There are three categories of core courses: Programming, Systems, and Theory. As part of satisfying coursework requirements, Master of Science in CS (MSCS) and Master of CS (MCS) students both must take at least one course in Programming and at least one in Systems. MCS students must take at least one course in Theory; MSCS students must take at least two courses in Theory.

A number of courses can be used simultaneously as core courses and specialization courses by MCS students who choose a specialization. Below, these specializations are marked CI (Computational Intelligence), CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems), DB (Database Systems), DCC (Distributed and Cloud Computing), ISA (Information Security and Assurance), NC (Networking and Communications), and SE (Software Engineering).

Note: Only courses taken from the IIT CS department can be used as core courses; CS courses transferred from other universities can be used only as electives.

Programming Core Courses

CS 511	Topics in Computer Graphics
CS 512	Computer Vision (CI)
CS 525	Advanced Database Organization (DB) (ISA)
CS 540	Syntactic Analysis of Programming Languages
CS 541	Topics in Compiler Construction
CS 546	Parallel and Distributed Processing
CS 551	Operating System Design and Implementation
CS 553	Cloud Computing (CPS, DB, DCC)

Systems Core Courses

CS 542	Computer Networks I: Fundamentals (NC)
CS 544	Computer Networks II: Network Services (NC)
CS 547	Wireless Networking (NC)
CS 550	Advanced Operating Systems (DCC)
CS 555	Analytic Models and Simulation of Computer Systems
CS 570	Advanced Computer Architecture
CS 586	Software Systems Architectures (SE)

Theory Core Courses

CS 530	Theory of Computation
CS 533	Computational Geometry
CS 535	Design and Analysis of Algorithms
CS 536	Science of Programming (SE)
CS 538	Combinatorial Optimization
CS 539	Game Theory: Algorithms and Applications

Last Modified 10/1/2013: CS 546 no longer in DB specialization 2012-12-28: Computer Networking and Telecommunications specialization renamed Networking and Communications; Information Systems specialization renamed Database Systems.