Classical Information Theory
Jan-Apr 2026
co-instructor with Prof Aditya Nema
Announcement
This webpage has logistics for the second half. A homework will be posted in due course.
Class Plan
Textbook: Essential Coding Theory
Each weekend session listed below will be between 2PM and 5PM with a break in between. All chapter references are to the textbook linked to above.
| Date | Pre-Class Reading | Class Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 11 March (Wednesday) | — | Wordle · Entropy † |
| 13 March (Friday) | — | Huffman Codes |
| 18 March (Wednesday) | Impossible chessboard puzzle ‡ | No Class |
| 20 March (Friday) | — | Hamming Codes (Miniature 5) |
| 29th March (Sunday) | CH1 · Foundations | CH2 · Linear Codes |
| 4th April (Saturday) | CH 3 · Probability | CH4 · Bounds |
| 11th April (Saturday) | — | CH5 · Reed-Solomon Codes |
| 18th April (Saturday) | — | CH11 · Expanders |
Additional Explorations
† Information Theory & Entropy (via Wordle)
- Solving Wordle using information theory — 3Blue1Brown uses Wordle as a central example to teach information theory and entropy, showing how to quantify the “information” gained from each guess and build an algorithm that plays optimally.
- Oh, wait, actually the best Wordle opener is not “crane”… — A follow-up from 3Blue1Brown correcting a minor bug, and diving deeper into how the optimal first guess is chosen via two-step exhaustive search over expected information.
- Wordle Variants Collection — A community-maintained list of Wordle spin-offs including clones, multiplayer modes, multi-grid challenges, math variants (Nerdle, Primel), language/regional variants, and more.
‡ Error Correction & Hamming Codes (via the Chessboard Puzzle)
- The impossible chessboard puzzle — 3Blue1Brown presents a prisoner puzzle involving coins on a chessboard, connecting it to error-correcting codes and Hamming codes. Includes a proof that the puzzle is impossible when the number of squares is not a power of 2.
- The almost impossible chessboard puzzle — Matt Parker (Stand-up Maths) and Grant Sanderson walk through the practical solution to the chessboard puzzle step by step, with an interactive demonstration.