#644 overall
6.1200J Mathematics for Computer Science
MIT OCW
1 recommender · 1 thread · recommended in 1 year, 2025 · score 0.7
MIT's undergraduate discrete math and probability course covering proofs, graph theory, number theory, state machines and invariants, counting, and probability, with lecture notes, readings, and a free text (Mathematics for Computer Science). The course is built on the MCS text, whose problems are praised for their quality.
Commenters single out the lecture on state machines and invariants (using the 15-puzzle) as very good and call the problems in the MCS text very nice.
Mathematicsintermediatefreevideo lectures#discrete math#proofs#probability#state machines#invariants#mcs text
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The page listing topics (just like the playlist):
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-1200j-mathematics-for-computer...
Lecture notes:
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-1200j-mathematics-for-computer...
There are a few unusual parts, like the last lecture ("Large Deviations"). I'm not familiar with the entire course, but IMO the lecture on state machines is very good; it discusses invariants and uses an approchable example (the 15-puzzle).
Text (last revised 2018): https://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.042/spring18/mcs.pdf
If you have never looked at it, the problems there are very nice. For example, instead of some dry boolean logic problem about A and Not(B), you have Problem 3.17 on page 81, which begins:
This problem examines whether the following specifications are satisfiable: 1. If the file system is not locked, then. . . (a) new messages will be queued. (b) new messages will be sent to the messages buffer. (c) the system is functioning normally, and conversely, if the system is functioning normally, then the file system is not locked. [...] (a) Begin by translating the five specifications into propositional formulas using the four propositional variables [...]