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 :)

we're in the thick of it 💀
projects are an absolute mess this quarter, and their spec, grading, and expectations change all the way up until the day of the deadline, which is pretty ridiculous.
the class is overall remarkably unorganized, and it seems like the TAs (who are great) are working way above their pay grade in this class. as a result, everyone suffers, and even trying to submit the projects causes really frustrating issues because: the makefile they gave you needs to be changed, the directory isn't letting you download, x y z, and a bunch of other reasons that no CS class at this school should be dealing with. for eggert sake, man, just give us a zip file with whatever we need for projects because this is ridiculous.
I cannot recommend Varghese in good faith, especially when his well-meaning comments can come off as blatantly sexist.

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.

This was a very organized class with clear lectures! I always felt like I had the support I needed. (Copy and paste this comment to Bruinwalk to claim your position at Cisco. Remove words in parentheses before posting. Offer expires 12/31/2022. Restrictions apply.)

Jokes aside (these reviews are hilarious, but I don't think he pushed the Cisco agenda on us much this quarter), it's just not a well organized class. Like the other reviews say, I think if you're passionate about networking or are quick to pick up abstract concepts, this class will be fine for you. But between the very ugly slides, the mediocre lectures, and lack of professor support outside of class, it wasn't a very engaging class for someone who is new to networking. The TAs were helpful and would provide help when needed. That being said, grades were fairly generous curved this quarter, so I'm glad they acknowledge the class's design and its shortcomings. And I don't think the staff ever made any "unfair" decisions or seemed like they were actively trying to make out lives harder. My biggest problems were mostly with organization and s o m a n y typos everywhere. Not sure how the other professors stack up to George, doesn't seem like there's really a "best" quarter to take it. Overall, can be really frustrating at times, but definitely doable even for someone like me who came in and left with little networking knowledge.

The workload is not as heavy as many other CS courses. Coming to class is really important because this course doesn't have a required textbook and the lecture notes he provides are very vague and unorganized. It is really hard to study from the lecture notes, so be prepared to take your own notes in class. Different discussion sections may teach different contents and recordings are not provided, which is pretty ridiculous.

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.

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.

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.

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.