I really like Prof. Smallberg. He really explains things well in class. The midterms are definitely doable, but the final is a little bit difficult (the final focuses a lot on Big-O). There are 5 homeworks and 4 projects. Proj 1&2 and all HW's are easy to do, but proj 3 and proj 4 really requires a lot of work and self-learning. The only problem with his class is sometimes his pace is too slow comparing to the proj/hw deadlines, so a lot of self-learning would be required as well.

Grading:
30% final, 20% mid1+mid2, 1% proj1, 10% proj 2, 10% proj3, 10% proj 4, 19% HWs.

my grade isn't the greatest but it's okay because I learned a lot. especially coming from stahl, smallberg is amazing at explaining things. but even then i won't feel like you fully "get it" until the projects, where you actually have to work through figuring out how to implement everything you have learned. yeah the projects are hard but like that's a given with cs32. it was definitely a rollercoaster the last three weeks and the projects were definitely an experience; i thought i would be close to finishing like several times through the week but i always end up not being fully done until the day before. this was an intense emotional mentally challenging extremely educational ride

He was a good professor who went in depth with every single topic. As long as you start the projects early and get help from office hours and make good cheat sheets for tests, the class should be easy to get a good grade in. I didn't do any of these and so I did pretty bad.

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU ARE NOT CS MAJOR AND YOU DID NOT TAKE CS 31 IN UCLA, EXAMS ARE ONLY MEANT TO CS MAJORS , EXAMS ARE SUPPER HARD , ONLY 1HR FOR MID TERM EXAM, 2 AND HALF HOURS FOR FINAL EXAM, PROJECTS ARE JUST TIME CONSUMING, THIS CLASS HAS TO BE LABELED AS "ONLY FOR CS MAJORS", IF YOU ARE CS MAJOR PARADISE IF YOU ARE NOT HELL!!!

The hardest class I have ever taken at UCLA. I don't have too much more to add that other students haven't said already, I just want to stress the epic curve that I received. I failed every single midterm as well as the final, I did okay on the projects, got an average of 70 across all of them, and probably an average of 90 on the homeworks and I still passed. Thank daddy Block for that because I wasn't about to take this class again. I really like Smallberg, it's just that this class requires A LOT of time (for me anyway).
Go Bruins! You can do it, I considered dropping this class several times but I'm glad I stuck through it.

These projects are not plug and chug. You need to spend time working through everything, and I cannot stress enough how important it is to start early and go to office hours. Smallberg is super smart and helpful enough, but his lectures are not that interesting and it was often hard to complete the projects with the attention to detail that is necessary to not lose significant points on test cases when they are grading.
Advice for projects: test the weird cases (e.x. negative or invalid inputs, etc.)

The first couple weeks are a little bit of a snooze since he reviews a lot of the concepts from CS 31. After it kicks into a lot of useful information that I wish I still remembered. This is an important class and it will be worth it to pay attention and learn the materials. The midterms are long and annoying but they aren't too bad in my opinion. The real killer is the final. It's really difficult and really long but don't worry because everybody does not great on it. The first two projects aren't bad but project 3 is the big one. Start early because it will take a lot of time. Our project 4 was super easy but I've known him to give longer ones during other quarters so be ready for a difficult projects 3 and 4.

Smallberg's pretty good at getting into the nitty-gritty of C++. Projects 3 and 4 are very time-consuming. Exams are hard. Homeworks are easy enough, as are the first couple of projects. Attend lectures and take notes, start early on the projects and study for the exams. I didn't do the last one well enough cause they're open book and open notes, but it cost me.

I am so lucky to have taken my both introductory cs classes with this professor, a professor who genuinely cares about his students. I enjoyed his lectures and learned a lot.

Great professor! Go to his and his TA's and LA's office hours. Also, massive props to LA Jahan!