CS 4730 — Distributed Systems
4 semester hoursUndergraduateLectureusually offered: fall, springtypical days: T/FBostonTraditional
Introduces distributed systems, covering fundamental concepts and showing how they are applied to build reliable distributed services. Examines several existing distributed applications, such as file systems, databases, lock services, digital currencies, smart contracts, and machine learning, and how these applications must coordinate to function and overcome failures, network partitions, or compromised parties. Distributed systems, such as databases, cloud services, and blockchains, are omnipresent in the services and applications that serve society on a daily basis.
Prerequisites
- CS 3650 (min D-)
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 | 1 | 10 | 75 | 13% | 65.0 |
| Fall 2024 | 2 | 31 | 140 | 22% | 54.5 |
| Spring 2025 | 1 | 51 | 70 | 73% | 19.0 |
| Fall 2025 | 1 | 32 | 39 | 82% | 7.0 |
| Spring 2026 | 1 | 40 | 48 | 83% | 8.0 |
Snapshots from scheduled scrapes — not live seat availability. "Full" can exceed 100% when sections over-enroll.
Meeting times
Share of recent sections by weekday: M 31% · T 69% · W 31% · Th 0% · F 69%
Common patterns: TF (69% of sections), MW (31% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Fall
- Alden Jackson (86% of students) · reviews
- Cristina Nita-Rotaru (14% of students) · reviews
Spring
- Cristina Nita-Rotaru (56% of students) · reviews
- Ji Yong Shin (44% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Unlocks
Courses that list CS 4730 in their prerequisites.
Links
Official catalog (CS course descriptions) · Student reviews on RateMyHusky · All CS courses · Plan it at numap.app