If you need to miss class because of isolation, please read this description for instructions.

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 2022 assignments as the semester progresses. The contents of this calendar for days more than two weeks in the future may be missing or inaccurate.

MondayTuesday WednesdayThursday Friday
jan 31
LEC 1: Modularity, Abstraction, and the Impact of Systems


First day of classes
feb 1
REC 1: We Did Nothing Wrong
feb 2
LEC 2: Naming
feb 3
REC 2: DNS

Assignment Available: Hands-on DNS
feb 4
TUT 1: Intro to 6.033 Communication
feb 7
LEC 3: Virtual memory
feb 8
REC 3: UNIX
feb 9
LEC 4: Bounded buffers and locks
feb 10
REC 4: UNIX

Assignment Available: Hands-on UNIX
feb 11
TUT 2: Consensus and Reasoning About Systems

DUE: DP Team Preferences (on Piazza)
feb 14
LEC 5: Threads

Released: DP Spec
feb 15
REC 5: Eraser

DUE: Hands-on DNS
feb 16
LEC 6: OS structure, Virtual Machines
feb 17
REC 6: DP Discussion

Released: DP Team Assignments (on Piazza)
Assignment Available: DP Prep Assignment
feb 18
TUT 3: Reading for Systems Concepts
feb 21
President's day
feb 22
LEC 7: OS Performance (Storage)

Released: Hands-on DNS grades

Monday schedule
feb 23
LEC 8: Intro to networking and layering
feb 24
REC 7: Ethernet
feb 25
TUT 4: Canceled due to snow

DUE: DP Prep Assignment
Assignment Available: DP preliminary report (DPPR)
Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #1
feb 28
LEC 9: Network Layer: Routing
mar 1
REC 8: Encapsulation

DUE: Hands-on UNIX
mar 2
LEC 10: BGP

Assignment Available: Hands-on networking
mar 3
REC 9: Overlay Networks
mar 4
TUT 5: Visual Design, Figures, and Diagrams

Released: Technical feedback on DP Prep assignment (see FAQ)

ADD DATE
mar 7
LEC 11: Transport Layer: TCP
mar 8
REC 10: DARPA

DUE: Hands-on networking
mar 9
LEC 12: In-network Resource Management
mar 10
REC 11: DCTCP
mar 11
TUT 6: Assembling the DPPR

Released: Impact Framework example
Released: WRAP feedback on DP Prep assignment
Released: Hands-on UNIX grades
mar 14
LEC 13: Application Layer
mar 15
REC 12: CDNs

Released: Hands-on networking grades
mar 16
LEC 14: Datacenters and Clouds
mar 17
REC 13: End-to-end Arguments
mar 18


DUE: DP Preliminary Report
Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #2
mar 21
Spring break
mar 22
Spring break
mar 23
Spring break
mar 24
Spring break
mar 25
Spring break
mar 28
LEC 15: Reliability
mar 29
REC 14: GFS
mar 30
LEC 16: Transactions
mar 31
REC 15: Canceled

EXAM: Exam 1
apr 1
TUT 7: DP Presentation

Assignment Available: DP Presentation Assignment
apr 4
LEC 17: Logging


Assignment Available: Hands-on logging
apr 5
REC 16: MapReduce

Released: DPPR grades
Assignment Available: Hands-on MapReduce
apr 6
LEC 18: Isolation

Released: Exam 1 grades
apr 7
REC 17: ZFS
apr 8
TUT 8: Responding to Feedback
apr 11
LEC 19: Distributed Transactions

DP Presentations begin here, and run through 4/19
apr 12
REC 18: Databases

DUE: Hands-on logging
apr 13
LEC 20: Replication
apr 14
REC 19: Consistency Guarantees

Assignment Available: DP Report
apr 15
TUT 9: Analysis and Evaluation

Assignment Available: Hands-on databases
apr 18
Patriots day
apr 19
REC 20: Raft

This is the last day for DP Presentations
DUE: Hands-on MapReduce

Drop Date
apr 20
LEC 21: Intro to Security + Authentication
apr 21
REC 21: Canceled (prep for peer review)



Released: DP Presentation grades
Released: Hands-on logging grades
apr 22
TUT 10: Peer Review

Assignment Available: DP Peer Review
Released: Recitation Participation Check-in #3
apr 25
LEC 22: Low-level attacks
apr 26
REC 22: Meltdown

DUE: Hands-on databases
Released: Hands-on MapReduce grades
apr 27
LEC 23: Secure Channels
apr 28
REC 23: DNSSEC
apr 29
TUT 11: Final DP Report
may 2
LEC 24: ToR

DUE: DP Report
may 3
REC 24: Canceled


may 4
LEC 25: Network Attacks
may 5
REC 25: Mirai
may 6


DUE: DP Peer Review
Released: Tutorial Participation grades
may 9
LEC 26: Wrap-up

Released: Hands-on databases grades
may 10
REC 26: Wrap-up


Last day of classes
may 11


Released: Recitation Participation grades
may 12

may 13

may 16




EXAM: Exam 2
may 17 may 18 may 19 may 20


Released: DP Final Report grades
Released: Peer Review grades