COM SCI 281A · CS 281AComputability and Complexity
Computer Science · 4 units · Graduate courses (200-299)
Concepts fundamental to study of discrete information systems and theory of computing, with emphasis on regular sets of strings, Turing-recognizable (recursively enumerable) sets, closure properties, machine characterizations, nondeterminisms, decidability, unsolvable problems, easy and hard problems, PTIME/NPTIME.
Letter grading.
When it runs
- Winter 2026
- Winter 2027
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
Official UCLA wording
Requisite: course 181 or compatible background.
BruinTree reads · Prerequisite
needs reviewconfidence 0.50 · from text- COM SCI 181
- compatible background
- · could not read "compatible background" (no course number found)
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
COM SCI 281A
- COM SCI 181Theory of Computing
- COM SCI 180Introduction to Algorithms and Complexity
1 direct requisite. Showing 4 courses over 3 levels; the branches marked with a count carry on past it. Every course here opens its own tree.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
COM SCI 281A
- COM SCI 288SSeminar: Theoretical Computer Science
1 course lists this as a requisite. The whole downstream is here — 1 course over 1 level. Every course here opens its own tree.