COMP9020 Foundations of Computer Science (UNSW Sydney): rated 3.2/5 overall across 31 reviews collected on UNSW Wall.
COMP9020 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: 计算机科学基础
Type: Postgraduate course
Credit points: 6
Subject area: School of Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty: Faculty of Engineering
Level: Postgraduate Level 9
Handbook year: 2026
The official scope is: mathematical methods for designing correct and efficient programs; mathematics for algorithm analysis; logic for proving and verification. The actual content is taken from a list of subjects that constitute the basis of the tool box of every serious practitioner of computing: set and relation theory; induction, recursion and recurrence relations; order of growth of functions; structured counting (combinatorics); discrete probability; graph theory and…
COMP9020 has 31 scored reviews: overall 3.2/5 · usefulness 5.0 (all out of 5; higher difficulty means harder).
Sources: 1 StudentVIP review (average 5.0 stars); 30 Reddit comments that an AI model judged to be reviewing this course (average would-recommend 3.1/5).
On Reddit: "Did it this term, it has 4 hours of lectures and a 2 hour tute per week. Weekly quizzes each worth 5%, no other assessments till the exam."
On Reddit: "It's the maths background you need to worry about. If you can get though the discrete maths textbook (Ross and Wright) at a reasonable pace, you should be OK. There's almost no calculus to deal with, but weird algebra, combinatorics, set theory, first-order logic, et cetera - yo…"
The course panel on UNSW Wall shows every review and discussion in full.
Q: Is COMP9020 worth taking?
A: Averaged over 31 reviews: usefulness 5.0/5, overall 3.2/5.
Q: Which faculty teaches COMP9020, and when is it offered?
A: COMP9020 is taught by the Faculty of Engineering. Check the official handbook for the current year.
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