NDAA09013U Advanced Programming (AP)

Volume 2026/2027
Education

MSc Programme in Computer Science

Content

The purpose of this course is to provide practical experience with sophisticated programming techniques and paradigms from a language-based perspective. The focus is on high-level programming and systematic construction of well-behaved programs.

The course will focus on applicative (functional) and concurrent programming in Haskell, including some key associated libraries and frameworks.

Learning Outcome

At course completion, the successful student will have:

Knowledge of

  • Higher-level program structuring patterns for separating concerns.
  • The basics of message-passing concurrency, and of how concurrent programming can be used for parallel programming.
  • Program structuring principles and design patterns for dealing with software errors.
  • Property-based testing of functions and stateful APIs


Skills to

  • Use program structuring principles and design patterns, such as monads, to structure the code and its potential effects such that there is a clear separation of concerns.
  • Use a parser combinator library to write a parser for a medium-sized language with a given grammar, including changing the grammar so that it is on an appropriate form.
  • Implement simple concurrent/distributed servers using message passing, with appropriate use of synchronous and asynchronous message passing.
  • Use program structuring principles and design patterns for making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors.
  • Construct systematic test suites for programs and modules, including property-based tests where relevant.

 

Competences to

  • Use advanced programming techniques to solve challenging, realistic problems.
  • Write correct, efficient, and maintainable programs with clear separation of concerns.
  • Give an assessment of their own code, based on a systematic evaluation of correctness, selection of algorithms and data structures, error scenarios, and elegance.

 

See Absalon when the course is set up.

Programming ability in at least two substantially different languages, and familiarity with basic software-development principles (modularity, abstraction, systematic testing, ...) will be expected. Familiarity with basic functional programming is strongly recommended.

It is strongly recommended to have some experience with functional programming, corresponding to Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6 of "Learn You a Haskell for Great Good", for example.

General academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree in Computer Science, Software Development, or a closely related subject, are recommended.
Lectures, mandatory assignments, exercise labs.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 29
  • Preparation
  • 145
  • Practical exercises
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 4
  • Total
  • 206
Written
Individual
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
On-site written exam, 4 hours under invigilation
Type of assessment details
The exam is an on-premises written exam where the student is asked questions related to the programming assignments and the course curriculum.

The exam is individual.
Examination prerequisites

To qualify for the exam, the student must obtain at least 50% of the possible total points in the mandatory assignments, as well as a nonzero amount of points in every assignment. The assignments may be submitted in groups of up to three students

Aid
All aids allowed except Generative AI and internet access
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Re-exam

The re-exam is an oral exam with questions based on the course curriculum and the mandatory assignments.

The duration of the oral exam is 30. minutes including votation, without preparation. 

For the oral re-exam written aids are allowed. 

If the student did not already fulfill the exam registartion requirements before the ordinary exam, the mandatory assignments must be sumitted 3 weeks befor the re-exam. The mandatory assignmets must be approved for the student to be able to participate in the re-exam.

If the student has already submitted and had some of the mandatory assignments approved before the ordinary exam, these assignments may be resubmitted for the re-examination.

Criteria for exam assesment

See learning outcome.