I found Stahl to be extremely condescending in office hours and a very boring lecturer. There is absolutely no way I could focus on his lectures and honestly found it to be a waste of time to spend four hours in lecture. Try to avoid his office hours at all time since he makes you feel stupid. Do everything in your power to not take his class. The material is not hard but it is also not worth the negative energy and condescension I received.

Fine class, not too hard, best to have friends to work with/proof read projects and share test cases with, but the prof is awful. He spends way too much time explaining simple topics, really needs to be much more concise, and is condescending and boring. If you've taken apcs, even a not great class, there really isn't much need to show up to the first six weeks of lecture - just take a look at the slides.

Stahl is a little fluffy on the material, meaning his lectures are kind of glossy, and he doesn't really challenge students to do much more than they can handle. That being said....
He is a kind soul, and his projects were (I think) easier that Smallberg's would have been for CS31. I feel like I know most of the things I was supposed to learn, however, the projects are much more helpful than the lectures. His slides are useless, but the project spec will basically tell you everything you need to know for tests.

I don't think Stahl understands the concept of "lectures." He just rambles on about useless stuff, makes his lectures as boring as possible (probably on purpose), and talks in the most monotone voice I have ever heard. I personally didn't find the lectures engaging or even remotely organized, and learned everything through YouTube or the textbook. I went to the first four lectures and did not attend any after because I felt like I was wasting my time sitting there. The projects are hard but manageable, and the tests are definitely possible.

I found Stahl is really better than what the score has shown. He is probably not the best lecturer you would expect. He made mistakes in class and in specs and speaks at an extremly slow pace. However, I found what he taught in lecture very useful. As long as you pay attention in lecture and understand what he said, you should be at least okay in his exams. There is only one project taking a lot of time, but others are really not so hard to tackle. In addition, I think he is pretty lenient in projects and exams, so I think it's a pretty good class where you can learn a lot and not suffer to much.

I thought that this class was fairly easy but I got more out of CS 97 than this class. However, I did learn a good amount in this class. My biggest issue was honestly how it was really hard to hear Stahl in the huge lecture hall. He doesn't pin the mic to his shirt but instead holds it really low and away from his mouth. His voice is soft and can easily put me to sleep. Luckily it's pretty easy to watch a c++ crashcourse and learn anything you missed. The tests are pretty easy, just a little long. It's just your basic intro programming questions (what does this function print, what happens when you run this code, write a simple function that does this). A really good thing about Stahl is that he is very generous about grading. If something is truly graded unfairly, an email will persuade him to give it another look. He's not the most engaging lecturer but he tells some funny anecdotes every now and then. The projects are very easy. However, every now and then the spec will be very vague and result in a lot of confusion. There isn't really any point to trying to avoid him since the class he teaches isn't particularly challenging. Take him if you have to.

A lot of the reviews about Stahl are overly critical. For a first time coder, CS at UCLA can be intimidating but Stahl's classroom environment is very relaxed. His lectures are not the most engaging, but he does care about his students and replied extremely quickly to my emails, which is impressive given the size of the class. The content is relatively easy, but don't fall behind. I personally found it helpful to read the textbook to make sure I understood everything but not everyone feels the same. Projects we're good: not overly time consuming but should be started early. His tests were fair if you knew the material. I had absolutely no trouble in CS 32 after taking 31 with Stahl. If you're just starting out in CS, he is a good professor to have.

Stahl's projects and exams are easy compared to other CS classes. But I would NEVER take his classes, at all expenses. Stahl himself thinks he is very funny but he really isn't. His project spec's are extremely unclear. And you have to pay a LOT of attention to the discussion board because the specs are changing in there every second. Just imagine how annoying it would be when every time I thought I finished the projects and go to the dis board with my heart pounding and find out the proj requirements changed and I have to modify my code. AGAIN AND AGAIN. His lecture are not helpful and can be even confusing. I listened carefully and took a lot of notes. But I just simply cannot understand what he is talking about and his analogies can be really confusing. However, the bad lectures improved my searching ability significantly. Google saved my life.

And another problem with him is his slides and sample codes in class. There are really a few mistakes in his slides, some of them really confuses students. I also remember one of his sample code does not even build in class.

If you really have to take his class though, it is doable because although his lectures are bad and project spec's unclear, it is not too difficult. But websites like StakOverFlow, C++ Reference, Github would probably be more useful than his lectures.

Professor Stahl is a great person but it is almost impossible to sit through his lectures. If it is bruincasted which it most likely is, watch those on 2x speed. His lectures go over material and things needed for the project; nothing much else. Discussion helped me the most if you get a great TA (Angelina Poole is the best!). Projects are decent; one of mine I mistyped something when uploading a project producing a compile error and getting a 2/100. But I emailed him and he fixed the error and rerun it for me giving me a 100. He cares for his students so much, and he is super lenient with tardiness. However, he does not prepare you well for cs32... The transition from 31 to 32 (which I had Smallberg) was quite hard for me. Overall, Stahl puts his students first, and is likable; if you know the material, then projects should come by relatively easy.

I do not recommend going to lecture as you will likely zone out and not pay attention for most of the class. Stahl is eloquent in his speaking style, but his lecture style gets boring really fast. I recommend watching the bruin casts as you can manipulate the speed of the lecture. I had no coding experience coming into college, so this class was a huge adjustment for me. Luckily the tests were relatively easy, the averages being around 80. Office hours for this class are really useful, especially when working on projects. I only realized during the last week on the quarter that the textbook gives great explanations.