Graduate Program

Oral Qualifying Exam Questions

If you click on one of the links below, you'll be prompted for your username and password. Enter the user name quals (not your RCS or CS ID) and the password distributed by Terry Hayden. It is permissible to give the password to anyone else in the Rensselaer community, but it should not be made available outside. In particular, do not post either the password or any of the qualifying exam questions on any web page.

Algorithms [html]
Date: September 9, 2009
2009-2010 Examiners: S. Das, P. Drineas, M. Magdon-Ismail (Chair).
Format: 3-4 questions (plus follow-up), no preparation time.
Textbook: Introduction to Algorithms, by T. H. Cormen, C. E. Leiserson, R. L. Rivest, C. Stein. McGraw Hill,2nd Edition, 2001.
Registered Students
Computability and Complexity [pdf]
Date: September 15, 2009
2009-2010 Examiners: E. Anshelevich, M. Goldberg (Chair), M. Krishnamoorthy.
Format: 3-4 questions (plus follow-up), half hour preparation.
Textbook: Introduction to the Theory of Computation, by M Sipser. PWS publishing company.
Registered Students
Operating Systems [html]
Date: September 2, 2009
2009-2010 Examiners: C. Carothers (Chair), B. Szymanski, J. Trinkle.
Format: 2 questions (plus follow-up), at least 20 minutes preparation time.
Textbooks: Operating Systems, Advanced Concepts, by Maekawa, Oldehoeft and Oldehoeft. Benjamin/Cummings, 1987.
Operating System Concepts by A. Silberschatz and P. Galvin. Addison-Wesley, 1997, or later editions.
Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles by W. Stallings. Prentice Hall, 1998 or later editions.
Registered Students
Programming Languages [pdf]
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2009
2009-2010 Examiners: R. Franklin, A. Milanova (Chair), C. Varela.
Format: 1 question (plus followup), no preparation time.
Textbooks: Programming Language Pragmatics, by Michael L. Scott. Morgan Kaufman, San Francisco, 2000.
Essentials of Programming Languages, by Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand and Christopher T. Haynes. M.I.T. Press & McGraw-Hill, 1992.
Concurrent Programming in Java, by Doug Lee. 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1999.
Registered Students

For students in the Computational Molecular Biology track

Molecular Biology [pdf]
Date: TBA
Examiners: C. Bystroff, D. Crone, L. Newberg (Chair).
Format: 5 questions (plus followup), no preparation time.
Registered Students
Probability Theory and Applications [pdf]
Date: TBA
Examiners: K. Bennett, M. Magdon-Ismail, L. Newberg (Chair).
Format: 6 questions (plus followup), no preparation time.
Registered Students

The following students have taken the oral qualifying exams and are willing to discuss the experience with students preparing for the exams:

Medha Atre
Jacob "Juda" Becker (Computability and Complexity)
Ameya Hate (Computability and Compexity)
Christopher Stuetzle (Computability and Compexity)

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