Lectures: lectures are very fast paced and pretty unforgiving. reading the textbook before lecture probably helps (he outlines the corresponding sections to the lectures), but if you're lazy, looking at the slides probably help too. I think most people agree that the lectures are really fast, but honestly I don't really think it's Tony's fault. The class is just super dense and there is so much new material. But Tony is pretty passionate and knowledgeable about the area, so he's definitely a great option for cs33.

Discussions: discussion was optional. he had a duel grading scheme so if you went to discussions and submitted a worksheet (graded on completion), then you can get 10% of your grade to be discussion worksheets. if not, then the midterm and final will be worth a little more. discussions mostly depend on your TA, so hop around and find a good one if you are not happy with your current one.

Labs: the labs are still pretty time consuming. they're definitely different from cs32 projects (manipulating bits, looking at assembly), but honestly still take alot of time. however, he offers a lot of extra credit through labs, so that's pretty nice too. you might've heard about the malloc lab, which is definitely earns its spot for the being the notoriously hard lab. just start early and make sure you understand the concepts.

Midterm/Final: the exams were pretty difficult, but you get plenty of practice exams which are helpful. he has multiple choice questions that can have 1, multiple, or no answers; you have to get it completely right to get the credit. there are also extra credit questions that are usually based on a lab. since the exams this quarter are open note and open internet, they might have been a little easier, but tony knows that and probably writes the exam knowing you have the internet.

Overall, pretty interesting class conceptually, it's just really dense and fast paced. However, tony is really funny and will meme you on the piazza when given the chance. be sure to meme him back by writing your posts in the form of a haiku (he is a renaissance man okay)

Seems like it's generally a pretty difficult class, but Professor Tony is a good guy to teach it! My advice is to get started as early as possible as the labs, and to review anything you may have glazed over in lecture - he moves pretty fast so it's important to keep up. He is very active on piazza (a message board) which is super helpful. One thing to be warned of - his tests always contain a multiple choice section that may have multiple right answers, and you have to select all of them in order to get any credit on each question, most students bomb that section.

Really nice guy, doing his best with some ~dense~ material. Yugo Watanabe is the best TA on the planet...

CS 33 itself is not an easy class. But taking it with Tony makes my life a little easier. I don't think there is a better professor for this class unless you love Eggert.. Anyways, Tony is super passionate and his assignments are doable. There are some strange questions on exams like word games but still, they are doable. Questions posted on Piazza can always get an answer really quick. AND in the last lecture, he used 10 minutes to sum up the entire stuff of this quarter which is REALLY cool!! He gives extra credits which provides a bigger chance of getting a good grade. Actually I messed up my midterm totally, but there's still a chance to get a good grade.

One thing to watch out: I don't think he is doing this in his previous teachings but this quarter participation counts in discussions.

I didn't really like the presentation of the lectures: very much reading off the slides although with helpful explanations. The slides, I hate to say it, use one (1) boring font (Calibri) and have a lot of words on each. I do wish I paid more attention or tried harder to in class. Reading the slides on time and carefully while using the textbook as a complement will help a lot in this class. Start your labs early. The malloc lab is tricky. I scored less than 40/100 for malloc and didn't turn in the thread lab, but did well on the tests which balanced out. Know your strengths: taking the exams (which were open book this quarter), or doing the lab exercises. If you get the textbook in a physical copy which you can bring to the exam, know how to use the contents page and index. I really liked the trigger warning on zombies, although I didn't need it.

Nowatzki is a pretty engaging and relatable dude (more on that later), but his lectures were hard for me to follow, since the slides don't exactly make sense on their own and he talks pretty fast. Because of this, I suggest doing a quick look through the slides right before lecture. Also, I would not rely only on the slides when doing test review. I highly recommend taking notes during class because Nowatzki sometimes has review questions on his slides that he doesn't put the answer to on the slide. He also does a lot of explaining on each slide that you won't remember unless you take notes. Otherwise, I would recommend reading the textbook or finding alternative resources.

His exams are really hard. There's multiple choice questions with multiple correct answers, and you don't get any points unless all the correct answers for one question are all checked.

He's also a troll and his exams will make you wonder why the heck he made you answer this. He also trolls the class Piazza page with memes and funny student answers from the final.

Conceptually, the material in CS33 was a lot tougher compared to CS31 and CS32. However, Tony made the class really enjoyable. He's one of the nicest professors I've ever had at UCLA and would occasionally post memes/troll on Piazza. He was also super helpful in office hours and was really receptive to questions as a whole. Because of this, I actually ended up enjoying my experience in CS33. I personally struggled to understand the lectures because the material was sometimes too deep for me, but after going to discussion and reading the textbook, things seemed to slow down. 10/10 recommend going to discussion (especially Yugo's) would recommend taking this class with Tony.

the professor is really nice but trying to understand lecture off slides is pretty difficult and he goes really fast. I suppose it would've been better if I had read the book before lecture but the book is so dense and there's so much to read...
definitely going to discussion under yugo was super helpful because he would take the time to explain things, go over examples and draw on the board and talk to us rather than going off slides.
you're given a lot of time to work on the labs and the prof is really nice and occasionally trolls you... i still ... i can't... thank you piazza

Prof Nowatzki is pretty amazing overall. His shortcomings are that his lecture slides can be confusing and his lecturing style sometimes boring (like many people too deep in CS, he can lose sight of what it's like learning that material for the first time). His advantages are what makes this of the most enjoyable classes I've had at UCLA: extremely active on Piazza, super nice attitude (very pleasant office hours), wacky sense of humour (makes every project goofy, jokes in slides, posted funny finals answers as his last piazza message), lots of practice material for exams. I found it really worthwhile to go to two discussions since my TA (shoutout to Atefeh) had really good summary slides and Yugo Wantanabe (the legend himself) was 50% of the reason i understood anything at all in the class. TLDR: content can be hard but prof w great attitude plus helpful TA outweigh that.

Prof. Nowatzki is one of those teachers that obviously cares about student learning. He's readily available to answer student questions, is very active on the Piazza forum with thoughtful responses and some funny jokes, and has an engaging lecture style. The midterm and final are straightforward, and Nowatzki provides his midterms and finals from previous years as well as a Google Drive of study material for you to practice. The projects are all pretty manageable except for the malloc lab, which was 30 hours of stepping through GDB while sobbing. That being said, I got a C on that lab but an A+ in the class, so don't sweat it too much. My TA was also SUPER helpful. If you can, definitely take Yugo Watanabe's discussion section! 10/10 one of the best TAs at UCLA. Overall, it's not difficult to get an A as long as you actually pay attention in class and clutch on the final. Would take again with this professor!