Computer Science Minor Concentration (B.A. & Sc.) (18 credits)
Offered by: Computer Science (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
The Minor Concentration Computer Science is designed to provide the basics of computer science principles, and it make be taken in conjunction with any program in the Faculty of Arts.
Required Courses (9 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 202 | Foundations of Programming. 1 | 3 |
Foundations of Programming. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Introduction to computer programming in a high level language: variables, expressions, primitive types, methods, conditionals, loops. Introduction to algorithms, data structures (arrays, strings), modular software design, libraries, file input/output, debugging, exception handling. Selected topics. | ||
| COMP 206 | Introduction to Software Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Software Systems. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Comprehensive overview of programming in C, use of system calls and libraries, debugging and testing of code; use of developmental tools like make, version control systems. | ||
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Object oriented programming in Java: classes and objects, interfaces, inheritance. Data structures and abstract data types: arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary trees,binary search trees, heaps, hash tables, graphs. Recursive and non-recursive algorithms and their asymptotic complexity: searching and sorting, tree and graph traversal. Mathematical tools: induction, recurrence relations. | ||
- 1
Students who have taken the equivalent of COMP 202 Foundations of Programming. prior to their McGill studies should relace it with an additional Computer Science Complementary course.
Complementary Courses (9-15 credits)
Students are strongly encouraged to talk to an advisor of the School before choosing their complementary courses to ensure they follow an approved course sequence.
6 credits from*:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MATH 133 | Linear Algebra and Geometry. | 3 |
Linear Algebra and Geometry. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Systems of linear equations, matrices, inverses, determinants; geometric vectors in three dimensions, dot product, cross product, lines and planes; introduction to vector spaces, linear dependence and independence, bases. Linear transformations. Eigenvalues and diagonalization. | ||
| MATH 140 | Calculus 1. | 3 |
Calculus 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Review of functions and graphs. Limits, continuity, derivative. Differentiation of elementary functions. Antidifferentiation. Applications. | ||
- *
Students who have taken equivalent courses in CEGEP or elsewhere, or have advanced placement will be granted Advanced Standing and do not need to take these courses. They should replace the credits of the exempted courses with elective courses.
9 credits selected from the following list or from Computer Science (COMP) courses at the 300 level or above excluding COMP 396 Undergraduate Research Project., COMP 400 Project in Computer Science, COMP 401 Project in Biology and Computer Science., COMP 402 Honours Project in Computer Science and Biology., COMP 480 Independent Studies in Computer Science.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 230 | Logic and Computability. | 3 |
Logic and Computability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Propositional Logic, predicate calculus, proof systems, computability Turing machines, Church-Turing thesis, unsolvable problems, completeness, incompleteness, Tarski semantics, uses and misuses of Gödel's theorem. | ||
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Data Structures: priority queues, balanced binary search trees, hash tables, graphs. Algorithms: topological sort, connected components, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees, bipartite matching, network flows. Algorithm design: greedy, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, randomization. Mathematicaltools: proofs of asymptotic complexity and program correctness, Master theorem. | ||
| COMP 273 | Introduction to Computer Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Systems. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Number representations, combinational and sequential digital circuits, MIPS instructions and architecture datapath and control, caches, virtual memory, interrupts and exceptions, pipelining. | ||
| MATH 240 | Discrete Structures. | 3 |
Discrete Structures. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Introduction to discrete mathematics and applications. Logical reasoning and methods of proof. Elementary number theory and cryptography: prime numbers, modular equations, RSA encryption. Combinatorics: basic enumeration, combinatorial methods, recurrence equations. Graph theory: trees, cycles, planar graphs. | ||