Collaboration and Sharing

Problem sets in this class are intended to be primarily individual efforts.

You may not use materials produced as course work by other students, whether in this term or previous terms, nor may you provide work for other students to use.

You are encouraged to discuss approaches with other students, but these discussions must not involve step-by-step, algorithmic instructions in either written or spoken form, and your code and your write-up must be your own. Literal code is the most obvious example of a form of communication that is not allowed between students, but this policy also disallows communicating in “pseudocode,” which mixes programming syntax with fuzzier bits of natural language. Pseudocode gives away too much of the algorithmic formulation that we want you to figure out for yourself on each assignment. This also applies to various forms of documentation that we write in 6.102, including testing strategies, specifications, abstraction functions, rep invariants, and data type definitions. A consequence is that, within a group of students collaborating or helping others, no one may be looking at any code (including pseudocode and documentation) that they wrote for 6.102 (or its predecessor 6.031).

Always close your laptop when helping others. It’s good to help other students. But as a general rule, during the time that you are helping another student, your own solution should not be visible, either to you or to them. Make a habit of closing your code while you’re helping.

Don’t copy from code review. During code review, you will see classmates’ solutions to a problem set. While it is fine to take inspiration from their approach, do not copy their work.

External code must not solve explicit parts of the assignment. In particular, if the assignment says something like “implement X,” then you must create your own X, not reuse one from an external source or library.

No automatic code generation. You may not use code or text produced by advanced code-completion tools, e.g. GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT. If you are unsure whether a code-generation tool is appropriate for use in 6.102, please ask us before using it.

Examples

1. Alyssa and Ben sit next to each other with their laptops while working on a problem set. They talk in general terms about different approaches to doing the problem set. They draw diagrams on the whiteboard. When Alyssa discovers a useful class in the JavaScript library, she mentions it to Ben. When Ben finds a StackOverflow answer that helps, he sends the URL to Alyssa. OK.

   • As they look at their code, they speak specifically about the steps the code takes to solve the problem, to make sure both people have the right working solution. FORBIDDEN.

   • In a tricky part of the problem set, Alyssa looks at Ben’s screen to make sure her code is right. Ben is sitting on the other side of the table, so Alyssa goes back and forth between her laptop and looking over Ben’s shoulder, but never has both screens in view at the same time. FORBIDDEN.

2. Jerry already finished the problem set, but his friend Ben is now struggling with a nasty bug. Jerry sits next to Ben, looks at his code, and helps him debug. OK.

   • Jerry opens his own laptop, finds his solution to the problem set, and refers to it occasionally while he’s helping Ben find the bugs in his code. FORBIDDEN.

3. Louis had three problem sets and two quizzes this week, was away from campus for several days for a track meet, and then got sick. He’s already taken two slack days on the deadline and has made almost no progress on the problem set. Ben feels sorry for Louis and wants to help, so he sits down with Louis and talks with him about how to do the problem set, at a high level, while Louis is working on it. Ben already handed in his own solution, but he doesn’t open his own laptop to look at it while he’s helping Louis. OK.

   • Ben opens his laptop and reads his own code while he’s helping Louis. FORBIDDEN.

   • Ben has by now spent a couple hours with Louis, and Louis still needs help, but Ben really needs to get back to his own work. He puts his code in a Dropbox and shares it with Louis, after Louis promises only to look at it when he really has to. FORBIDDEN.

4. John and Ellen both worked on their problem sets separately. They exchange their test cases with each other to check their work. FORBIDDEN. Test cases are part of the material for the problem set, and part of the learning experience of the course. You are copying if you use somebody else’s test cases, even if temporarily.

Note that in the examples marked inappropriate above, both people are held responsible for the violation in academic honesty. Copying work, or knowingly making work available for copying, in contravention of this policy is a serious offense that may incur reduced grades, failing the course, and disciplinary action. Copying, or helping somebody copy, may result in an F on your transcript that you will not be able to drop.

This policy applies to all coursework that is handed in by an individual: problem sets, reading exercises, etc.

You should collaborate with your partners on all aspects of group project work and in-class collaborative exercises, and each of you is expected to contribute a roughly equal share to design and implementation.

You may reuse designs, ideas and code from your own work earlier in the semester. You may also use any code provided by this semester’s 6.102 staff.

You may also use snippets of material from external sources, following the same policy as for problem sets: the source must be public, you must give proper attribution, and it cannot solve explicit parts of the assignment (if the assignment says “implement X,” then your group must create your own X, not reuse someone else’s).

Finally, your group may not reuse designs, ideas, or code created by another group from this semester or previous semesters.