CS 5500 — Foundations of Software Engineering
4 semester hoursGraduateLectureNUpath CENUpath WIusually offered: fall, springArlington, VABostonOakland, CAPortland, MaineSeattle, WASilicon Valley, CAVancouver, CanadaHybridTraditional
Covers the foundations of software engineering, including software development life cycle models (e.g., waterfall, spiral, agile); requirements analysis; user-centered design; software design principles and patterns; testing (functional testing, structural testing, testing strategies); code refactoring and debugging; software architecture and design; and integration and deployment. Includes a course project where some of the software engineering methods (from requirements analysis to testing) are applied in a team-based setting. Requires admission to MS program or completion of all transition courses.
Prerequisites
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer B 2023 | 1 | 9 | 30 | 30% | 21.0 |
| Fall 2023 | 8 | 302 | 375 | 81% | 9.1 |
| Spring 2024 | 5 | 212 | 245 | 87% | 6.6 |
| Fall 2024 | 9 | 213 | 451 | 47% | 26.4 |
| Spring 2025 | 7 | 204 | 346 | 59% | 20.3 |
| Fall 2025 | 7 | 168 | 266 | 63% | 14.0 |
| Spring 2026 | 4 | 102 | 181 | 56% | 19.8 |
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 24% · T 20% · W 9% · Th 24% · F 23%
Common patterns: M (21% of sections), R (20% of sections), F (16% of sections), T (11% of sections), S (11% of sections), W (9% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Fall
- Shivakumar Mathapathi (21% of students) · reviews
- Mark Bonicillo (20% of students) · reviews
- Joydeep Mitra (14% of students) · reviews
- John Buchanan (14% of students) · reviews
Spring
- Joydeep Mitra (29% of students) · reviews
- Mark Bonicillo (23% of students) · reviews
- Shivakumar Mathapathi (23% of students) · reviews
- Alexander Lash (7% of students) · reviews
Summer B
- John Buchanan (100% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Unlocks
Courses that list CS 5500 in their prerequisites.
Links
Official catalog (CS course descriptions) · Student reviews on RateMyHusky · All CS courses · Plan it at numap.app