Asynch Lectures, some of the projects/hw can be difficult so go to Office Hours. Midterms and Final are harder, especially final which shafted some people

Pretty manageable class, especially if you have prior experience with CS. Definitely do not procrastinate on starting your projects and you should be fine. Attend discussions if you need help but neither discussions nor in-person lectures are required.

Kinda boring since lectures are prerecorded but class is chill if you have prior cs experience. Smallberg trolls quite a bit tho.

Although I came into this class having coding experience from AP CSA, the projects for this class were surprising difficult and time-consuming. If you don't have any coding experience at all, I wouldn't recommend this class since 10 weeks is a real short time to learn all the basics of coding and apply these coding concepts in graded projects. On the other hand though, tests were super easy. You get a cheat sheet but it is a pen-and-paper exam (not on the computer).

One pro of this class is definitely optional lectures. He just used lecture time as a recorded Q&A session, with the actual lectures being prerecorded and uploaded on Canvas. They're easy to understand in 2x, and tbh you'll still be fine even if you don't watch lectures at all, as long as you skim/read the textbook and do the projects diligently. Just note that the online interactive textbook was MANDATORY and a needless $70-80 for a 4-month subscription. At least it was a bit helpful.

Syllabus:
Projects (excluding zyBook assignments) 42% (there are 7 projects, about 6% each project)
zyBook assignments 7%
Responsibility assignments 1%
Midterm 1 7%
Midterm 2 13%
Final exam 30%

Smallberg is a great lecturer. 95% of the material you need for projects will be explained in lectures. However he is very picker about following directions. The workload is tough. I found myself spending most of my time on the projects. Would not take another heavy workload class with cs31, especially if you are new to coding.

First CS class at UCLA teaching C++ is kind of questionable, but Smallberg is an excellent prof.

Smallberg is your introduction to CS at UCLA, and he's perfect for the job. His lectures are in-depth, he answers questions well, is very knowledgeable, and threw in occasional jokes I enjoyed. He's a hard-ass, but reasonably so.

If you've taken a similar class in the past (or AP CS and did well), you'll be completely fine. The projects are fun and the recorded lectures are skippable or two-times-speedable if you so desire. If it's your first time with CS, you'll definitely stumble a bit, but it's manageable.

Take this class instead of CS30 if you have any prior knowledge of anything computer science related. Overall, lectures were very informative, but can often be dry (that is not a dig at smallberg, its pretty hard to make anything interesting for that long, they were just under 2 hours, but were recorded, so 2x speed made that easier). Start projects early!!! You cannot get most of them done, and fully test them in one day. Do not make the same mistakes I did. Overall, midterms and finals were pretty easy, and I'd recommend this teacher and class!

Smallberg’s lectures are great to play on 2 times speed. He can be a bit dull, but he explains everything thoroughly. Where this class really is enjoyable is the projects. Some of them are tough, but you really feel as though you’ve learned and accomplished something when you complete them.

Professor Smallberg is a pretty good lecturer and is mostly clear on what he is expecting from students. While I did have some experience with C++, I was never the best at it so some parts of this class were rough. There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the projects as you have to meet 100% of the specifics in the spec if you want to even get a passing grade on some of the projects. The projects themselves vary in difficulty, with some being relatively easy while others are difficult and time consuming (Projects 3 and 5 for this quarter). While his demeanor seems harsh and abrasive over email, he is often open to questions both in class and during office hours. An issue that he has is that he often takes too long to grade assignments, so it is difficult to predict your grade in the class.