DIT008 H26 Discrete mathematics
On this page you can find details about the discrete mathematics course DIT008 (7.5 credits) in the N1SOF Software Engineering and Management bachelor's program.
The course plan is available here.
This course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Literature
The course will be based on the book
Epp, S. S. (2020). Discrete Mathematics with Applications (Fifth edition, metric version). Cengage Learning
It is highly recommended that you buy this book if you are taking this course.
Schedule
The schedule for all lectures, exercise sessions and exams is available on TimeEdit.
There are lectures and exercise sessions in this course. The lectures introduce new material, homework assignments are presented during the exercise sessions. Lectures happen in Babord. Exercises happen in various rooms in Jupiter (Omega is also located in Jupiter) according to the following table:
| Week | Leon Ljungström | Henning Nåbo | Jandré Stefan Malan | Katarzyna Maria Swiatowska | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Time | Room | Day | Time | Room | Day | Time | Room | Day | Time | Room | |
| 37 | Mon 7/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 309 | Mon 7/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 308 | Tue 8/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 322 | Tue 8/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 321 |
| 38 | Mon 14/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 321 | Mon 14/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 322 | Tue 15/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 309 | Tue 15/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 308 |
| 39 | Mon 21/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 121 | Mon 21/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 122 | Tue 22/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 322 | Tue 22/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 321 |
| 40 | Mon 28/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 121 | Mon 28/9 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 122 | Tue 29/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 322 | Tue 29/9 | 13:15–15:00 | Jupiter 321 |
| 41 | Mon 5/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 121 | Mon 5/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 122 | Tue 6/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 243 | Tue 6/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 308 |
| 42 | Mon 12/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 309 | Mon 12/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 308 | Tue 13/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 243 | Tue 13/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 308 |
| 43 | Mon 19/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 121 | Mon 19/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 122 | Tue 20/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 309 | Tue 20/10 | 08:15–10:00 | Jupiter 121 |
| 43 | Thu 22/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 309 | Thu 22/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Omega | Thu 22/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 243 | Thu 22/10 | 15:15–17:00 | Jupiter 321 |
There are irregularities in the schedule, so please check TimeEdit for exact times and places each week.
Content
The course is designed to teach basic mathematical arguing and mathematical concepts relevant for software development. Specifically, it will cover
- Introduction: Sets, relations, functions
- Logical statements and logical equivalence
- Conditional statements
- Predicates and quantified statements
- Direct proofs and counterexamples
- Proof by contradiction
- Sequences
- Proof by induction
- Recursion and iteration
- Basics of set theory
- Basic properties of functions
- Basic probability theory and combinatorics
- Basic properties of graphs
- Trees
- Growth behavior of functions and algorithm efficiency
Detailed course plan
| Date | Content | |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture 0 | Thu 27/08 | Motivation + study tips (not part of the course) Slides |
| Lecture 1 | Mon 31/08 | Introduction, Sections 1.2, 2.1 |
| Lecture 2 | Thu 03/09 | Sections 2.2, 2.3 |
| Lecture 3 | Thu 03/09 | Sections 3.1, 3.2 |
| Lecture 4 | Mon 07/09 | Sections 3.3, 4.1 |
| Lecture 5 | Thu 10/09 | Sections 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 |
| Lecture 6 | Thu 10/09 | Sections 4.4, 4.5 |
| Lecture 7 | Mon 14/09 | Sections 4.6, 4.7 |
| Lecture 8 | Wed 16/09 | Sections 5.1, 5.2 |
| Lecture 9 | Thu 17/09 | Sections 5.6, 5.7 |
| Lecture 10 | Thu 17/09 | Sections 6.1, 1.2 (ordered pairs and Cartesian products), 1.3 (only relations and arrow diagrams, not functions) |
| Lecture 11 | Mon 21/09 | Sections 7.1, 7.2 |
| Lecture 12 | Thu 24/09 | Section 7.2, Halting Problem (not in the book) |
| Lecture 13 | Thu 24/09 | Sections 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 |
| Lecture 14 | Mon 28/09 | Sections 9.4, 9.5 |
| Lecture 15 | Mon 05/10 | Sections 9.6, 1.4 (definitions only) |
| Lecture 16 | Thu 08/10 | Sections 10.1 (excluding Hamiltonian circuits), 10.2 (excluding connected components) |
| Lecture 17 | Thu 08/10 | Sections 10.2, 10.3 |
| Lecture 18 | Mon 12/10 | Sections 10.4, 10.5 (excluding binary search trees) |
| Lecture 19 | Thu 15/10 | Sections 10.6 (excluding Kruskal’s algorithm), Video |
| Lecture 20 | Thu 15/10 | Sections 11.1, 11.2, Video |
| Lecture 21 | Fri 16/10 | Sections 11.3 (excluding sequential search, insertion search), 11.4, Video |
| Lecture 22 | Mon 19/10 | Section 11.5 (only binary search) |
| Lecture 23 | Thu 22/10 | Revision |
| Lecture 24 | Thu 22/10 | Revision |
Assessment
The assessment of the course is based on two parts:
Written Hall Exam
One of the grades distinction (5), pass with credit (4), pass (3) or fail (U) will be awarded. This grade will determine the overall grade of the course, but you need to pass the homework assignments (see below) to pass the course.
All material from the lectures is examinable, excluding Turing machines and the halting problem. You will not be required to reproduce theorems or proofs of theorems which appeared in the lecture (e.g. the proof for the pigeonhole principle). But you will be required to be able to apply the theorems appropriately and to write proofs of simple statements as they appeared in the exercises.
Take the exercises in the book as a reference for the difficulty level of the problems in the exam.
No calculators and no additional material like cheat sheets will be allowed.
Examination dates
This course follows Chalmers' examination schedule, available here.
- The regular exam will take place on 27 October 2026.
- The first re-exam will take place on 4 January 2027.
- The second re-exam will take place in August 2027, shortly before the start of the next academic year.
There will be no difference in the level of difficulty between these three exams.
You can find practical information about the exam such as where to go and what to bring here.
Previous Exams
- Exam on 2026-01-09, solution
- Exam on 2025-10-27, solution
- Exam on 2025-08-26, solution
- Exam on 2025-01-07, solution
- Exam on 2024-10-28, solution
Homework assignments
There will be weekly homework assignments to be completed in groups. In the exercise sessions, the TA will pass around a sheet on which groups can tick which exercises they have solved. For each exercise, the TA will then randomly select someone from the groups that have ticked the exercise to present their solution on the board. Hence, everyone in the group that has ticked the exercise should be able to present the group's solution. If a group member is not present at the exercise session, that person will not receive any points for the exercises of that week, the points for the other group members remain unaffected. If the person presenting does not have a good understanding of the solution, no points will be awarded to the group for this exercise.
You will pass this part of the assessment if you collect at least 50% of the total points on all assignments, otherwise you will fail. You need to pass the homework assignment in order to pass the course.
The exercises to be completed for each homework assignment can be found in the Assignments tab on the left.
Discussion Forum
You are strongly encouraged to use the discussion forum on this Canvas page to discuss the lecture material and the homework assignments and to coordinate to find study groups. Do not post solutions to the homework assignments.
Math Support
For additional support with the lecture material and the homework assignments, you can go to Math Support. There, you can ask senior students in mathematics any math-related questions you have, several times a week.
Student Representatives
If you have any issues that you don’t want to raise with the teachers directly, you can contact one of the representatives and they’ll relay your concern. The student representatives for this course are:
Rishav Dalmia (gusdalmri@student.gu.se)
Shaimaa Elbanna (guselbsh@student.gu.se)
Michel Nguyen (gusmichng@student.gu.se)
Krishna Pawar (frnd4kishu@gmail.com)
Saad-Ur Rehman (gussaatt@student.gu.se)
Raydel Savón (gussavra@student.gu.se)
Shaparak Sharifan (gusshapsh@student.gu.se)
Teachers
Examiner and Lecturer:
Jan Gerken (gerken@chalmers.se)
Teaching Assistants:
Leon Ljungström (leon.lj2@gmail.com)
Jandré Stefan Malan (gusmalanja@student.gu.se)
Henning Nåbo (gusnabohe@student.gu.se)
Katarzyna Maria Swiatowska (gusswiaka@student.gu.se)
Administration
Study counsellor: studycounselling@cse.gu.se
Student office: studentoffice@cse.gu.se
Student portal: https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/cse