Programming Assignment 1: Percolation: Instructions Help Center

Specification

Here is the programming assignment specification that describes the assignment requirements.


Be sure that your code conforms to the prescribed APIs, including being in the "default" package and including only the public methods and constructors specified. Note that, as of Fall 2015, algs4.jar uses a "named" package, so you must use an import statement to access a class in algs4.jar.


Checklist

The checklist contains frequently asked questions and hints. If you're not sure where to start, see the section at the end of the checklist.


Testing

The file percolation-testing.zip contains sample data files and programs that you can use to test Percolation.java.


Web Submission

Submit a zip file named percolation.zip that contains only the two source files Percolation.java and PercolationStats.java. To zip up your source files, use one of the following three approaches:

  • Mac OS X Finder.
    1. Select the required files in the Finder.
    2. Right-click and select Compress 2 Items.
    3. Rename the resulting file to percolation.zip.

  • Windows.
    1. Select the required files in Windows Explorer.
    2. Right-click and select Send to -> Compressed (zipped) folder.
    3. Rename the resulting file to percolation (the .zip extension is automatic).

  • Command line (Linux or Mac OS X).
    1. Change to the directory containing the required .java files.
    2. Execute the command zip percolation.zip Percolation.java PercolationStats.java

You will not receive a score or grade report unless you submit the zip file in this specified format. For example, the zip file must contain only the two specified files (and not a folder containing the two files). Do not use PKWare's proprietary deflate64 format—it is incompatible with our unzipping program.


Assessment Report

Here is some information to help you interpret the assessment report. See the Assessment Guide for more details.

  • Compilation: we compile your .java files using a Java 8 compiler. Any error or warning messages are displayed and usually signify a major defect in your code.

  • Style: we run checkstyle to automatically checks the style of your Java programs. Here is a list of available Checkstyle checks, which you can use to help decode any warning messages.

  • Bugs: we run findbugs to check for common bug patterns in Java programs. A warning message strongly suggests a bug in your code but occasionally there are false positives. Here is a summary of bug descriptions, which you can use to help decode warning messages.

  • API: we check that your code exactly matches the prescribed API (no extra methods and no missing methods). If it does not, no further tests are performed.

  • Correctness: we perform a battery of unit tests to check that your code meets the specifications.

  • Memory: we determine the amount of memory according to the 64-bit memory cost model from lecture.

  • Timing: we measure the running time and count the number of elementary operations.