There's always a risk taking a professor without any reviews on Bruinwalk. Let me be the first to say that Hyde is an EXCELLENT professor and DEFINITELY worth your time. Every time I went to lecture, I felt that I understood the material very well, despite having no previous programming experience. HW assignments were very clear, appropriate - not to long/short, not to hard/easy. During office hours, Hyde was very approachable, and would answer even the silliest questions. Midterms were pretty easy (for me at least) and Hyde applies a GENEROUS curve.

In conclusion, I think I learned a lot from this class. Hyde has a knack for teaching and I hope UCLA keeps him around.

The previous comment explained a lot of good things about David Hyde. Let me be the one critical.

"Cons":
1. David made the whole Program in Computing stupid. Before taking his course, I was told Pic 10A professors usually ignore the fact that this course is for newbie programmers and make it quite demanding. However, David actually explains all basic concepts quite CLEARLY in his lecture and his office hour is definitely HELPFUL. I'm so sad that I could ask ALL my questions to David and get the straight answers from him rather than brainstorming these questions and getting confused about them for several hours to practice my self-studying ability.
2. David could make you feel you are smarter than what you should be. His exams are at least EASY for me and he gives out practice questions that almost all shown up on the REAL EXAMS. Also, he gives Extra Credits(A lot) to both his midterms and a project. I talked with several friends in CS 31 and feel that I could only end up with a B+/ A- in CS 31 with the score accomplished in David's course (without extra credits).
3. Daivd then makes you feel you are stupid if you know him better. He was a genius in both high school and college. Talking to him actually changes my way of thinking and makes me motivated to study the hardcore subjects (Math, Physics, CompSci) like what he did. He made the first midterm slightly more difficult (cuz he was from Stanford haha), but he then listened to our opinions on exams during office hour and made the final a lot more appropriate.
4. David's course is not friendly to night persons. His course is scheduled at 8am and BRUINCASTED. However, you would feel compelled to go to his course because his teaching style is so chill. I personally never got a good sleep during this quater because I attended almost all his lectures.

"Pro":
Imperfect is perfect. His slides still have room of improvement which prove to me he is not a perfect lecturer. (It's clear, but if you miss the lecture and don't watch the bruincast, you cannot figure out what is going on in the slides.)

Overall, I think 5 /10 should be given to David due to all his "cons". Since the max grading is 5, I think I have no other option than to give him such a low score.

Fantastic Professor. Knows material well, and is great at answering any questions. He used powerpoint slides to present new programming concepts and then demonstrated them in Visual Studio. I found his lectures interesting and would recommend taking this class. Tests weren't ever too hard, usually very straightforward.

A great professor in a sense of helpfulness and generosity. I struggled a lot in this class and bombed 2 midterms. However, I still managed to pull through the course with a B. He gives 6 homework throughout the course (some are challenging to me). Coming to his office hours was super helpful to me. He always tries to assist students in his ability. He recommends what should I do to study better.
Like I said, programming maybe not for me so lectures in class sometimes confuse me. I think he still needs to improve on his slides a bit more.

Hyde is one of the sweetest and most wholesome professors I've taken a class with. He's very caring towards students and wants to help all his students do well and succeed in the class. His lectures are pretty entertaining and engaging. However, they can become a little tedious and a little hard to follow as the quarter ends when the material becomes heavier. However, Hyde is more than willing to help his students out whenever they have an issue, during lectures or with homework.

There are 5 homework assignments, of which 3 are relatively short and straightforward, while the other 2 are long. Those 2 projects are definitely very tiring and challenging, and will take a good amount of time to complete, so be prepared (Hyde warns you multiple times about this too). However, they definitely ensure you totally understand the concept they touch on.

The midterm was really straightforward and easy, while the final was significantly tougher, although not the worst. The homework alone was worth 50%, so doing well on the homework and midterm is key to getting a good grade.

All in all, I would definitely take another class with Hyde. However, this class is pretty tough, so expect to put a good amount of work into it.