Guide to Partners

Later in the quarter, you will be allowed to work on the CS106B programming assignments in pairs. Working on coding problems in pairs is a skill in and of itself, and this guide is designed to help you make the best use of this opportunity.

Who Can I Partner With?

Your partner must be

  • someone who is currently a student in CS106B, and
  • who is in the same discussion section as you.

If you'd like to work with someone as a partner and they aren't in your discussion section, talk to your section leader and see if you can arrange to swap into their section (or have them swap into yours).

Should I Work With a Partner?

We’re often asked whether it’s a good idea to work with a partner in CS106B. The answer is “it depends, but in general it’s a good idea to have a assignment partner.”

There are many advantages to having a partner on the assignments. Here’s an unsorted list of why it can be helpful to work in a pair:

  • Your assignment partner can serve as a sounding board for ideas as you’re working through trickier parts of the assignment.
  • Having a partner keeps you accountable to make slow and steady progress on the assignment over the week, giving you more time to digest content and ask for help if you need it.
  • As you're coding together, your and your partner can read over each other's work and ask questions you each individually might not have thought to ask.
  • It’s a great way to meet other folks in the class and make lasting friends!

That said, some people feel most comfortable working on their own. If you’re in that camp, that’s totally fine! You certainly don’t need to have a partner in CS106B, and it’s completely reasonable to work through all the assignments on your own. Lots of students do just that and have a good experience with the course.

Can I Switch Partners?

Yes, absolutely! You are not required to work with the same partner all the time. Our only rule is that if you’ve started working on an assignment with someone, you need to submit that specific assignment jointly. After the due date, you’re free to switch who you’re working with for the next assignment (or to do the assignment solo if you’d like).

How Should I Work With My Partner?

Thank you for asking this question – it’s important to be strategic with how you complete assignments in a pair. In fact, historically we’ve found that folks who work well with their partners tend to do markedly better than students who don’t work effectively with the people they’re partnered with.

Let’s begin with the Big List of Bad Ideas. When working with a partner, make sure not to do the following.

  • Do not have one person do all the work and the other person just attach their name at the end. This is dishonest (if you’re submitting as a pair, we expect that both you and your partner actually did the work) and violates Rule 6 of our Honor Code policies. Furthermore, this is one of the most common ways we see people have high assignment scores and then flame out on exams. Remember – your ultimate goal is to master the material and techniques we’re teaching, not simply to get through the week’s assignment.

  • Do not have one person do half the assignment and the other person do the other half. This similarly violates Rule 6 of our Honor Code policies. It is also not conducive to learning the material. You and your partner are not likely to end up being good cooks if one of you just practices sautĂ©ing and the other just practices roasting. You and your partner are not likely to end up being good woodworkers if one of you just practices using a table saw an the other just practices using a miter saw. You and your partner are not likely to end up being good musicians if one of you just practices playing pieces in major scales and the other another just practices playing pieces in minor scales. Each part of the assignments is calibrated to hit some particular nuance of the material, and if you don’t work through all of them you’ll miss some important skills and concepts.

  • Do not take turns completing assignments. Again, this violates Rule 6 of our Honor Code policies and is not an effective way to learn the material. The material in CS106B builds on itself, and if you take a week off from practicing coding you can easily get yourself into a point where you can’t get caught back up.

Instead, you and your partner should physically be at the same computer working on the assignment. Do not have one partner write code without the other person present. If one person has to leave, the other should stop coding. Remember that working with a partner is about working together, not spearately.

There are also some General Good Citizenship items that you should keep in mind when working in a pair. All of these, by the way, will transfer to the workplace and to other personal relationships. 😃

  • Agree on your method of communication. Will you be communicating over text, over email, or some other means? And what’s a reasonable turnaround time? Different people feel differently about this. Some people like using email to communicate and are fine with 24-hour delays in responding. Other folks like texting and want immediate responses. What matters less is how you choose to stay in touch with one another than that you agree on what the parameters are. Talking about this up front will make things a lot easier.

  • Communicate expectations. How long will you be working? How much background reading will you each do before meeting up? What are your thoughts on using late days? Make sure you and your partner are in agreement on these.

  • Be civil. Don’t tell your partner they’re stupid because they made a small error. Don’t ask how your partner could not have known something if they don’t know it. That’s just basic decency.

How Do LaIR and Office Hours Work With Partners?

If you are working with a partner, our expectation is that the two of you are jointly working on the whole assignment together. To that end, if you have a question and want to stop by LaIR or office hours to get help, your partner must come with you. If you are working in a pair and show up in the LaIR or office hours solo, we will not be able to provide assistance on the assignments.

How Do I Submit Work With a Partner?

If you’re working with a partner, you must make a single joint submission. The good news is that Paperless makes this easy – one partner uploads the joint submission, then adds the other person as a partner. If you forgot to add your partner’s name when making the submission (please try to avoid this, though it’s less uncommon than you’d think), ping your section leader to let them know.

What Happens If We Can’t Agree on Something?

It sometimes happens that you and your partner won’t be able to agree on something. If this is something of a technical nature (one person says “I think we’re supposed to do this in way X” and the other says “I think we’re supposed to do this in way Y”), you can always ask on EdStem or stop by office hours. Disputes based on a factual question are often easy to resolve, and you’ll both learn something from the process. Often times, we find that when there’s a genuine factual disagreement, it’s on a nuanced point and we’re very glad people asked!

In other cases, these disagreements can be a bit harder to resolve. For example, imagine that your partner shows up to a meeting completely unprepared, or that your partner has simply stopped responding to texts or emails, or that your partner just plain isn’t nice to you. It’s not fun when that happens.

So what should you do? This will ultimately be specific to your situation, but you have some options. One option would be to try to patch things up with your partner. That’s a great life skill to develop. You can get advice about how best to do this by talking to your dorm staff, to your academic advisor, by taking a class in negotiation or interpersonal dynamics (we have them here, and they’re great!), or by doing some searching online.

Another option would be to make it to the end of the week’s assignment through whatever compromises are necessary and then stop working with the person. Sometimes you and the other person just don’t work well together, and it’s good to move on. If so, we’re sorry the experience didn’t go well, but hopefully it serves as a good learning experience for future partnerships. If you do this, though, don't ghost the other person. Make sure to (civilly!) tell your partner that you won't be working with them so that they can plan accordingly.

Partners and Retaking CS106B

If you are retaking CS106B, or if your partner is retaking the class, make sure that you and your partner comply with the appropriate Honor Code policies regarding past work and reusing work.