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Comment by mustafa_pasi | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. Computational mathematics has really very little to do with traditional CS topics.

Traditional CS is not in vogue at ex-USSR universities. Poring over type systems and pure functions just never caught up over here, compared to good old Knuth-worth "close to metal" CS.

Some SDEs do take interest in these topics independently, though.

What do they study in ex-USSR universities?

Data structures, low-level workings of CPU and other hardware, computational compexities, binary algebra, combinatorics and discrete maths. Throw in some logic circuits design.

The same things they ask on FAANG interviews, coincidentally.

It seems very similar to what we study in "Computer Science and Engineering" in Italy, which is a different degree from "Computer Science". The former is considered engineering, the latter isn't (pretty strange tbh, but that's how it works)

CM&C MSU masters -https://cs.msu.ru/sites/cmc/files/docs/sopostavlenie_magiste...

MIPT - https://mipt.ru/english/edu/master/

There’s everything, including traditional CS topics (compilers etc), AI and quantum informatics.

I sometimes feel sad about one particular branch of study, which could be applied to speed up computers, which was active right when the USSR was collapsing. Konstantin Likharev, among others, from Moscow State University worked on Josephson junction logical gates which demonstrated - then, 30 years ago - switching frequencies which are still out of reach for at least the mainstream CPUs (in some hundreds of gigahertz). A bit hard to find good articles about that research today - this one, https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/articles/8/269 , is an example. I've heard it failed to produce a commercial product because it was really hard to miniaturize.

What are the traditional CS topics?

Sorting, searching, caching. (ducks)

Naming things.

Ya, I second guessed myself. First in, then I thought "Naw, some pendant will say 'ackewlwally, that's software engineering'". Next time, I promise to take the principled stand.

CS not software engineering.

off by one

Once and only once delivery

In case anyone missed the ducks in the traditional CS curriculum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

https://themindcollection.com/atwoods-duck/

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