Introduction to Distributed Systems
Applied Computer Science · 3 hrs Lecture
ACS-4954 prerequisites
15 courses appear in this chain, up to 5 levels deep. Every route through it involves a choice, so nothing is forced.
Part of this course's requisite text couldn't be parsed into structure, so the chain below may be incomplete. The full wording is under “Requisite courses”.
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all of
any one of
any one of
the Math courses MATH-1101
any one of
Pre-Calculus Mathematics 40S
any one of
A minimum grade of 65% in Pre-Calculus 30S
a minimum grade of C+ in MATH-0041
permission of the Department Chair
the former MATH-0040
Minimum grade of C in MATH-1103
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Where ACS-4954 counts
Counts toward 2 more as one option among several, not as a course you must take:
Read from the departments' own calendar pages, where 71 of 141 programs are only partly machine-readable, so treat these as a minimum rather than the full list. Confirm with an academic advisor.
Description
This course is an introduction to the broad field of distributed systems. It focuses on introducing students to the benefits, challenges, methods, and implementations of distributed systems. Reasons for deploying distributed systems, such as fault tolerance and agglomeration of computational resources are discussed. Other topics include implementation challenges such as synchronization and replication in the presence of faults. Common system architectures that address some of these challenges are also introduced. Students are expected to implement some of these architectures to reinforce the lecture material.
Requisite courses
ACS-2906, ACS-3911 or ACS-3931 and one of the Math courses MATH-1101, MATH-1103, MATH-1104, MATH-1201, MATH-1401 with a minimum grade of C [prerequisite(s)].
From the 2026-27 undergraduate calendar. Always verify details on WebAdvisor or with an academic advisor before registering.