CMSC 141: Introduction to Python

Summer 2026 • Monday / Tuesday / Thursday • 6:00–8:00pm

External Links

A few useful resources beyond the textbook.

Unix & the terminal

Getting comfortable at the command line.

Schedule is subject to change; check back for updates. Readings are from Computer Science with Applications by Anne Rogers and Borja Sotomayor (also available as a PDF). Section numbers refer to the HTML edition.

Wk Date Topic Reading Notes Homework
1 Mon Jun 15 Course intro; writing and running a program; setting up your tools (VS Code and Git); data types (int, float, str, bool) 1.1, 1.2.1–1.2.2 HW 0
Setup & first program
Tue Jun 16 Variables, expressions, arithmetic, type conversion 1.2.3–1.2.9
Thu Jun 18 User input, print formatting, string basics 1.2.3–1.2.9 Quiz 1
2 Mon Jun 22 Boolean logic; relational operators; if/elif/else 1.3.1 HW 1
Variables, types & I/O
Tue Jun 23 for loops, range(), the accumulator pattern 1.3.2–1.3.4 Quiz 2
Thu Jun 25 No class
3 Mon Jun 29 while loops; common loop patterns 1.3.2–1.3.4 HW 2
Conditionals & loops
Tue Jun 30 Writing functions: parameters and return values 1.4.1
Thu Jul 2 Scope, stack diagrams, functions in practice 1.4 Quiz 3
4 Mon Jul 6 Lists: indexing, slicing, mutation, iteration 2.1.1–2.1.5 HW 3
Functions
Tue Jul 7 Strings: methods, indexing, formatting 2.1.13
Thu Jul 9 Tuples; mutability vs. immutability; list methods 2.1.5–2.1.7, 2.1.12 Quiz 4
5 Mon Jul 13 Dictionaries: keys, values, common patterns 2.2 HW 4
Lists, strings & tuples
Tue Jul 14 Midterm review
Thu Jul 16 Midterm Midterm
6 Mon Jul 20 Classes and objects: OOP intro, __init__, instance variables 2.4.1 HW 5
Dictionaries & classes
Tue Jul 21 Methods, self, designing a class 2.4.2
Thu Jul 23 Classes in practice; worked examples 2.4.3 Quiz 5
7 Mon Jul 27 Recursion: base case, recursive case, thinking recursively 3.2.1–3.2.3 HW 6
Recursion & file I/O
Tue Jul 28 Recursion on lists and strings 3.2.1–3.2.3
Thu Jul 30 File I/O: reading and writing files 4.1 Quiz 6
8 Mon Aug 3 Exceptions: try/except, handling errors 1.6
Tue Aug 4 Review and wrap-up
Thu Aug 6 Final Exam Final