Stahl is a pretty good professor. His class isn't unreasonable hard but you definitely need to put some effort into the projects and study for the exams. His slides are pretty good but his lectures can be a bit boring as he does go pretty slowly at times. My TA was really sucky (didn't know C++) but Stahl was not bad during office hours, although he can get a bit frustrated at times. He is super nice and approachable though. I definitely would take him again for CS31 and not Huang or Smallberg.

I definitely enjoyed this course. I think the projects really helped both my grade and my understanding of concepts and were also pretty fun to do. Howard is really nice and approachable. Lecture is pretty slow though, but discussions are great (if you skip the week of lecture, discussion is a great way to catch up). He also gave extra points on the midterm for attending discussion and filling out the LA survey.

I will say though, tests/hw quizzes can be really tricky. Howard is lowkey always trying to trick you. I think it's a good and bad thing, good because it forces you to really understand c++ and bad bc obviously it's annoying. My best advice for tests is to put tons of real code and output examples in your cheat sheet for tests. Those go a long way. Tests are also somewhat theoretical so make sure you don't only know how to code, but that you really understand the concepts.

I came in with some knowledge of coding from my high school's AP Computer Science classes, and I would say that helped a lot, because C++ is similar enough to Java (or maybe the other way around since C++ is older) for me to learn things very quickly. I don't think prior knowledge is expected though, and Howard really guides you step by step to learn C++.
Class format: Non-mandatory and yes recorded lecture + non-mandatory, both in person and online discussion, and you can go to whichever discussion section you want, so feel free to choose your favorite TA. I would recommend going to some discussions though, because 1. Howard gave extra credit for attending some discussions and 2. the worksheets are a good review of what we did in class.
Grading: Standard A+ 97% - 100%, A 93% - 96.99%, A- 90% - 92.99%, etc.. Howard did say that if you're 0.02% away from the next letter grade or something he'll bump it up. Homework, 20 questions each, is worth 5%. Projects (we had 6) are worth 36%, and each project is worth the same. Midterm is worth 25%, and the final is worth 34%.
Professor and lecture: I mentioned before that I have some coding experience, so the lectures felt kind of slow sometimes (and to be honest I skipped quite a few lectures). Howard himself is really nice though, and he shares pieces of his daily life with us (complaints about the LA roads lol) and it's pretty funny.
Office hours: I went to my TA's office hours for a few projects and he was SO helpful. I didn't go to Howard's because I had class at that time :( if you're stuck on something, go ask for help!

Overall rating: 9/10, would recommend, especially if you don't want to take CS31 with the CS majors in the fall.

I have heard Stahl is one of the easier computer science professors and I would agree. I think that his tests were fair. The projects were hard - at least for me. However I am a bit biased because I don't have a strong computer science background. I think if you do have a strong coding background, this class is great. If not, you are probably better off taking the PIC series.

Definitely would recommend taking it in the summer, tests are fair and not too hard, and while the projects can be tough, starting early and getting help in office hours when needed can pull you through.

Bros was not it

Howard Stahl can be a bit of a boring lecturer, but he teaches what needs to be taught and his tests ask very reasonable questions. The projects can take a good number of hours, but with the amount of time he gives you to do them, they're not bad at all. I was able to complete most of them in one day, though I would say it is smart to not let that one day be the last day, as there can always be unexpected issues that arise or simply errors that you realize you need to fix after the fact. The one thing I was not pleased about was the visual formatting of the tests. They were not very readable and formatting alone definitely contributed to me answering questions slower which is kind of a lame issue to have in a college course.

Professor Stahl is not the most engaging professor (I only attended lecture three or so times), but he is helpful and accommodating. I had 0 prior coding experience in C++. I found that watching the BruinCast on 2x speed and taking notes on Notion worked best for me. There are 7 projects, but he took off project 6 which was a quiz on pointers rather than actual coding. Going to TA office hours was SUPER helpful. Shoutout Pranav and Dale!!! They were incredible TAs and did a great job on explaining and breaking down concepts.
I got an A on both the midterm and final, and for someone who always thought they were confused in this class, I thought he made them super clear and easy. Before the midterm, he did a full review day in class, the TAs reviewed during discussion, and UPE hosted a review session. For the final, there were the same review opportunities at the midterm + another lecture reviewing (so you basically get a dead week for this class during week 10 to review and study).
If you have time, the textbook is actually super clear and I skimmed through parts of it before the midterm and I thought it helped. However, I did not do so for the final and felt fine.
You can attend any discussion section you want and the professor randomly checks attendance for one of the sections each week and you get 3 points back on one of the projects, which can often be very helpful although it does not seem like that much. It is a good idea to go to office hours and meet the TAs then decide what section you should go to depending on who is teaching. I did not really engage in discussion sections but I did read over the slides and worksheets prior to the exams.
Overall, I did not necessarily enjoy this class, but I did well!

The content itself was not THAT hard as a student coding for their first time. The projects do take up a lot of time though so keep yourself accountable for that. The exams are a little challenging as they are on paper and in person so watch out for that as well.

I really liked this class. I am not a CS major or anything adjacent and thought I've coded before, my previous experience compared to others is minimal. I feel like this class was very fair and accessible. There are some reviews here saying Stahl is mean and not accommodating and I couldn't disagree more. Stahl is extremely caring -- I turned in a project that didn't build (I would have gotten a 2) but he emailed me before the due date letting me know about this issue. Super nice! He is super good with e-mail and got back to me about taking the midterm an alternate time super quick. Advice: if you ever get a horrible score on a project (I got a 15 once) do not just leave it; email him and he will change it to something much more reasonable (I ended up getting a 95 on this project). I didn't go to lectures because they were 6-8 pm during winter. But I usually watched them and they were helpful like 50% of the time. I will agree that sometimes it gets boring, but I think that's expected when learning CS mechanics. Class time helps you a ton with projects though. For projects (40% of your grade) I would definitely say start early. Every time I started a project I was stressed and was like how can I do this in a week and then it ended up being fine. Going to UPE or a TA usually really helps if you're super confused. I had no idea how to start projects 5 or 7 but I went to UPE / a TA and got it done in a few hours. Use Codeboard and look at the project discussion boards because they help a lot. Also tests I feel like are pretty fair. I was so stressed for the final and the midterm but I ended up getting an A and A- on both. For tests, don't be afraid to ask him if it will be on the test, he will tell you. Saved so much time not studying pointers, overloading, etc. Study the content he lists as fair game and you'll be good. Overall, super accessible and fair in my opinion. I don't find CS easy and didn't find this class easy but I still managed to do okay!