The common first year: twelve 5-EC courses covering programming, math, systems, and software engineering fundamentals, plus a team project. Every CSE student takes the same courses regardless of eventual specialization — the curriculum only branches with electives from Year 2 onward.
This is the current first year, taught from 2026-27 onward.
| Quarter | Course | Code | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reasoning and Logic | CSE11A | core |
| 1 | Introduction to Programming | CSE11B | core |
| 1 | Computer Organisation | CSE11C | core |
| 2 | Calculus | CSE12A | core |
| 2 | Human Computer Interaction and AI-Assisted Prototyping | CSE12B | core, new |
| 2 | Data Management | CSE12C | core, new |
| 3 | Linear Algebra | CSE13A | core |
| 3 | Software Design and Engineering | CSE13B | core, new |
| 3 | Algorithms and Data Structures | CSE13C | core |
| 4 | Collaborative Development Project | CSE100 | core project |
| 4 | Probability Theory and Statistics | CSE14A | core |
| 4 | Computer Networks | CSE14B | core |
Academic calendar
Gates
- Binding Study Advice (BSA): pass at least 45 of the year's 60 EC to continue. Miss it and you are removed from the programme and barred from re-enrolling for 5 years — this is the single hardest rule in the degree.
- A BSA extension in February lets you restart the programme the following year.
- A BSA postponement can be appealed on personal circumstances — the last window is usually July/August. Talk to an academic counsellor early, not after the fact.
- CSE200 Software Project entry: CSE11B, CSE100, CSE13B, CSE12B, plus the SP Bootcamp. All of them are Year 1 courses — the new curriculum front-loads the project prerequisites.
What the year demands
Attendance is not mandatory anywhere except Mentoring (weekly, Quarter 1) and the Collaborative Development Project (Quarter 4). Everything else you can, in principle, self-study — the recordings are on Collegerama. Whether you should is another question.
Languages you'll actually write:
| Quarter | Languages |
|---|---|
| 1 | Java (IP), Assembly x86-64 AT&T (CO) |
| 2 | SQL (Data Management), and likely HTML/CSS/JavaScript plus GenAI tooling (HCIAP) |
| 3 | Java (SDE, ADS) |
| 4 | Java (CDP) |
Learn the Java API docs — being fast in them is worth real marks in a timed exam.
Difficulty: under the old curriculum students ranked the quarters Q3 > Q2 > Q1 > Q4, hardest first. Q3 still carries Linear Algebra + Algorithms & Data Structures + Software Design, so it likely remains the crunch. Treat the ranking as a rough prior, not a promise — the 2026-27 reshuffle moved enough courses that it hasn't been tested yet.
Worth knowing
- Three courses are new for 2026-27 — CSE12B, CSE12C, CSE13B — each stitched together from discontinued courses (see each README for the merge). Their archived exams are inherited from the old courses and aren't a reliable guide to the new assessment.
- Week 3.5 is an "Aspiration Week" — not a course, no folder, doesn't appear anywhere in this archive.
- All 12 courses are 5 EC; the BSA's 45/60 threshold means you can fail at most 3 courses and still continue into Year 2.
- Resits are generally offered the following quarter or in a dedicated resit period — check each course's own README for specifics. CDP is the exception: no resit at all.