Security and Privacy
Rules for SP Qual 2024/2025
Overview
The qualifier for the Security and Privacy (S&P) Area is a two-part oral exam. In the depth part of the exam, the candidate discusses a topic or question provided by the chair of the candidate’s committee inspired by a statement provided by the candidate. In the breadth part of the exam, the candidate responds to questions about papers on a reading list that is shared by all of the candidates taking the exam in a given semester.
We focus here on rules for the S&P Area; these extend the rules of the Computer Science Department, which are documented here.
Qualifier statement
By department rules the candidate provides a qualifier statement about their research interests to the area chair of the area in which they would take a qualifier. A qualifier statement for S&P consists of a description that is no more than 100 words in length together with citations of two articles from the research literature that the candidate finds interesting.
Committee assignment
Based on the qualifier statement of the candidate, the area chair will appoint a qualifier committee of three faculty, one of whom will be designated as the chair of the committee. The chair of the committee will assign a topic or question for the depth exam of the candidate.
Exam
The candidate will organize the qualifier committee to carry out a two hour time meeting for the exam and committee discussions. That is, the candidate needs to find a time and place where all of the committee members can attend.
The candidate will give a 30 minute presentation on the depth question or topic given by the area chair. This will be followed by questions about the presentation. The breadth part of the exam then follows. It will consist of answering questions from the committee about the reading list. The committee chair will report the judgment of the committee concerning the result of the exam to the area chair for discussion. The committee chair will provide a letter describing the conclusions of the committee to the candidate.
Guidelines on depth exam
A typical depth exam is a survey based on about 4 to 6 papers selected by the candidate based on the topic or question provided by their committee chair. The candidate should present the key techniques and results of the papers as they apply to the selected topic or question and speculate on what has been accomplished and what types of approaches and research are left open. The candidate may present new results of their own if they have them, but this is not required. It is important for the candidate to keep to the 30-minute schedule for the depth presentation by deciding which are the most important topics, while being prepared for follow-up questions on related topics that may not have been covered.
The candidate will receive the depth question from the committee chair at least 3 weeks before the scheduled exam. The candidate should reach out to the committee chair 4 weeks prior to the scheduled exam to negotiate the depth question and timeline, to ensure sufficient time for preparation.
Guidelines on breadth exam
The faculty of the S&P area will provide a reading list papers addressing security and privacy issues in at least the following sub-areas:
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Application domains
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Data
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Networking
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OS and hardware
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Software
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Theory
The reading list will be the same for all candidates in a given academic year. Candidates planning to take the exam are encouraged to work together to prepare for questioning by their respective committees.
Reading List
The current reading list for S&P Area breadth exam is available here. The reading list is relatively stable and does not change from year to year.
Criteria for passing the exam
In general candidates are expected to understand key concepts well enough to explain, use, and critique them. For the depth exam they must show that they can gather and assimilate relevant literature and cull key aspects of the literature to effectively support an insightful overview and analysis. For the breadth exam they must correctly answer diverse questions on the contents of the assigned papers.
Extra tips for SP Qual preparation can be found here.
Time table
The academic office sets a time table of milestones. Consult with them or the Area Chair if you have questions.