CS 207 - Discrete Structures

The first real mathematical course in the department, Discrete Structures forms the basis for all of the theory that follows. The course requires a good amount of effort from the student and a clear understanding and good amount of practice is the way to do well in the course. One major problem that is faced by students in the course is that it is the first time we are thrust into this scenarios of rather difficult proofs using various proof techniques and some relatively new kind of notations. It can be helpful to read up very properly the first chapter on Logic in the book very well, as this would get you comfortable with the notations and proving techniques.

As far as the course contents are concerned the initial half of the course deals with sets and relations,cardinality,finite and infinite sets and many theorems on Posets and Lattices. The next half of the course tries to give an introduction to Graph Theory and Group Theory. Topics in the second half of the semester will move at quicker pace than first half.

These fundamentals form the basis for almost all of the theory that ensues, hence this course is useful both as an introduction as well as a foundation. If you find yourself facing problems, the only clear way out is through solving more problems and writing them out properly, as decent focus is laid on proof expression skills also.
Attending classes is really a must in the course.

References are :

1) Kenneth Rosen, Discrete Mathematics and its applications, 5th edition, Tata-McGraw Hill, 2002. ( doesn't cover Graph Theory)

2) Kleinberg-Tardos , Algorithm Design (only for Graph Theory)

(Post Credits - Varun Reddy, Naman Agarwal)