUE Thu, Oct 29
11:30 pm		 project03 (adventure) [ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to write several buffer overflow exploits to perform data injection and eventually arbitrary code execution on a remote machine.
L14 Fri, Oct 30
DUE Sun, Nov 01
09:00 am		 DUEs
L15 Mon, Nov 02
L16 Wed, Nov 04
DUE Thu, Nov 05
11:30 pm		 project04a (malloc) [ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to write an implict list implementation of malloc.
L17 Fri, Nov 06
DUE Sun, Nov 08
09:00 am		 DUEs
L18 Mon, Nov 09
L19 Wed, Nov 11
DUE Thu, Nov 12
11:30 pm		 project04b (malloc) [ guide ]
The main goal of this project is to write an explicit list implementation of malloc.
L20 Fri, Nov 13
DUE Sun, Nov 15
09:00 am		 DUEs
DUE Mon, Nov 16
11:00 am		 Midterm 2
L21 Mon, Nov 16
L22 Wed, Nov 18
L23 Fri, Nov 20
L24 Mon, Nov 23
L25 Wed, Nov 25
DUE Wed, Nov 25
11:30 pm		 project5a
DUE Wed, Nov 25
11:30 pm		 project5b
L26 Mon, Nov 30
DUE Mon, Dec 07
03:30 pm		 Final Exam
DUE Mon, Dec 07
11:30 pm		 project06