WatDFS: A Project for Understanding Distributed Systems in the Undergraduate Curriculum

The ubiquity of distributed computing systems has led to an increased focus on distributed systems in the undergraduate curriculum. In this paper, we describe the design of, and our experiences with, a new distributed systems project where students implement the core components of a distributed file system called WatDFS. The WatDFS project enables students to meet learning objectives from across the distributed systems curriculum and interact with real systems, while providing a high-quality testing environment that yields actionable feedback to students on their submissions.