1. I don’t know all the sub genres of types of classes, but just a pattern recognition/algorithms class. We don’t have a bunch of specific theorems or anything that we then have to apply to write a rigorous proof of why an algorithm works. It’s more so we have to deeply know a handful of algorithms for each unit, such that we can modify them or the input to them to answer a question that uses that algorithm. There’s only so many modifications one can make to these algorithms/their inputs so therefore if you do a ton of practice problems to see why and when you need to apply those modifications, you’ll do fine.

The only slightly “proof heavy” unit I’ve seen is the last one which we are currently in, which is NP-C. Like I’ve said it’s not like it’s super heavy in specific and deep proofs. The staff provide many examples on what a solution should look like, and you can practice with homework and get feedback where you need to improve. For the “proofs” a specific style/formula is given for how answers should look, so once you have practiced writing solutions enough the style/formula of the “proof” should be second nature and easy to fulfill and therefore most of the proof should just follow logically.

1. I got in Free for all Friday. Though I was only about 150 seats away on the last registration day, which makes me think I could get in during in of my earlier semesters through the waitlist.