I really enjoyed taking Theory of Computing with Sherstov. He is very passionate about the topics and explains them clearly and engagingly. His lectures are well-structured and he uses a lot of examples and diagrams to illustrate the concepts. He also has amazing communication skills and is always available to answer questions and give feedback. The homeworks are challenging but they help you learn a lot and prepare you for the exams. The exams are fair and he provides practice exams that cover the main points. I would highly recommend this course to anyone taking CS181

Best class I've ever taken in my life. It was magical.

This course is the perfect model of how a class should be. There are a million examples for everything. A million practice problems for every exam. Everything is well-explained. And it's STILL challenging.
I'm so sick of professors who don't provide enough examples or leverage the amount of material they give you, so this class is a breath of fresh air. The grade is 80% exams, and they can be difficult but there's zero bullshit: you know exactly what's gonna be on there before you take it.
Some reviews mention that you have to come up with creative solutions yourself instead of just following some algorithm, which is true. Welcome to computer science!

He is fantastic. Plan your schedule accordingly because you need to take this guy. Fantastic professor and human being.

181 is so overrated IMO and glazed way too hard. Sherstov is a good professor, a solid lecturer, and a kind person. But the content for me, was so boring and useless, I could never grasp it, and thus 181 became the hardest CS class I've ever taken. This class is basically a harder discrete math class, and just didn't feel very practical. The TAs were good, but the tests are difficult, and get progressively more difficult as they go on. This is a class where you really need to understand and learn the material well to do well on the midterm, as they require a bunch of abstract thinking and not really knowing facts or concepts as much. Overrated class

Sherstov has been one of my favorite professors at UCLA. He's super passionate about the topics that he covers and sincerely cares about his students being able to understand and learn the concepts. His exams are difficult but fair. His class is divided up into 4 sections, with each section covering a different topic (DFA's, NFA's, CFG's/ PDA's, and TM's). Each exam has 25 possible points you can earn, but it's graded out of 20. The highest score you can earn on each is 20, so you basically get 5 free points.

Hands down the best professor I have ever had and likely ever will have. Sherstov is not only incredibly smart and knowledgeable about finite automat theory, he is also super nice and very concerned about the students' success. I made a bruinwalk account just to review this amazing man. Take him if you can.

A little about the course: There are weekly homework assignments which are given 100% if you have a "good faith attempt on at least half of the problems". You really want to try on the homework though because it really is the best way to learn the material. For exams, there are 3 during the quarter, all during discussion (discussion is not mandatory except for exam days) and a final. Each exam is worth 20% of your grade and is out of 20 points. You can earn up to 25 points on each exam though (but you do not get extra credit) meaning that to get 100% in the class you just have to do the hw and get 80% correct on each exam.

Professor Sherstov is the best professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is very aware of his pedagogical style, which allows him to be a very effective lecturer. He demonstrates genuine enthusiasm in the course material at every turn, and does a wonderful job of linking each topic to the previous topics. He makes students feel very welcome asking questions, and when students answer the questions he asks, he is congratulatory when they are correct and encouraging when they are not. His homework is very reasonable, and in combination for the practice exams prepares you very well for the exams, of which there are four at regular intervals so as to smooth out the amount of anxiety associated with having one or two exams account for the entirety of one's grade.

Sherstov is probably one of the best professors you could have here at UCLA. His has great passion for the material and explains them clearly. The grading is based on three components only: midterm, final and a scribe note, where you typeset a chosen lecture in Latex. Took it as undergrad without much math background (it's basically a math class full of proofs!), not hard as long as you don't fall behind.

Most organized class ever! Every lecture was so well-thought out, and Sherstov is a fantastic lecturer. There's an exam pretty much every other Friday starting 4th week, which kind of sucked, but there's no cumulative final and it actually reduced the amount of stress, because you would only ever be tested on a few week's worth of material at a time. I really enjoyed this class.

You are really missing out if you don't take 181 with Sherstov!