OMSCS Review & Tips: CS6515 – Introduction to Graduate Algorithms

2025-08-08

Semester Taken: Summer 2025
Grade Achieved: A
Specialization / Track: Computing Systems

Thanks to this course’s rigor and intensity, the Summer 2025 semester became the most rewarding period of my time in the program. Balancing a full-time job, frequent travel, and exams every three weeks was no easy feat, but I’m proud to say I made it — and even prouder of the accomplishment.

Table of contents

✅ Summary

CS6515 is a graduate-level deep dive into algorithm design, analysis, and computational complexity, covering techniques like dynamic programming, divide and conquer, randomized methods, graph and max-flow algorithms, linear programming, and NP-completeness. The topics are highly practical — far more advanced and applicable than typical undergraduate algorithms — and form the foundation for many other OMSCS courses.

Despite being designed as an early, foundational course for most of the specialization tracks, heavy demand often pushes students to take it toward the end of their program. While immensely valuable, it’s especially intensive in the compressed summer semester.

📚 Course Content Overview

You may refer to the course public site for a sample of syllabus. The course is actively revamped from semester to semester.

  • Key Topics: Course key topics goes from practical to abstract as the semester progresses on
    • Dynamic Programming and Dive & Conquer Algorithms
    • Graph Algorithms
    • NP-Completeness
  • Delivery Style:
    • Pre-recorded lectures by course creator (no longer with Gatech)
    • Weekly office hours by Head TA and current course's instructor
    • Readings from DPV book
  • Tech Stack: Python

🛠️ Workload & Time Commitment

Average Weekly Time Spent
I spent roughly 15-20 hours per week on this course (had to say no to a lot of social gatherings 🥲), the breakdown is below:

  • 🎬 1-2 hours of watching recorded lectures.
  • 📚 3-4 hours of reading the book, making notes, and understanding the material.
  • 📝 3-4 hours on assigned homework (programming, free-form questions).
  • 🎬 3-4 hours watching office hours walkthroughs of the homework.
  • 📝 3-4 hours on suggested extra practice problems from the DPV book.
  • 🎬 2-3 hours on office hours sessions where the Head TA tackled additional practice problems.

Assignments:

The bulk of the course grade is from exams (90% 🙈), with three proctored exams in the summer. The exam weighting adjusts to reward your stronger performances. The remaining 10% comes from open-book quizzes held regularly. Homework assignments are ungraded, but strongly recommended for mastering the material.

Pacing: The pace is intense from start to finish — especially in the summer, where new topics begin almost immediately after each exam. You’ll need to transition quickly between units and maintain steady progress to keep up.

👩‍🏫 Instruction & Course Staff

Instructor Style:

  • Pre-recorded videos can be challenging to follow in places, so supplementing with the DPV book is important.
  • Homework walkthroughs (by the main instructor) highlight key concepts but don’t always emphasize answer presentation details, so independent practice on clearly structured solutions is important for exam readiness.

TA / Forum Support:

  • Kudos to the TAs — among the best I’ve encountered in OMSCS. Questions on Ed Discussion are answered quickly, and TA notes are often posted to bridge knowledge gaps.
  • TA office hours are extremely useful. DO NOT MISS THEM.

💡 Tips for Success

Here are some tips that worked for me:

  • Watch the Head TA’s office hours — these sessions often include valuable strategies and clarifications before homework walkthroughs.
  • Attempt the assigned homework and extra practice problems from the DPV book at least once before attending office hours. This allow you to speed-up watching the OH and understands things faster.
  • Don’t procrastinate; the pace is fast, so consistency is key.
  • Understanding the material is only part of the challenge — practice writing solutions with required, specific format in mind, as many times as needed
  • Leetcoding alone won’t prepare you; this course emphasizes problem-solving on paper rather than just coding.
  • Be confident in selecting the right algorithmic techniques(blackboxes) for the right problems — a mismatch here can cost significant points.
  • For dynamic programming and divide and conquer, practice heavily.
  • For graph algorithms and NP-reductions, focus on building intuition for chaining the right techniques(blackboxes) together.
  • My weekly routine for this course is: watching lecture, reading "the book", attempt the homeworks (assigned), watch the OH, rinse and repeat. I advice following this routine as it work very well for me.
  • Lastly, the hardest step is to begin doing anything, once you start attempting exercises and homeworks, things flow much better, so do try to take that first step.

📈 Personal Takeaways

It was a huge boost of confidence to myself for surviving this course on the shortened timeline. Being able to digest a huge load of contents very short time is definitely very rewarding to know. The coursework also helped me to approach leetcoding in a different manner than before: work on patterns, look for blackboxes that can solve problems when chained together.

And as always, doing something without clear goals (and sometimes deadlines or pressures) will not bring you good results. I would hardly be this invested into algorithms if I didn't attend this course or the OMSCS program in the first place.

  • What I enjoyed most: Learning to solve the DP problems systematically which I have always struggled with.
  • What challenged me the most: NP-completeness due to its abstractness.

⭐ Conclusion

Rating: 9.0/10
Verdict: Solid topics that every computer scientist students should know, the assignments were challenging but extremely rewarding when done well.

CS6515 has a notorious reputation to be difficult and tends to be the last challenge before students complete their master program. For me, it was bittersweet and I believe with hardwork and dedication, you can make it through as well. Good luck on your journey. I'm out now!

Note: This review reflects personal experience and avoids disclosing restricted course content, in accordance with Georgia Tech’s honor code.

OMSCS Review & Tips: CS6515 – Introduction to Graduate Algorithms | Anh Tu Do (Boom)