CST 334 Week 8

Looking back on CST334, I can confidently say that this course pushed me in ways I didn’t expect, especially with the breadth and depth of material covered. One of my biggest takeaways is just how much is happening “under the hood” of computers that we often take for granted. Topics like inode addressing, disk access delays, memory hierarchy, and virtual address translation gave me a much clearer picture of how operating systems manage resources efficiently. Working through problems where I had to calculate inode locations, determine transfer delays based on seek and rotational latency, or translate virtual to physical addresses really showed me the importance of precision and attention to detail. These aren’t just abstract concepts; they are the backbone of how files are stored, accessed, and secured. I also found scheduling algorithms like Shortest Duration fascinating because they highlighted how small design choices in the OS can dramatically impact performance and fairness.

At the same time, I won’t deny that the final exam was extremely difficult. Having to juggle so many detailed calculations under time pressure, from Belady’s optimal cache replacement strategy to memory access time equations, felt overwhelming at times. It was challenging to not only remember the formulas but also to apply them correctly in multi-step problems where one mistake could throw off the entire answer. However, this difficulty also reinforced just how much I had learned. Earlier in the semester, I would have been lost staring at hex-to-binary conversions or segment-bound address checks, but by the end, I could at least break problems down logically and work through them. Overall, CST334 has been one of the toughest courses I’ve taken, but also one of the most rewarding, as it gave me a new level of respect for the complexity and elegance of operating systems.