The University of Cambridge's computer science course includes big-O notation in the first term. It is introductory. Look at it like any other subject: you spe

The University of Cambridge's computer science course includes big-O notation in the first term. It is introductory. Look at it like any other subject: you spend a lot of time analysing and understanding existing work before you make new work. Why would it be different for computer science? The introductory course syllabus is at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/CST/node11.html http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/CST/node11.html if you're interested.