I may be misremembering, but I think we had simple topology, linear programming (mainly just 2D, but I remember a 5D problem at the end of the section), matrice

I may be misremembering, but I think we had simple topology, linear programming (mainly just 2D, but I remember a 5D problem at the end of the section), matrices with eigenvalues and eigenvectors, set theory, and a bit of group theory. No programming, though there was some in the text book. It was pretty good fun. I don't remember anyone finding it conceptually difficult. It would also be worth mentioning Nuffield Physics. I thought that was a really great course for learning how to do physics. Very oriented towards finding solutions, devising experiments.