UT Austin CS 314: Data Structures
CS 314 is UT's data structures course in Java, covering lists, stacks, queues, trees, hashing, graphs, and algorithm analysis. It's the load-bearing course of the CS major: everything upper-division assumes it, and its material is the substance of internship interview questions.
Fennie is independent and not affiliated with The University of Texas at Austin. This is an unofficial study guide.
What makes it hard
The programming assignments implement real structures with real test suites, and the workload is famously steady; there's essentially always an assignment live. Exams require hand-writing and analyzing code under time, including recursive methods over trees, which is a step beyond anything CS 312 demanded.
What you'll cover
- • Algorithm analysis and big-O
- • Linked lists, stacks, and queues
- • Recursion
- • Binary trees and binary search trees
- • Hash tables
- • Graphs and traversals
- • Sorting
The CS 314 study guide
How to study for UT Austin CS 314, step by step.
- 1
Start each assignment the day it releases
There is essentially always an assignment live in CS 314, and they're sized to take real time. Day-one starts are the single biggest predictor of a sane semester.
- 2
Write tree code by hand weekly
Exams demand hand-written recursive methods over trees under time. That's a trained skill; practice it on paper long before the midterm does it for you.
- 3
Explain big-O reasoning out loud
For every structure operation, say why the complexity holds. Verbal explanation exposes the gaps that silent review hides.
- 4
Protect exam review from the assignment stream
The steady workload will consume every available hour if you let it. A short daily review block keeps concepts warm between assignments.
Today
Today's CS 314 plan
What a Fennie Daily Plan looks like for CS 314. Yours is built from your own syllabus and adapts every day to your deadlines and progress.
First plan free, no card required. Fennie is independent and unaffiliated with your school.
FAQ
Is CS 314 hard at UT Austin?
It's the CS major's defining workload course: substantial assignments on a relentless cadence, plus exams that demand hand-written code and analysis. It's very passable with steady weekly hours and unforgiving toward procrastination.
How much time does CS 314 take per week?
Plan for 10-15 hours including assignments, more in heavy weeks. The assignments are designed to take real time, and starting them the day they're released is the single biggest predictor of a sane semester.
Does CS 314 prepare me for coding interviews?
Directly. Data structures, recursion, and complexity analysis are the core of technical interviews. Learning 314 deeply rather than minimally pays off more before recruiting starts than any other single course choice.
More UT Austin courses
CS 312: Introduction to Programming
CS 312 is UT Austin's introductory programming course in Java, designed for students with little or no prior coding experience: variables, control flow, methods, arrays, and object basics. It's the entry point to the CS major's programming sequence ahead of CS 314.
CS 311: Discrete Math for Computer Science
CS 311 is UT's discrete mathematics course for CS majors: logic, proof techniques, induction, sets, functions, combinatorics, and graph theory foundations. It builds the mathematical reasoning that the theory-side courses (algorithms, computability) stand on.
CS 303E: Elements of Computers and Programming
CS 303E is UT's introductory Python programming course for non-CS majors, the first course in the Elements of Computing program and one of the most popular programming credits on campus. It covers Python fundamentals, control flow, functions, and basic data structures, assuming no prior experience.
CS 313E: Elements of Software Design
CS 313E is the second course in UT's Elements of Computing sequence, covering object-oriented design in Python: classes, abstract data types, fundamental data structures and algorithms, and basic complexity analysis. It assumes programming at the CS 303E level.