Welcome to the homepage for COS 316, Principles of Computer System Design, Spring 2026.

Time. Lectures are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 AM - 10:25 AM, Precepts are on Thursdays and Fridays.

Location. CS Building, 104

Description. This course teaches students the design, implementation, and evaluation of computer systems, including operating systems, networking, and distributed systems. The course will teach students to evaluate the performance and study the design choices of existing systems. Students will also learn general systems concepts that support design goals of modularity, performance, and security. Students will apply materials learned in lectures and readings to design, build and evaluate new systems components.

Textbook. There is no required textbook in this course, because there is no one book that covers the right material in an up-to-date fashion. Some required articles/papers/blogs/etc. will be posted on-line.

Course Staff

You may contact course staff via the Ed discussion board. Office hours are in Princeton (Eastern) time. Please check Calendar for office hours and locations.


Instructor
Wyatt Lloyd
Email: wlloyd@princeton.edu
TA
Xuyang Cao
Email: xyc@princeton.edu
TA
Nick Kaashoek
Email: nicolaas@princeton.edu

TA
Zijian Qin
Email: zjqin@princeton.edu
TA
Kayla Waitman
Email: kwaitman@princeton.edu