SDC Data Structures Assignment

[Turkish]

Hoping someone here can help me out with this. I've sent questions into SDC a while ago, but so far no response.

In Part 2 of the assignment for this course where you're storing States and their respective Capitals, there's a section that reads "Now revise the code to store the pairs of each state and its capital in a Map using the HashMap function. Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree for storage."

First sentence is easy enough, but it's the second on that's throwing me and I'm just not clear on what is being asked and maybe I'm overthinking this. The way I'm reading it is it appears to be asking for the State/Capitals to be moved from a HashMap, sorted with TreeMap, but saved into a Binary Search Tree. I'm not sure how you'd leverage TreeMap without creating an instance of it and storing inside it, but I'm not clear if it's asking for the data to go HashMap->BST or HashMap->TreeMap->BST. It's the 'sort' and 'storage' parts that are throwing me off.

I just want to confirm it's asking for moving the data into a HashMap, then stored into a TreeMap for sorting purposes, then into a Binary Search Tree for user search.

[Dorothy44]

Hoping someone here can help me out with this. I've sent questions into SDC a while ago, but so far no response.

In Part 2 of the assignment for this course where you're storing States and their respective Capitals, there's a section that reads "Now revise the code to store the pairs of each state and its capital in a Map using the HashMap function. Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree for storage."

First sentence is easy enough, but it's the second on that's throwing me and I'm just not clear on what is being asked and maybe I'm overthinking this. The way I'm reading it is it appears to be asking for the State/Capitals to be moved from a HashMap, sorted with TreeMap, but saved into a Binary Search Tree. I'm not sure how you'd leverage TreeMap without creating an instance of it and storing inside it, but I'm not clear if it's asking for the data to go  HashMap->BST or HashMap->TreeMap->BST. It's the 'sort' and 'storage' parts that are throwing me off.

I just want to confirm it's asking for moving the data into a HashMap, then stored into a TreeMap for sorting purposes, then into a Binary Search Tree for user search

Sorry, no help here.  You may have to just email and ask SDC.  I just wanted to let know people are reading your response.

[rachel83az]

I haven't done this course yet, so I'm not sure what they want. You are allowed to revise the assignment and submit it again, if necessary.

[tallpilot]

You are overthinking it. Just copy your HashMap into a TreeMap. Use the TreeMap for the ‘game.’

They just want to see that you can build and manipulate a couple different structures. Commenting is key to getting maximum points. Explain everything.

I agree that the instructions are vague and confusing. Architecture is far worse.

[Turkish]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think tallpilot is right and I'm overthinking it. By using a TreeMap, which it tells you to do, you've already put it in a Red-Black Tree, which is a type of BST - so no second step. Just poorly worded. It also aligns with what celerius wrote here. 

Effectively "Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree for storage." should probably be written "Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree and for storage. " Those six words caused me a fair bit of frustration.


If I get it sent back as incorrect, I'll reply here with what needs to change, but it sounds like TreeMap is the only required step.

[tallpilot]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think tallpilot is right and I'm overthinking it. By using a TreeMap, which it tells you to do, you've already put it in a Red-Black Tree, which is a type of BST - so no second step. Just poorly worded. It also aligns with what celerius wrote here. 

Effectively "Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree for storage." should probably be written "Display the content of the Map, then use the TreeMap class to sort the map while using a binary search tree and for storage. " Those six words caused me a fair bit of frustration.


If I get it sent back as incorrect, I'll reply here with what needs to change, but it sounds like TreeMap is the only required step.

I can't remember my final score but it was somewhere between 97-100.  You have this one in the bag.  Keep going!

[LevelUP]

I started Data Structures yesterday, I'm already done and ready to do the assignment today.

I still barely know Java, not enough to know what to do yet.  I was planning on trying to score around 90% on the assignment so I wouldn't have to worry about the final exam.  I will run the code to check if it works.

On the final exam from what I heard from other students is you only need to know the basics of what everything is, not specifically all the details of how everything works.  I need to find a super basic Quizlet to use.

[tallpilot]

I started Data Structures yesterday, I'm already done and ready to do the assignment today.

I still barely know Java, not enough to know what to do yet.  I was planning on trying to score around 90% on the assignment so I wouldn't have to worry about the final exam.  I will run the code to check if it works.

On the final exam from what I heard from other students is you only need to know the basics of what everything is, not specifically all the details of how everything works.  I need to find a super basic Quizlet to use.

I did the Java course. It gave me another CS credit for the certificate.  That helped, but you are correct, it isn’t necessary to be a Java expert to pass the exam. I believe I got an 82 without studying.

[Turkish]

Just coming back to confirm that the Red/Black tree is a BST for the assignment and I ended up with a 98. Similar to celerius' post I reference above, I received what I assume is the same message and link to an external site detailing that the BST could be expanded on.

Additionally, in reference to some of the above posters, I took the CS-115 Programming in Java from SDC the month before I took this as another poster had written that it made the course much easier. I'm envious that LevelUp was able to progress without it, but for me, I'm glad I went through that course because it eliminated any Java language and syntax issues and let me focus on the structure portion of the class. It also meant I started with a few classes already complete.

I'll echo what I have read from other posters, this is a very in-depth course and you can tell that several of the lesson authors have significant experience in the area. For a few of the lessons I ended up dropping to YouTube to get an additional explanation when it wasn't quite enough for me on the chapter lessons, but other than that, a much more difficult course than some of the others I've done.

[doom]

Just coming back to confirm that the Red/Black tree is a BST for the assignment

Does this mean that one should implement the BST as a nested class or something?