Course map & readings
A course map you can act on.
One focused university course, mapped to seven learning units. The listed public notes and lab descriptions were checked on 2026-11-14. The Spring 2026 schedule still labels itself tentative; we report the pages as published, not a guarantee about every class event.
Spring 2026 · Official home · Schedule · Policies
Prerequisites: 6.1910 (6.004) plus one of 6.1800 (6.033) or 6.1810, or equivalent; substantial programming experience helps.
Public reading access is separate from MIT registration, tuition, graded submissions and academic credit. We make no enrollment, pricing or certification promise. Do not publish solutions to MIT labs; this companion contains independent exercises and none of the course solution code.
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System and failure assumptions
Classify evidence without converting a timeout into an abort.
python3 scripts/learning_exercises.py assumptionsTime and causal histories
Trace a transitive causal path and a concurrent pair; logical-clock supplement is Lamport 1978, not a dedicated MIT lecture claim.
node tests/demo-models.test.mjsConsistency models
Compare real-time versus client-order constraints with an independent exhaustive oracle.
node tests/checker.test.mjsRaft and quorum
Run real three-voter connection partitions; contrast a majority component and three singletons.
python3 scripts/run_network.py --repeats 3 --out build/my-network.jsonRPC and retry identity
Observe commit-before-response timeouts and atomically stored deduplication results.
python3 scripts/run_all.py --repeats 1 --out build/my-retry-studyCoordination and stale holders
Compare stale-generation writes after a real lease expires; Chubby §2.4 supplements the course.
python3 scripts/run_all.py --repeats 1 --out build/my-fence-studyRecovery and reconciliation
Check committed-value preservation, healed replicas and unknown outcomes from saved real reports.
python3 scripts/learning_exercises.py recoveryClassic supplements, with their dates
Lamport, 1978 — Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events · Burrows, 2006 — Chubby.
These supplement causality and sequencers. They are not presented as 2026 discoveries or additional university courses.