CS 145 at Stanford Schedule

Weeks 1 to 10 • Tue and Thu • Nov 3 holiday

SQL Systems nanoDB Transactions Distributed Systems

Key Deadlines at a Glance

Subscribe to Calendar (.ics)
PSET M0 Sep 25
PSET M1 Oct 5
PSET M2 Oct 12
Project 1 Oct 16
PSET M3 Oct 19
Project 2 Proposal Oct 30
PSET M4 Nov 9
Project 2 Nov 20
PSET M5 Dec 4
Final Exam Dec 7, 7-10pm

Attendance Requirements (for non-SCPD students)

  • Final Exam: Mandatory in-class attendance for the Final Exam. No alternate exam schedules for those with exam conflicts. Please ensure you have no exam conflicts before enrolling in CS 145.
  • OAE accommodations: The exam will be on the same day with extended hours
Week Lectures (Tue / Thu) Section (Wed / Thu / Fri) & deliverables Reading
1Sep 22, 24
M1
Basic SQL
Kickoff. SQLite and BigQuery intro. Mission briefing: gear up with SQL.
SlidesM0 · M1
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Setup: BigQuery, Credits & Colab
Setup: Canvas, Gradescope, Ed
Setup: BigQuery, Credits, Colab
Sep 25PSET M0
Required · 1
Why Memory Matters
Case studies · 3
Pandas: Deconstructing Small Analytics
Claude & OpenAI: Deconstructing Agent Memory
UberEats: Deconstructing a Big Service
Full module in scope for final
M0 6 pages · M1 21 pages
2Sep 29, Oct 1
M1
Intermediate SQL
CTEs, subqueries, window functions.
M6
Patterns of Big Data Systems
A quick tour of where SQL actually runs in modern data systems, a preview of M6 before we go deeper later.
SlidesM1 · M6
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: SQL Colab
Clarification: PSET M1
No deliverables this week
Required · 3
Reading Queries
Writing Queries
Query Equivalence
Case studies · 2
Case Study 1.1: Claude's Agentic Stack
Case Study 1.2: How ChatGPT Stores Its Chats
Full module in scope for final
M1B 4 pages · M6 17 pages
3Oct 6, 8
M2
Systems Basics
M3
nanoDB Foundations
BigSort. Hash partition. Foundations for nanoDB.
SlidesM2 · M3
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: Systems Primer
Walkthrough: Data Systems Intro
Clarification: PSET M2
Oct 5PSET M1
Required · 3
IO Cost Model
Storage & Paging
Basic Hashing
Case studies · 3
Case Study 2.1: How Uber and Maps use Geo-hashing
Case Study 2.2: How Chrome Safe Browsing uses Bloom Filters
Case Study 2.3: How OpenAI uses Vector DB
Full module in scope for final
M2 18 pages · M3 10 pages
4Oct 13, 15
M3
Storage and Joins
Indexes. Joins. Query planning.
SlidesM3
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: NanoDB Storage
Clarification: Project 1 & PSET M3
Oct 12PSET M2
Oct 16Project 1
Required · 3
Index Fundamentals
B+Tree Indexes
Storage Layout
Case studies · 3
Case Study 3.2: Spotify Search
Problem Solving: $550k Query Disaster
Case Study 3.4: Spotify Wrapped
Full module in scope for final
M3B 12 pages
5Oct 20, 22
M4
Transactions Intro
ACID properties. Ticketing case study.
SlidesM4
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: Query Plan
Clarification: PSET M3
Oct 19PSET M3
Required · 3
Transaction Motivation
ACID Properties
Naive Concurrency
Case studies · 1
Case Study 4.1: ACID at Stripe
Full module in scope for final
M4 15 pages
6Oct 27, 29
M4
Concurrency Control
Concurrency control, 2PL, LSM Trees.
SlidesM4
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Project 2 Deep-Dives
Parallel sessions on Systems and Science.
Clarification: Project 2 Questions
Oct 30Project 2 Proposal
Required · 3
Correctness
Two-Phase Locking
MVCC
Case studies · 1
Case Study 3.3: Spotify Activity
Full module in scope for final
M4 15 pages
7Nov 3 (no class), Nov 5
M4
Recovery and Logging
Recovery logs (WAL).
SlidesM4
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: Transactions Colab
Full walkthrough: Macroschedules, Microschedules, WAL & Recovery.
No deliverables this week
Required · 3
The WAL Log
Undo for Aborts
Transaction Manager Architecture
Case studies · 1
Next 100x
Full module in scope for final
M4B 4 pages
8Nov 10, 12
M5
Scaling Analytics
Part 1: Data designs, Parallelism. Distributed systems. Guest Speakers.
SlidesM5
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: Data Systems (M6)
Walkthrough: Distributed SQL (PySpark)
Clarification: Project 2 Details
Nov 9PSET M4
Required · 3
Sharding & Replication
Distributed Sort & Hash
MapReduce
Case studies · 2
Case Study: GFS
Case Study 6.4: SQL vs NoSQL
Full module in scope for final
M5 13 pages
9Nov 17, 19
M5
Distributed Systems
Sharding. Replication. Global consistency. Guest Spanner talk.
SlidesM5
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Systems Design & PSET M5 Prep
Sharding, replication, consistency trade-offs.
Clarification: PSET M5 Details
Nov 20Project 2 (Data Science)
Nov 20Project 2 (Systems)
Required · 3
Consistency in Replicas
CAP Theorem
Distributed Commit
Case studies · 1
Case Study 3.1: BigQuery Scaling
Full module in scope for final
M5 13 pages
10Nov 24, 26
Thanksgiving Break
—
No section this week
No deliverables this week
Required
Thanksgiving.
11Dec 1, 3
Lessons from industry
Wed / Thu / Fri — Pick One
Walkthrough: Practice Problems
Dec 4PSET M5
Required · 3
Modern Big Data Economics
6.3: DB Design for Big Tech (Data Lakes)
6.3b: Data Quality & Observability
Case studies · 3
Case Study 6.6: Claude's KV Cache
Case Study 6.7: Privacy
Case Study 6.0: OpenClaw's Memory

The required reading is the page later weeks build on; the case studies are the same ideas with a company's name on them. Required is the floor, not the ceiling. Every page in a module is in scope for the final, so the module link is the rest of what you are responsible for.

About Sections

  • When. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Pick any one; times to be confirmed.
  • What. A Colab walkthrough with your CA, building intuition for the systems underneath. Come with the reading done rather than the code.
  • Getting stuck. That is what section is for. Ask when you are stuck, share when something clicks. Clear PSET blockers at these sections. PSETs and Projects are due 11:59 pm Pacific on the stated deadline.