Bruce Huang
Department of Computer Science
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3.5
Overall Rating
Based on 25 Users
Easiness 3.4 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.0 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.5 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

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GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
18.1%
15.0%
12.0%
9.0%
6.0%
3.0%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

69.8%
58.2%
46.5%
34.9%
23.3%
11.6%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

40.5%
33.8%
27.0%
20.3%
13.5%
6.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

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Reviews (16)

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Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
March 26, 2022

Love Bruce!! Super nice with grades and gave us an extra credit quiz worth 30 points. Can tell he is really passionate about computer science and tries really hard to help with all questions that come up. Something new for this quarter was that our 7th project was a open-ended design your own type project which I thought was really nice (adding on to/based on project 6). Overall a super nice professor and would definitely recommend taking CS31 with him over any other professor.
Also discussions aren't mandatory but I would recommend doing the optional worksheets as they are really useful in solidifying your understanding of the concepts.

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Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 1, 2021

Professor Huang is a great professor and I would highly recommend taking his course. Throughout the quarter, it was very clear to me that he cares a lot about teaching and the quality of the content that he puts out. His lectures and slides are easy to understand and he's extremely accommodating and willing to help out his students. In addition, there were a ton of useful resources available. In terms of how the course was constructed, the exams and projects were fair and the course ran smoothly!

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Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 29, 2021

Huang's an energetic professor who explains things well and evidently cares a lot about his students. He was super understanding with misunderstandings in CCLE and would do his best to clarify things through email or on Piazza. Would recommend if he teaches again

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
April 15, 2024

Listen, if you don't have coding experience do not take this class. All the good things you're hearing about Huang are from people who already know how to code. I have never coded before and Huang made this class so unnecessarily stressful and difficult. His lectures were extremely boring, hard to follow, and plain unhelpful. He clearly did not know how to teach coding at a beginner level. His tests aren't hard but he doesn't teach well enough for the content that is on them. The midterm was taken during week 4 or 5 and wasn't graded until week NINE. And even then some people's tests weren't even fully graded. I got a C- on the midterm which was around the average which was so nerve wracking and stressful since the final was two weeks later. Luckily he offered an extra credit quiz for up to 12 points on the midterm which alleviated some stress. The only reason I ended with an A is because we were allowed a cheat sheet on the final and I had exactly what was on the final and exactly an all-or-nothing 10 point extra credit question written on my cheat sheet so I ended up getting a 102 on the final. As for projects, his specs are actually TERRIBLE. He is so bad at explaining what he wants which results in the project averages to sometime be in the 70s and 80s. But again, if you have done programming before you will get an A, but if not it will be unnecessarily stressful.

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: C-
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
April 13, 2024

i took this class as a non-STEM major so take this review with a grain of salt. Professor Huang is a great person, but he sucks at lecturing. what i mean is that he is very accommodating to students' opinions but most of the time, i feel like i am self-studying for the projects and exams. but i do think that's how it should be at UCLA regardless of what class you're taking. the TA's and LA's weren't that great either because i would ask them a couple questions regarding code and they would reply with a generic answer. overall, a pretty mid experience with this class.

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: B-
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
April 10, 2024

This class was a joke, two lectures form 4-5:50 on Monday and Wednesday where he would sit in the front of the class and talk without a microphone to 150+ ppl(the first week there were like 200-250 ppl). If you were sat anywhere behind the 7/8th row, you had no chance of following the lecture. Lecture was not very useful but he uploaded videos that clarified the concepts on bruin learn. I have to add that this class only has one midterm that is 25% of your grade (that we took week 4) so if you do badly on that you're cooked. It's standard in the COM SCI department (i think?- most professors do it anyway) that your project score is capped by the mean of the midterm and final +30 points (so if you get a 50 and a 60, your project score is out of 75% not 100%), but having one midterm really screwed me over. I got a 90 on the final and a 98 on the projects (which imo where WAY easier than they should have been), but I hadn't quite grasped the concepts of project 3 when we did the midterm (midterm was on Wednesday and project 3 was due on saturday) so I went in and bombed it because 40% of our grade was about loops. I got a 40% on my midterm (it was graded week 8). This was obviously my own fault but I felt like they were grading unecessarily harshly. Also it was online so there was definitely cheating (it was on respondus lockdown browser though). He did give us an extra credit quiz which increased our grade by 12%. I got an extra 8.6% because of it, which was the difference between a C+ and a B- for me and I am very glad he did that. But he made it seem as tho u were guaranteed a 100% if you did it and it was definitely not like that. It was easy enough though. Overall, I think you should take another proffeser but if you gotta take Huang, just keep in mind that you're going to have to put in a lot of outside effort (W3schools, LearnCpp and I recommend C++ for beginners by Dr Kung-Hua Chang (this book SAVED me for the final)). He was really helpful during OH and piazza was really helpful (although some of the student's questions confused me more than helped me), and also my TA and LA were great.

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A+
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
April 9, 2024

This class was okay. I've taken APCSA and had a very good understanding of that material (not much after), and that's pretty similar to about 75% of the course material. If I had done any CS before, however, this class would have definitely been pretty difficult. I feel like my prior coding knowledge and general intuiton and experience in CS carried me through the projects and tests.

There were 6 projects. I'd say the 3rd one was the hardest and even that wasn't too bad. I got 100's on all the projects except for the 5th one where I missed a small edge case, and there were two test cases out of 10 that covered that.

TA's are active on piazza to answer questions. The project specs were mostly okay but a few parts definitely did need clarification, so please ask your questions (even if it's just a clarification)! A couple times just browsing piazza made me realize I interpreted a part of the assignment incorrectly and had to change it.

As for Huang himself, his lectures are all right. Again, since I had cs experience before it wasn't too bad to follow, but I did feel it could be a bit unorganized sometimes, especially when he would switch between several files at once and showing different pieces of code.

There was 1 midterm and 1 final. There was also a 12 point extra credit quiz to be added to your midterm score, and a 10 point EC question on the final (all or nothing). On the midterm, there were 2 MCQ's graded incorrectly (that they did regrade eventually), and I incorrectly lost 5 points on one of the FRQ's too and had to ask for a regrade, so my actual score was 10 points different than my initial (which is pretty significant and made it pretty stressful). There was ANOTHER grading error on the extra credit quiz which was honestly a little frustrating. In the end they did take care of regrades so it was all good, but it definitely added some unneccessary stress to the class.

The codewriting parts of the exams were probably pretty fair. The mcqs were mostly okay too but there were a few trick questions so read them carefully. I don't have too much of an opinion in this class. I did well but I wouldn't exaclty say I really enjoyed it too much? It was fine overall.

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
March 21, 2024

This class is pretty chill, and there were only 6 projects for us this quarter. However, Professor Huang is a pretty bad lecturer and honestly a lot of his lectures just consist of him showing us code and playing around with it but not really making any conclusions or points about what he is doing. However, the tests were generally fair and he does give pretty generous extra credit to add to both your midterm and final exam grades. I think I (hopefully) ended with an A with no real prior coding experience. The one main flaw of this class, however, is that it is quite unorganized, unclear, and project specs are quite confusing. Huang's TAs are also not too useful and are really slow with responding to emails, at least in my experience. If you want a nice, smooth introduction to C++ or Comp Sci in general I would advise against this class and try taking Stahl or Smallberg instead. They seem like much better lecturers.

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
March 19, 2024

Huang does not know how to teach. I don't think he has a clear outline of his material because they're just all over the place. He is inconsistent about projects and exams. Honestly think this class is a joke, especially with the extra credit quiz and final exam because he puts everything off until the last minute and doesn't care to clarify shit. The class itself is supposed to be easy but he makes it way too complicated than it should be. AVOID HIM AT ALL COST!

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Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
March 18, 2024

Oh guys, for god's sake, before getting my grade this class makes me feel super miserable. Reading 400 pages of a textbook right now, trying to prepare and praying to god.

Helpful?

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COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A
March 26, 2022

Love Bruce!! Super nice with grades and gave us an extra credit quiz worth 30 points. Can tell he is really passionate about computer science and tries really hard to help with all questions that come up. Something new for this quarter was that our 7th project was a open-ended design your own type project which I thought was really nice (adding on to/based on project 6). Overall a super nice professor and would definitely recommend taking CS31 with him over any other professor.
Also discussions aren't mandatory but I would recommend doing the optional worksheets as they are really useful in solidifying your understanding of the concepts.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
April 1, 2021

Professor Huang is a great professor and I would highly recommend taking his course. Throughout the quarter, it was very clear to me that he cares a lot about teaching and the quality of the content that he puts out. His lectures and slides are easy to understand and he's extremely accommodating and willing to help out his students. In addition, there were a ton of useful resources available. In terms of how the course was constructed, the exams and projects were fair and the course ran smoothly!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
March 29, 2021

Huang's an energetic professor who explains things well and evidently cares a lot about his students. He was super understanding with misunderstandings in CCLE and would do his best to clarify things through email or on Piazza. Would recommend if he teaches again

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A
April 15, 2024

Listen, if you don't have coding experience do not take this class. All the good things you're hearing about Huang are from people who already know how to code. I have never coded before and Huang made this class so unnecessarily stressful and difficult. His lectures were extremely boring, hard to follow, and plain unhelpful. He clearly did not know how to teach coding at a beginner level. His tests aren't hard but he doesn't teach well enough for the content that is on them. The midterm was taken during week 4 or 5 and wasn't graded until week NINE. And even then some people's tests weren't even fully graded. I got a C- on the midterm which was around the average which was so nerve wracking and stressful since the final was two weeks later. Luckily he offered an extra credit quiz for up to 12 points on the midterm which alleviated some stress. The only reason I ended with an A is because we were allowed a cheat sheet on the final and I had exactly what was on the final and exactly an all-or-nothing 10 point extra credit question written on my cheat sheet so I ended up getting a 102 on the final. As for projects, his specs are actually TERRIBLE. He is so bad at explaining what he wants which results in the project averages to sometime be in the 70s and 80s. But again, if you have done programming before you will get an A, but if not it will be unnecessarily stressful.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: C-
April 13, 2024

i took this class as a non-STEM major so take this review with a grain of salt. Professor Huang is a great person, but he sucks at lecturing. what i mean is that he is very accommodating to students' opinions but most of the time, i feel like i am self-studying for the projects and exams. but i do think that's how it should be at UCLA regardless of what class you're taking. the TA's and LA's weren't that great either because i would ask them a couple questions regarding code and they would reply with a generic answer. overall, a pretty mid experience with this class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: B-
April 10, 2024

This class was a joke, two lectures form 4-5:50 on Monday and Wednesday where he would sit in the front of the class and talk without a microphone to 150+ ppl(the first week there were like 200-250 ppl). If you were sat anywhere behind the 7/8th row, you had no chance of following the lecture. Lecture was not very useful but he uploaded videos that clarified the concepts on bruin learn. I have to add that this class only has one midterm that is 25% of your grade (that we took week 4) so if you do badly on that you're cooked. It's standard in the COM SCI department (i think?- most professors do it anyway) that your project score is capped by the mean of the midterm and final +30 points (so if you get a 50 and a 60, your project score is out of 75% not 100%), but having one midterm really screwed me over. I got a 90 on the final and a 98 on the projects (which imo where WAY easier than they should have been), but I hadn't quite grasped the concepts of project 3 when we did the midterm (midterm was on Wednesday and project 3 was due on saturday) so I went in and bombed it because 40% of our grade was about loops. I got a 40% on my midterm (it was graded week 8). This was obviously my own fault but I felt like they were grading unecessarily harshly. Also it was online so there was definitely cheating (it was on respondus lockdown browser though). He did give us an extra credit quiz which increased our grade by 12%. I got an extra 8.6% because of it, which was the difference between a C+ and a B- for me and I am very glad he did that. But he made it seem as tho u were guaranteed a 100% if you did it and it was definitely not like that. It was easy enough though. Overall, I think you should take another proffeser but if you gotta take Huang, just keep in mind that you're going to have to put in a lot of outside effort (W3schools, LearnCpp and I recommend C++ for beginners by Dr Kung-Hua Chang (this book SAVED me for the final)). He was really helpful during OH and piazza was really helpful (although some of the student's questions confused me more than helped me), and also my TA and LA were great.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A+
April 9, 2024

This class was okay. I've taken APCSA and had a very good understanding of that material (not much after), and that's pretty similar to about 75% of the course material. If I had done any CS before, however, this class would have definitely been pretty difficult. I feel like my prior coding knowledge and general intuiton and experience in CS carried me through the projects and tests.

There were 6 projects. I'd say the 3rd one was the hardest and even that wasn't too bad. I got 100's on all the projects except for the 5th one where I missed a small edge case, and there were two test cases out of 10 that covered that.

TA's are active on piazza to answer questions. The project specs were mostly okay but a few parts definitely did need clarification, so please ask your questions (even if it's just a clarification)! A couple times just browsing piazza made me realize I interpreted a part of the assignment incorrectly and had to change it.

As for Huang himself, his lectures are all right. Again, since I had cs experience before it wasn't too bad to follow, but I did feel it could be a bit unorganized sometimes, especially when he would switch between several files at once and showing different pieces of code.

There was 1 midterm and 1 final. There was also a 12 point extra credit quiz to be added to your midterm score, and a 10 point EC question on the final (all or nothing). On the midterm, there were 2 MCQ's graded incorrectly (that they did regrade eventually), and I incorrectly lost 5 points on one of the FRQ's too and had to ask for a regrade, so my actual score was 10 points different than my initial (which is pretty significant and made it pretty stressful). There was ANOTHER grading error on the extra credit quiz which was honestly a little frustrating. In the end they did take care of regrades so it was all good, but it definitely added some unneccessary stress to the class.

The codewriting parts of the exams were probably pretty fair. The mcqs were mostly okay too but there were a few trick questions so read them carefully. I don't have too much of an opinion in this class. I did well but I wouldn't exaclty say I really enjoyed it too much? It was fine overall.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A
March 21, 2024

This class is pretty chill, and there were only 6 projects for us this quarter. However, Professor Huang is a pretty bad lecturer and honestly a lot of his lectures just consist of him showing us code and playing around with it but not really making any conclusions or points about what he is doing. However, the tests were generally fair and he does give pretty generous extra credit to add to both your midterm and final exam grades. I think I (hopefully) ended with an A with no real prior coding experience. The one main flaw of this class, however, is that it is quite unorganized, unclear, and project specs are quite confusing. Huang's TAs are also not too useful and are really slow with responding to emails, at least in my experience. If you want a nice, smooth introduction to C++ or Comp Sci in general I would advise against this class and try taking Stahl or Smallberg instead. They seem like much better lecturers.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
March 19, 2024

Huang does not know how to teach. I don't think he has a clear outline of his material because they're just all over the place. He is inconsistent about projects and exams. Honestly think this class is a joke, especially with the extra credit quiz and final exam because he puts everything off until the last minute and doesn't care to clarify shit. The class itself is supposed to be easy but he makes it way too complicated than it should be. AVOID HIM AT ALL COST!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
March 18, 2024

Oh guys, for god's sake, before getting my grade this class makes me feel super miserable. Reading 400 pages of a textbook right now, trying to prepare and praying to god.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 2
3.5
Overall Rating
Based on 25 Users
Easiness 3.4 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.0 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.5 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

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