Week 1: Picking the course took longer than I thought it would

Week 1 · 4 September 2026 · Data Structures (数据结构), Tsinghua University · XuetangX

First session. Spent it choosing which course to take for VLD.

1. What I worked on

Compared four courses and picked Tsinghua’s Data Structures (数据结构) by Prof. Deng Junhui on XuetangX. Also checked the prerequisites and found the online judge for assignments.

2. What was challenging, and how I handled it

Every option had a trade-off. Stanford CS106B has no grading, UC San Diego mixes three languages, UIUC is too short for a full year. I kept going back and forth until I wrote down three criteria (graded work, C++ only, free), and only Tsinghua hit all three. Once I knew what I was comparing on, the decision was obvious.

3. How well I ran my own learning

Self-score: 100

I picked my own criteria and chose the course myself. The comparison was my idea, not something I was told to do.

4. What I’ll do differently next session

Enrol on XuetangX and register on the OJ in one go. The OJ account needs the same email as XuetangX for grades to sync.

Evidence

Course comparison and all links on my Resources page.