COMP3161 Concepts of Programming Languages (UNSW Sydney): rated 3.5/5 overall across 22 reviews collected on UNSW Wall.
COMP3161 is a UNSW Sydney course taught by the Faculty of Engineering in School of Computer Science and Engineering. This page brings together its handbook details and what UNSW students say about it.
Review data updated 2026-10-24.
Chinese title: 编程语言概念
Type: Undergraduate course
Credit points: 6
Subject area: School of Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty: Faculty of Engineering
Level: Undergraduate Level 3
Handbook year: 2026
This course discusses and relates a range of programming language concepts and paradigms, including imperative, object-oriented, functional, concurrent & parallel programming. It covers the theoretical foundations (syntax, operational, axiomatic and denotational semantics) as well as practical development and implementation aspects (dynamic and strong typing, polymorphism, overloading, automatic memory management, and concurrency).
COMP3161 has 22 scored reviews: overall 3.5/5 (all out of 5; higher difficulty means harder).
Sources: 22 Reddit comments that an AI model judged to be reviewing this course (average would-recommend 3.5/5).
On Reddit: "Both if you’re interested in that stuff. I found COMP3161 way more interesting, and the assignments are really fun (evaluator and type checker, both in Haskell). 3161 is more theoretical than 3131, though in 3131 you implement the entire front end of a compiler (in Java tho). Yo…"
On Reddit: "(Disclaimer: I'm one of the tutors for the course next term, so I *may* be a bit biased) I did it last year, and it's easily one of my favourite courses! You learn a bunch of stuff about how programming languages are designed, mostly through the lens of functional languages - th…"
The course panel on UNSW Wall shows every review and discussion in full.
Q: Is COMP3161 worth taking?
A: Averaged over 22 reviews: overall 3.5/5.
Q: Which faculty teaches COMP3161, and when is it offered?
A: COMP3161 is taught by the Faculty of Engineering. Check the official handbook for the current year.
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