Midterm 1, kept for the final.
Written Thursday, October 8, 2026. The final is cumulative, so everything from Midterm 1 stays here: the guide, flashcards, quizzes, the practice test and the real midterm questions.
Midterm 1 had 29 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes: 2 min 45 s per question. Each green tick above is one question. His exams run long, so practise finishing your first pass by minute 65 and keeping the last 15 for flagged questions.
Ways to study
Study guide
Every topic on the announcement, plus what the lectures added: DFA minimization, lexical analysis, induction examples.
Flashcards
Definitions, constructions and classic examples to drill.
Topic quizzes
Pick topics, answer at your own pace, and see an explanation after every question. Filter to the practice-test style.
Practice exam
29 questions in the prof’s format on a timer, with an A–E bubble sheet, pace tracking and a tighter 65-minute mode.
What Midterm 1 covered
| # | Topic | Sipser | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction + class notes Quiz this topic | 0.1–0.4 | 1–26 |
| 2 | Finite automata Quiz this topic | 1.1 | 31–46 |
| 3 | NFAs and regular expressions Quiz this topic | 1.2–1.3 | 47–76 |
| 4 | Pumping lemma and CFGs Quiz this topic | 1.4, 2.1 | 77–87, 102–107 |
The prof’s note: the book does not cover everything from class. Questions marked “From lecture” on this site come from the slides.
On exam day
- Bring HB pencils and an eraser.
- Come early.
- Write your FIRST AND LAST NAMES IN BOLD CAPITALS on both the bubble sheet and the question paper.
- First pass: answer what you know, flag the rest, keep moving.
- For a shared setup (an NFA or DFA table), work it out once and answer the whole group from it.
- Read option (e). “None of the above” and “Both (a) and (b)” are sometimes right.
- Before time runs out, bubble a guess for every question. A blank is always wrong.