Teaching-mechanic library

tower_access · cs · sequencer.linear

Concept: Stacks

Player does: Predict the pop order after pushes and pops

Breaks: First in, first out

A stack is last in, first out: the most recently pushed item is the one that pops first.

processing_line · cs · sequencer.linear

Concept: Queues

Player does: Predict the service order at the processing line

Breaks: The newest arrival is served first

A queue is first in, first out, so the earliest arrival is served before newer ones.

branch_explorer · cs · sequencer.linear

Concept: Tree traversal

Player does: Order the rooms visited in pre-, in-, or post-order

Breaks: In-order means top to bottom

In-order traversal visits left subtree, node, then right subtree, which is not the same as visiting top to bottom.

network_explorer · cs · sequencer.linear

Concept: BFS vs DFS

Player does: Predict the visit order as BFS spreads and DFS dives

Breaks: BFS and DFS visit in the same order

BFS explores level by level with a queue while DFS dives deep with a stack, so they visit nodes in different orders.

big_o_race · cs · sequencer.rank

Concept: Complexity

Player does: Rank runners by growth rate as n explodes

Breaks: An O(n²) algorithm is always slower

Big-O describes growth as input size gets large; an O(n²) algorithm can still be faster than a worse-growth one on small inputs.

osi_elevator · cs · sequencer.linear

Concept: Network layers

Player does: Ride a packet down and up the protocol stack

Breaks: Layers can be skipped

Each OSI layer depends on the one below it, so data must pass through every layer in order, never skipping one.