George is hands down the best professor I've had in the UCLA CS department. In addition to being extremely knowledgeable, he is humble, and wants to share that knowledge with his students. He was able to do so in an engaging way. Furthermore, he was able to do so in a relevant way that connected to student's needs.

George focused on general takeaways about how to THINK as a computer scientist. I honestly felt very inspired by this, and feel very excited to go forward in my life as an engineer. NO other class, or professor, has made me feel like that. Even better, he was able to weave different views of how to live life meaningfully, which I felt were motivating and made class a rich experience.

I feel fortunate to have taken this class with George, and hope to stay in touch because of what a wonderful mentor figure he is.

Professor Varghese is a one of the rare professors who is not only a leading expert in the field, but also engages with students with great care and empathy. He explains concept in a clear way, but also provides great slides and comprehensive notes to accommodate students in different timezones (or if you can't attend lecture for some reason). I found his dedication to helping students to be profound, especially when asked questions during lecture, or office hours, or even exam review! Overall, the content of this course is presented in an enjoyable manner, and is further enhanced by the renown internet giants he brought in for interviews. The only part that was difficult really were the programming projects, but TAs and Piazza were readily able to help you if you got stuck and there was a nice collaborative spirit in the class as a whole. I had a fun time :)

Professor Varghese goes out of his way to make sure every student has a chance to succeed in this class. If you make an effort, you will pass. He's incredibly enthusiastic about the material which makes his lectures more engaging than any of the other classes I've taken online so far. He's friendly, talkative, and encourages students to ask questions when they're confused. My biggest critique is the exam study materials. He puts out mock exams before the midterm and final but they're much more confusing than the real exam; don't let these mock exams confuse you too much.

Definitely my favorite class I've taken at UCLA. Highly recommend!

Professor Varghese is excellent at explaining concepts using analogies, making difficult concepts seem trivial. He's also very passionate and energetic, so it's genuinely fun to attend his classes.

With the online format given COVID, he records "mini-flips" for us to watch before lectures. Miniflips are short introductory clips about the big picture concepts, and they're really helpfiul.

Professor Varghese also invites internet pioneers such as Bob Metcalfe and Radia Perlman to be interviewed in class, which gives students a chance to learn from the best and network a little bit.

The projects can be a bit difficult, but overall it's a really good class!

If you have a choice of who to take 118 with, please pick Varghese!! During covid, Varghese really tried to make the class fun for us by inviting the inventors of the Internet to come talk to us! For example, we would learn about Ethernet and then talk to the person who created Ethernet. Varghese is a pretty good lecturer, but he can talk quickly. He would, though, always go back and repeat any information that people were confused about, so it balanced out. Varghese has super thorough notes to go along with his lectures that also helps a lot with understanding the material. Some of the concepts in 118 can be confusing at first, but they don't take too long to really understand.
There were two projects this quarter, and my advice is to start early! They seem way more complicated than they are. Once you really understand the projects and the concepts relating to them, they aren't too hard. Also, the TAs are super helpful in clarifying and questions and helping you work through problems. The projects probably take 20-30ish hours each, but you have plenty of time if you start early.
There are also 4 homeworks, which are not long. However, they do take some time to think about the right approach to the problems.
The exams were not too bad, and they are very generous with partial credit! Varghese does tend to ask questions that expand upon the concepts he explains in class, but they are all doable (unlike Eggert)!
Definitely recommend taking this with Varghese and if you don't procrastinate, the workload is very manageable!

Professor Varghese is an amazing computer science prof. He is the most compassionate and kind professor I have had at UCLA. He knows his stuff and has a lot of connections in the industry which makes his lectures and interviews with "internet pioneers" engaging and inspiring. He answers all student questions with care and clarity. The exams were not insanely hard (they were open note due to online learning) but the time crunch can get you on the midterm; it's not so pressing on the final. The two projects can be pretty difficult and when they tell you to start early, you definitely should. Despite the difficulty of the projects, the TAs are extremely helpful with them during office hours and they teach you a lot about the concepts that you're learning. I highly recommend taking this class with Professor Varghese.

Professor Varghese cares about his students and makes a strong effort to teach the material in an engaging and understandable manner. Moreover, he constantly asked for feedback and incorporated it into the class.
There is a lot of material to cover in this class, and it helps to have some prior exposure to networking concepts.
The class has 4 homework assignments and 2 programming projects. The programming projects were, at times, frustrating, but not too difficult if worked on early and over the course of several days. Thanks to the TAs for answering questions quickly on Piazza. The exams are comprised of a multiple choice section and a short-answer section; the short-answer questions are similar in style to the homework.
I would definitely recommend taking this class if you have the option.

As someone who failed CS 33 & CS M151B and barely passed CS 111 & CS 131 over COVID with the option of P/NP, I can say this class is one of the better one! The professor is understanding, and the projects are pretty straightforward. The exam may be a little tougher, but considering the topic of the course, they are doable.

He's like the michael scott of the cs department. He means really well and is super passionate about the material, but he's disorganized and often times oblivious. Still enjoyed the class and think its worth taking with him.

Let's start off with the good: if you have a background in networking or are very passionate about the subject, you should do fine in this class. Varghese's course is chalk full of networking information that he claims he helped start and that you can't find anywhere else but in his class. In turn, he treats this course like a graduate level course. Got questions? Figure it out with your peers. Question on the grading? Not his problem. Solutions to past finals for study material? Sorry, he doesn't have time. He is an absolutely terrible professor and he's not afraid to make that fact clear. Homeworks are written hastily with grammar and formatting issues and projects are open-ended with very little guidance. Grading is extremely slow with literally zero feedback (they gave us a score and no explanation of why we lost points). I'd say out of all the TA's, Victor Rios is the only one who genuinely cares for the students. His discussion sections are insightful and he's always available. I'd recommend avoiding other TAs as they always seemed to be too busy to help with questions. Expect to do alot of self-googling and/or reading the textbook. Ironically, his so-called one-of-a-kind material is easily accesible from other, more informative sources on Youtube (much of my studying was from these videos as opposed to his garbage-tier 2 hour rambles). I was fooled into taking this class due to its many positive reviews, so if you don't already have an affinity for networking, I recommend you take someone else.