Course Calendar
6.033 covers four units of technical content: operating systems, networking, distributed systems, and security. Lectures deliver the fundamental technical concepts; recitations show you how those concepts are applied to real systems. In tutorial, you'll learn communication skills to help you reason about systems, and describe and defend your own.
The calendar below includes lecture and recitation topics, along with due dates for all assignments. We also note when we expect various assignments to become available, and when we expect to deliver feedback (grades or otherwise) for each of assignment. The release dates for assignments and feedback are subject to small changes throughout the semester.
We will release the Spring 2021 assignments as the semester progresses. The contents of this calendar for days more than two weeks in the future may be missing or inaccurate.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
feb 15 President's day |
feb 16 REC 1: Introduction to 6.033 Recitations First day of classes |
feb 17 LEC 1: Enforced Modularity via Client/server Organization |
feb 18 REC 2: We Did Nothing Wrong |
feb 19 TUT 1: Intro to 6.033 Communication Released: DP Specification |
feb 22 LEC 2: Naming |
feb 23 REC 3: DNS Assignment Available: Hands-on DNS |
feb 24 LEC 3: Virtual memory |
feb 25 REC 4: UNIX |
feb 26 TUT 2: Consensus and Reasoning About Systems DUE: DP Team input |
mar 1 LEC 4: Bounded buffers and locks |
mar 2 REC 5: UNIX Assignment Available: Hands-on UNIX |
mar 3 LEC 5: Threads DUE: Hands-on DNS |
mar 4 REC 6: DP Discussion Released: DP Team Assignments (on Piazza) |
mar 5 TUT 3: Reading for Systems Concepts Assignment Available: DP Prep Assignment |
mar 8 Student Holiday |
mar 9 LEC 6: OS structure, Virtual Machines |
mar 10 LEC 7: Intro to networking and layering DUE: Hands-on UNIX Released: Hands-on DNS grades |
mar 11 REC 7: Ethernet |
mar 12 TUT 4: Collaboration and Collaborative Writing DUE: DP Prep Assignment Assignment Available: DP preliminary report (DPPR) |
mar 15 LEC 8: Network Layer: Routing Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #1 |
mar 16 REC 8: Encapsulation |
mar 17 LEC 9: BGP Assignment Available: Hands-on networking |
mar 18 REC 9: Overlay Networks (RON) |
mar 19 TUT 5: Visual Design, Figures, and Diagrams Released: Hands-on UNIX grades Released: Technical feedback on DP Prep assignment ADD DATE |
mar 22 Student Holiday |
mar 23 Student Holiday |
mar 24 LEC 10: Transport Layer: TCP DUE: Hands-on networking |
mar 25 REC 10: Performance, Measurement, and Evaluation (RON) |
mar 26 TUT 6: Assembling the DPPR Released: WRAP feedback on DP Prep assignment |
mar 29 LEC 11: In-network Resource Management |
mar 30 REC 11: DCTCP DUE: DP Preliminary Report |
mar 31 LEC 12: Application Layer |
apr 1 REC 12: End-to-end Arguments |
apr 2 TUT 7: DP Presentation Assignment Available: DP Presentation Assignment |
apr 5 LEC 13: Canceled Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #2 Released: Hands-on networking grades |
apr 6 REC 13: Canceled EXAM: Midterm |
apr 7 LEC 14: Reliability |
apr 8 REC 14: GFS |
apr 9 TUT 8: Responding to Feedback Feedback Released: Technical feedback on DPPR |
apr 12 LEC 15: Transactions Feedback Released: DP updates |
apr 13 REC 15: MapReduce Released: Midterm grades Released: DPPR grades Assignment Available: Hands-on MapReduce |
apr 14 LEC 16: Logging |
apr 15 REC 16: ZFS |
apr 16 TUT 9: Analysis and Evaluation |
apr 19 Patriots day |
apr 20 Student Holiday |
apr 21 LEC 17: Isolation DP Presentations begin here, and run through 4/27 Assignment Available: Hands-on logging |
apr 22 REC 17: Canceled DUE: Hands-on MapReduce |
apr 23 TUT 10: Peer Review Assignment Available: DP Peer Review Assignment Available: DP Report |
apr 26 LEC 18: Distributed Transactions |
apr 27 REC 18: Consistency Guarantees This is the last day for DP Presentations Assignment Available: Hands-on databases |
apr 28 LEC 19: Replication DUE: Hands-on logging Released: DP Presentation grades |
apr 29 REC 19: Raft Drop Date |
apr 30 TUT 11: Final DP Report Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #3 Released: Hands-on MapReduce grades |
may 3 LEC 20: Intro to Security + Authentication |
may 4 REC 20: Raft |
may 5 LEC 21: Low-level attacks DUE: Hands-on databases |
may 6 REC 21: Meltdown Released: Hands-on logging grades |
may 7 |
may 10 LEC 22: Secure Channels |
may 11 REC 22: DNSSEC DUE: DP Report |
may 12 LEC 23: ToR |
may 13 REC 23: Canceled |
may 14 DUE: DP Peer Review |
may 17 LEC 24: Network Attacks Released: Hands-on databases grades Released: Tutorial Participation grades |
may 18 REC 24: Mirai |
may 19 LEC 25: Wrap-up |
may 20 Last day of classes |
may 21 |
may 24 Released: Recitation Participation grades |
may 25 EXAM: Final exam opens |
may 26 EXAM: Final exam closes |
may 27 | may 28 Released: DP Final Report grades Released: Peer Review grades |