Spring 2027

Introduction to Operating Systems

Introduction to Operating Systems covering I/O hardware, interrupts, storage properties, memory management, scheduling, and system evaluation.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 James SorensonSara McAllister

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Louis Oliphant

The projects took a significant amount of time, and the exams were described as pretty difficult.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the role and core responsibilities of an operating system

  • Explain and evaluate key OS abstractions and mechanisms

  • Analyze and compare scheduling, memory management, and storage strategies

  • Implement and extend functionality in an operating system

  • Apply systems-level thinking to reason about performance, reliability, and correctness

  • Write and debug multi-threaded programs

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

E C E/​COMP SCI 354 and (COMP SCI 367 or 400) or graduate/professional standing or declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals

      • ECE/COMPSCI 354
      • graduate/professional standing
      • declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals
      take one
      • COMP SCI 367 or 400
      not eligible with
    take all
COMPSCI 537 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • All of
    • Any of
      • ECE/COMPSCI 354
      • graduate/professional standing
      • declared in the Capstone Certificate in Computer Sciences for Professionals
    • Not eligible with
      • COMP SCI 367 or 400

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.35 GPA, 61.1% A/AB (n=36 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANDREA ARPACI-DUSSEAU is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BARTON MILLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2018, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

EMILY JACOBSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2012. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HARYADI GUNAWI is recorded teaching in Fall 2008. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAMES SORENSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KAI MAST is recorded teaching in Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LOUIS OLIPHANT is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL SWIFT is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Fall 2017, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

REMZI ARPACI-DUSSEAU is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SHIVARAM VENKATARAMAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

YUVRAJ PATEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ZEV WEISS is recorded teaching in Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
DIS 311Classroom Instruction0 / 380
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 1500
DIS 321Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 322Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 323Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 324Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 312Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 313Classroom Instruction0 / 380
DIS 314Classroom Instruction0 / 380

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Louis Oliphant

Students found the class interesting with a lecturer who broke down concepts into easy-to-understand blocks, though the workload and exams were challenging.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.34 GPA, 66.2% A/AB (n=320 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.33 GPA, 60.4% A/AB (n=333 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 70.0% A/AB (n=287 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Louis Oliphant

The projects took a significant amount of time, and the exams were described as pretty difficult.

Past student reviews · Michael Swift

Lectures went fast and could be hard to follow, but the instructor was friendly and joked around during class.

Topics

  • I/O hardware, interrupts, and storage/memory hardware
  • Process management, scheduling, and system evaluation
  • OS abstractions and mechanisms

Skills

  • Describing OS roles and responsibilities
  • Evaluating OS abstractions and mechanisms
  • Analyzing scheduling, memory, and storage
  • Applying systems-level reasoning
  • Writing and debugging multi-threaded programs

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.07 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
COMPSCI 537 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Operating Systems

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:266:004277",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI 537",
    "course_uid": "course_79e5479d9eb1286e8642b399",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "004277",
    "source_subject_id": "266",
    "title": "Introduction to Operating Systems",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f3626d1fddda01424ee3bfd8c0a08b819e67f477404cd8f046b9c7603460c36f",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}