DIT008 H25 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 and Styrbord. Exercises happen in various rooms in Jupiter and Svea according to the following table:
| Date | Karl Byland | Leon Ljungström | Henning Nåbo | Dharunkumar Senthilkumar | Edwind Stockfelt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 8/9 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 322 | Svea 118 |
| Mon 15/9 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 243 | Jupiter 322 | Svea 118 |
| Mon 22/9 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 322 | Canceled |
| Mon 29/9 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 317 | Jupiter 243 |
| Mon 6/10 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 317 | Jupiter 243 |
| Mon 13/10 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 317 | Svea 118 |
| Mon 20/10 | Jupiter 121 | Jupiter 122 | Jupiter 321 | Jupiter 317 | Jupiter 243 |
| Thu 23/10 | Svea 118 | Svea 130 | Svea 119 | Svea 121 | Jupiter 243 |
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
New content in the 2025 iteration of the course: Sections 10.3 and 11.5.
Detailed course plan
| Date | Content | |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture 1 | Tue 02/09 | Introduction, Section 1.2 |
| Lecture 2 | Tue 02/09 | Sections 1.3, 2.1 |
| Lecture 3 | Wed 03/09 | Sections 2.2, 2.3 |
| Lecture 4 | Thu 04/09 | Sections 3.1, 3.2 |
| Lecture 5 | Tue 09/09 | Sections 3.3, 4.1 |
| Lecture 6 | Tue 09/09 | Sections 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 |
| Lecture 7 | Thu 11/09 | Sections 4.4, 4.5 |
| Lecture 8 | Thu 11/09 | Sections 4.6, 4.7 |
| Lecture 9 | Tue 16/09 | Sections 5.1, 5.2 |
| Lecture 10 | Tue 16/09 | Sections 5.6, 5.7 |
| Lecture 11 | Thu 18/09 | Section 6.1, Halting Problem |
| Lecture 12 | Thu 18/09 | Sections 7.1, 7.2 |
| Lecture 13 | Tue 30/09 | Sections 9.1, 9.2 |
| Lecture 14 | Tue 30/09 | Sections 9.3, 9.4 |
| Lecture 15 | Thu 2/10 | Sections 9.5, 9.6 |
| Lecture 16 | Tue 7/10 | Sections 1.4 (definitions only), 10.1 (excluding Hamiltonian circuits) |
| Lecture 17 | Tue 7/10 | Sections 10.2, 10.3 |
| Lecture 18 | Thu 9/10 | Sections 10.4, 10.5 |
| Lecture 19 | Tue 14/10 | Section 10.6 |
| Lecture 20 | Tue 14/10 | Sections 11.1, 11.2 |
| Lecture 21 | Thu 16/10 | Sections 11.3, 11.4 |
| Lecture 22 | Tue 22/10 | Section 11.5 (only binary search) |
| Lecture 23 | Tue 21/10 | Summary |
| Lecture 24 | Thu 23/10 | Q & A |
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 2025.
- The first re-exam will take place on 7 January 2026.
- The second re-exam will take place in August 2026, 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 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, they will not receive any points for the exercises of that week. 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:
Maryam Jamil (maryyamamar@gmail.com)
Awwab Rasul Malik (gusmaliaw@student.gu.se)
Aleks Przygoda (gusprzal@student.gu.se)
Sonia Sajjad (soniasajjad336@gmail.com)
Bela Zemanova (bela.zemanova@outlook.com)
Lei Zhou (guszhole@student.gu.se)
Teachers
Examiner and Lecturer:
Jan Gerken (gerken@chalmers.se)
Teaching Assistants:
Karl Byland (gusbylaka@student.gu.se)
Leon Ljungström (leon.lj2@gmail.com)
Henning Nåbo (gusnabohe@student.gu.se)
Dharunkumar Senthilkumar (dharun.official.01@gmail.com)
Edwind Stockfelt (stockfeltedwind@gmail.com)
Administration
Study counsellor: studycounselling@cse.gu.se
Student office: studentoffice@cse.gu.se
Student portal: https://studentportal.gu.se/english/my-studies/cse