Spring 2027

Distributed Systems

This course explores issues in designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems, covering topics such as fault tolerance, scalability, replication, consensus, and reliability.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Michael Swift

Workload was significantly higher than other graduate courses, and the grading was described as very meticulous.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe core concepts in distributed computing, such as logical clocks, consensus, partitioning, replication and fault tolerance, etc.

  • Explain how real-world distributed systems are realized by relying on core distributed computing concepts.

  • Analyze how emerging technology trends concerning new hardware and applications, influence the designs and implementations of distributed systems.

  • Solve and develop distributed computing problems, services and applications.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

COMP SCI 736, 744, 764, or 774

COMPSCI 739

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.92/5 from 13 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=53 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.88 GPA, 95.8% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANDREA ARPACI-DUSSEAU is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL SWIFT is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2019, Fall 2024. 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 / 600

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Michael Swift

Students found the lectures and readings enjoyable for learning about distributed systems, noting the instructor clearly puts energy into teaching.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.90 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.88 GPA, 95.8% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 95.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michael Swift

Workload was significantly higher than other graduate courses, and the grading was described as very meticulous.

Past student reviews · Michael Swift

Exams required contrasting various systems and drawing conclusions on your own, which students found tough because it went beyond the lecture material.

Topics

  • Fault tolerance, scalability, replication, and distributed storage
  • Consensus, reliability, performance, and correctness in distributed systems
  • Core distributed computing concepts including logical clocks and partitioning

Skills

  • Describing core distributed computing concepts like logical clocks, consensus, and replication
  • Explaining the realization of real-world distributed systems using core concepts
  • Analyzing the impact of emerging hardware and application trends on system design
  • Solving and developing distributed computing problems, services, and applications

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

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.

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Selected offering source records
COMPSCI 739 · Spring 2027

Distributed 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": "1274:266:004322",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI 739",
    "course_uid": "course_92044dcea97b04bfee427edf",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "004322",
    "source_subject_id": "266",
    "title": "Distributed Systems",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "763ead87dd2cfb9496ad9b0023d39e696ed3940f3ca4e17ca553cd5023055a2b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}