CS32: nail every assessment, not just read the notes
Your complete guide to University of California, Los Angeles's introduction to computer science ii course. See where the marks are, work real practice questions, and study with an AI tutor that knows CS32.
Sia generates CS32 practice questions, walks through data abstraction and linked lists step by step, and quizzes you on the material the heaviest assessments weight most heavily.
Find what is wrong
What is the worst-case running time of this function on a vector of n integers?
bool hasDuplicate(const vector<int>& v) {
for (size_t i = 0; i < v.size(); i++)
for (size_t j = i + 1; j < v.size(); j++)
if (v[i] == v[j]) return true;
return false;
}The inner loop runs n-1, n-2, ..., 1 times across the outer iterations.
Early return helps only when a duplicate exists; the worst case has none.
Sorting first gives O(n log n); a hash set gives O(n) expected: both are standard exam follow-ups.
The trap: Counting the nested loop as O(n) because the inner loop starts at i+1. Halving the constant does not change the order. classic slip!
One exam decides 35% of your grade. A score below 40 may fail the course. This whole page is built around that.
Overview
What CS32 is, and where it sits
CS 32 Introduction to Computer Science II is UCLA's data structures course in C++ and the second course in the CS sequence. The offering documented here is Winter 2026, taught in three lecture sections by Carey Nachenberg and David Smallberg with eight discussion-section teaching assistants.
The quarter opens with data abstraction, pointers, dynamic arrays and resource management, then linked lists, stacks and queues, inheritance and polymorphism and object-oriented design. Recursion, templates, iterators and the STL follow, then algorithmic efficiency and sorting, trees, tables and hash tables, priority queues and heaps, and graphs.
The grade is four projects worth 1%, 8%, 8% and 8%, five homeworks worth 15%, Midterm 1 9%, Midterm 2 16% and a three-hour final 35%. Project and homework marks are capped at 30 points above the mean exam score, and a final below 40 may fail the course regardless of total.
Always treat your own course outline and the exam timetable as authoritative.
Difficulty & time commitment
Is CS32 hard, and how much time does it take?
CS32 is manageable if you keep a weekly rhythm and treat the back half as the main event. The pattern is consistent: it starts gently and steepens, and the heaviest assessment is the part that separates grades.
The difficulty curve and the assessment weighting point the same way: the back half is harder and worth more. Front-loading effort there is the highest-return decision in the course.
Is this course for you
Who tends to do well, and who tends to struggle
You will likely do well if
- You finished CS 31 comfortable with pointers and classes.
- You can plan a multi-week project and start Project 4 before finals week.
- You do every homework problem, not just the ones you guess are graded.
- You enjoy reasoning about running time and invariants.
You may struggle if
- Pointers and dynamic memory were shaky in CS 31; they are assumed from week 1.
- You bank on projects to offset exams; the 30-point cap and the 40-point final rule prevent it.
- You leave Project 4 until after the final.
- You submit code that compiles on only one of the two required compilers.
- Implement each structure from scratch once (linked list, BST, hash table, heap) before using the STL version.
- Keep a big-O table of every operation on every structure covered.
- Practise recursion by writing the base case first, on paper.
- Use Midterm 2's 16% weight as the signal: weeks 5-7 material is where the grade is decided.
Syllabus
The 9 topics, week block by week block
The exam-weight marker on each topic shows where the marks concentrate. The amber topics carry the highest exam weight.
T1 · Data abstraction and C++ classes
Weeks 1-2Review, classes, pointers, dynamic arrays, resource management.
T2 · Linked lists, stacks and queues
Weeks 2-3Node-based structures and their operations.
T3 · Inheritance and polymorphism
Weeks 3-4Base and derived classes, virtual functions, OO design principles.
T5 · Templates, iterators and the STL
Week 6Generic programming and the standard containers.
T6 · Algorithmic efficiency and sorting
Weeks 6-7Big-O, elementary and divide-and-conquer sorts.
T7 · Trees and tree-based tables
Weeks 7-8Binary search trees, traversals, tables.
T8 · Hash tables
Weeks 8-9Hashing, collisions, load factor.
T9 · Priority queues, heaps and graphs
Weeks 9-10Heap operations and graph representations and traversals.
How it's assessed
Assessment structure
| Component | Weight | Format & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Project 1 | 1% | Warm-up C++ project. Week 2, due 11pm. 12.5% per hour late. |
| Project 2 | 8% | Data-abstraction project. Week 4, due 11pm. 12.5% per hour late. |
| Project 3 (two parts) | 8% | Two-part project on recursion and STL. Weeks 7-9, due 11pm. 12.5% per hour late. |
| Project 4 | 8% | Large capstone project. Week 11 (finals week), due 11pm. 12.5% per hour late. |
| Homeworks (five) | 15% | Five written homeworks with small programs; not every problem is graded and you do not know which. Weeks 3-10. 12.5% per hour late. |
| Midterm 1 (about one hour, week 4 evening) | 9% | About one hour, evening sitting. Thursday of week 4, 6-7:30pm window. Mandatory. |
| Midterm 2 (about one hour, week 7 evening) | 16% | About one hour, evening sitting. Thursday of week 7, 6-7:30pm window. Mandatory. |
| Final exam (3 hours, Saturday end of week 10) | 35% | Three-hour cumulative final. Saturday at the end of week 10, 11:30am-2:30pm. A score below 40 may fail the course. |
- The eight components sum to 100. Two hurdles apply: a final exam score below 40 may fail the course regardless of total, and the combined project and homework score (scaled to 100) is capped at 30 points above the mean of the three exam scores. Regrade requests must be made within one week.
- Two mandatory evening midterms of about one hour in weeks 4 and 7 on lecture material, and a three-hour cumulative final on the Saturday ending week 10. Expect code-reading, complexity and data-structure design questions.
This is a coursework course. Coursework carries 65% of the grade and the final exam (3 hours, saturday end of week 10) is the single heaviest piece at 35%, so steady work across the semester decides your result more than any one sitting. A score below 40 may fail the course.
Final exam timing: During the examination period. Confirm the exact date and venue on your exam timetable.
How to actually pass it
A weekly rhythm, two checklists, and the traps to avoid
The course rewards consistency over cramming, and practice over re-reading. Here is the loop that works, then what to have nailed before each exam.
The weekly loop
Before the mid-semester checklist
- Implement a linked-list insert, delete and traversal without leaks.
- Write a class with a destructor, copy constructor and assignment operator.
- Explain virtual functions and when polymorphism applies.
- Write and trace a recursive function on a list or tree.
Before the final heaviest topics
- Give the big-O of each sort and each container operation.
- Insert, search and delete in a binary search tree.
- Explain hashing, collisions and load factor.
- Perform heap insert and remove and a breadth-first graph traversal.
The mistakes that cost marks
Memory leaks and double frees. Resource management is week 1 and is tested on every exam after.
Off-by-one recursion. Missing or wrong base cases are the most common recursion error.
Starting Project 4 late. It is large, due in finals week and loses 12.5% per hour.
Teaching team
Who teaches CS32
The bios below are factual. We do not rate lecturers; any star ratings are submitted by students who have taken CS32.
Teaching team as listed in the course materials reviewed. AskSia does not rate lecturers; star ratings are submitted by students who have taken CS32.
Formula & concept sheet
The vocabulary and formulas you must own
- Data abstraction
- Separating what an operation does from how it is implemented.
- Linked list
- Nodes connected by pointers.
- Polymorphism
- Calling a derived-class function through a base-class pointer.
- Recursion
- A function defined in terms of smaller instances of itself.
- Big-O notation
- An upper bound on growth of running time.
- Binary search tree
- A tree with ordered keys allowing logarithmic search on average.
- Hash table
- An array indexed by a hash of the key.
- Heap
- A complete binary tree satisfying the heap-order property.
- Graph traversal
- Visiting vertices in breadth-first or depth-first order.
Set texts
The prescribed reading
The syllabus references map straight onto these.
Data Abstraction and Problem Solving with C++: Walls and Mirrors
.
Where it fits
Prerequisites, related courses & why it matters
Prerequisite: CS 31. 4 units; lecture 4 hours, discussion 2 hours, outside study 6 hours per week.
Your CS32 study toolkit
Study the course with Sia, not just read about it
Each tool already knows CS32: your syllabus, your texts, and where the marks are. Grouped by how you study, from first contact to exam week.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is CS 32 hard?
Moderately hard on the six-factor rubric: 60% exams with a 40-point final hurdle, a capped assignment score and a large Project 4 due in finals week.
What is the assessment breakdown?
Project 1 1%, Project 2 8%, Project 3 8%, Project 4 8%, homeworks 15%, Midterm 1 9%, Midterm 2 16%, final 35%, per the Winter 2026 syllabus.
Who teaches it?
Carey Nachenberg (Lecture 1) and David Smallberg (Lectures 2 and 3) in Winter 2026, with eight discussion-section teaching assistants.
Is there a required textbook?
No. Carrano and Henry's Walls and Mirrors (6th to 8th edition) is recommended, and Nachenberg's online slides cover the material.
Which homework problems are graded?
Not all, and the syllabus says you will not know which; the intent is that you do every problem.
When is Project 4 due?
In Winter 2026 it was moved to Tuesday 17 March, during finals week, after the final exam on 14 March.
Study CS32 with Sia
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