I'm going to give Smallberg credit. The man is very helpful if you seek it.

I think a lot of people are scared to ask Smallberg for help, and I don't blame them. He's quite intimidating, both on his project specs and in person when he's berating you for asking a "silly question". But the truth is that if you are struggling on his projects, and you send him an email full of detail and include relevant screenshots, he'll get back to you within a few hours, usually with a no-nonsense answer. He may still sound pompous, but you'll get the help you need, and you won't find better help from your TAs or classmates.

Chances are, you'll have Smallberg for CS32, so read the above paragraph again and remember it, because this class is NOT easy.

If you took CS31 with Smallberg, you know how the class will operate. This time, you'll have 5 HWs and 4 projects, and the HWs will often require you to turn in code files, unlike in 31. All of these, exempting the final project, are understandable. But as you have probably heard, they will take pretty much every second of free time you have. So don't take them lightly.

The midterms and final are similar to CS31, so don't stress about them if you did well in 31.

After having my attention span absolutely fried by instagram reels, it was literally smallberg's lectures that made me realize my attention span still had hope, because I was somehow able to watch like 4 of this man's 90 minute lectures back to back to back to back because I found them really interesting and well-explained. Smallberg is so unintentionally funny and like I honestly took this class for funsies and I definitely do not regret it. Yes, there was a shit load of work and honestly I was fighting for my life once I started project 3, but I have to say it was a really fun and positive experience. I think we are all super lucky to have a professor as knowledgable as smallberg. I think the way his lectures are structured perfectly catered to how my brain works. Most of my friends would disagree about his lectures being good, but I thought they were exceptionally great. One thing though, which is kind of just inherently part of cs, is that it is really easy to go from a 100 to a 50 on exams, because frankly they are super tricky. However, DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED. I got a 50 on the first midterm and still finished with an A. Would highly recommend this class for someone looking to learn data structures and algorithms, but not if you aren't willing to make the commitment. You must put in the time to practice. I started my projects the day they dropped so I didn't really have time pressure, but this class is no joke, tons and tons of work, but very rewarding at the end. I <3 smallberg

This class builds character. CS32 with Smallberg is probably the hardest and most time I've ever spent on a class. If you are considering comp sci, take this class and you will definitely know if you want to or not. And please DO NOT start the projects the day before.

The lecture videos and slides were pretty helpful. I personally liked using the slides more than the lecture videos. It is a flipped classroom and I didn't ever go to class to ask questions and it was fine. I think the homeworks were also helpful for giving us a little more experience working with the new concepts.

The projects were extremely difficult for me and took a LOT of time and honestly I worked a little too hard on the project and didn't focus as much on studying for the tests as I should have. But that was an issue for me, not on the class. I went to office hours and I made a group of friends to make a group chat - this was super helpful! I do think that the tests were quite difficult despite having it be open note and everything. Perhaps I just didn't have a very good grasp on the information, but my test grades were horrendous :( However, the projects are worth much more than the exams. I literally had to guess on the last half of the final (BigO and algorithms) and I managed to eek out a B. They say they don't curve but... if they took my raw score I would've needed like a 90 on the final to get a B...

Definitely go to office hours !! Especially for the projects because you can just work on it in the room, and the second you have a question/bug, they can help you figure out what it is instead of wracking your own brain forever. Also definitely work on the projects with other people so you can bounce ideas off each other and help.

This course is tough but it is very doable if you are willing to put in the work. Professor Smallberg is always willing to help and he always answers questions. I would advise that you go to Professor Smallberg's Q&A sessions because even if you don't have questions of your own, someone else's question may answer your own.

The midterms and finals were pretty tough but I would say that they are fair. As for the projects, projects 1 and 2 were pretty easy. Project 3 is where it gets real. Project 3 was basically implementing a fully-fledged video game. Although I wouldn't say that it was difficult, it was a massive time drain. During these two weeks, I was spending almost every waking hour working on project 3. Project 4 was actually difficult because you really have to think about what you are doing. The one thing that I can say is to not procrastinate. I cannot emphasize how important this is to succeed in the class. Start every project the moment it is assigned (especially project 3 and 4).

Can't agree with this more: petty, petty little man. Uses a form paragraph as a diatribe that reveals both smallmindedness and an apparent lack of knowledge/understanding of how the "real world" operates. Has a deep regard for the inconsequential that borders on reverence. I guarantee he was safety patrol in grade school.

Tough and good class, but is very needed. The final and midterms are pretty tough, so ensure you understand the core concepts. Assignments are ok, some of them are crazy time-consuming.

Poorly organized class. Projects were too long—even the TAs couldn't grade them in time. There is no use to the projects if no grade will come back.

This class is pretty good. If you're deciding between taking this class in winter or spring, definitely do it during the spring. Projects 3 and 4 during the winter are said to be really hard, but for us spring students project 3 was hard but manageable and project 4 was a cakewalk. Exams are difficult but fair, and I'm pretty sure he curves them. My biggest gripe with this class was how goddam long Smallberg took to grade everything. For example he didn't release the grade for project 1, the first assignment, until after the quarter was over LOL. I don't really understand it tbh because even though there's a ton of students, there's also a ton of TAs and most of the grading for the assignments is automated anyway. Other than that though I don't think you'll regret taking this class with Smallberg!

If you’re taking this class it probably means you have to, so good luck. The worst part about it for me was trying to gage what my grade even was because Smallberg does not reveal ANYTHING. Especially in the spring when there’s a mystery curve, it’s basically a game of how well you perform compared to the average CS 32 student. So here were my grades compared to the average:

I did above average on exams, but below average on projects and ended up with a B, so I feel like if you find yourself lining up with the mean scores, you’ll probably end up with a B+. Hopefully this helps someone.

My Score Average
HW 1 79% 93%
HW 2 98% 94%
HW 3 100% 96%
HW 4 82% 94%
HW 5 100% 100%

My Score Average
Project 1 70% 75%
Project 2 84% 94%
Project 3 71% 84%
Project 4 100% 100%

My Score Average
MT 1 68% 65%
MT 2 95% 72%
Final 78% 73%

Basically my biggest piece of advice is to gage how well you’re doing in the class based on the median and mean scores he provides (when he does provide scores).