This is a great class! We have 5 projects, several HW's (which are graded on completeness), 1 midterm and 1 final. All tests are doable, although they focus more on theoretical details. The projects give very good practice of SQL, mongoDB and front-end languages like PHP (with HTML). Project 2 and 3 are the most time consuming ones, but I'm still able to finish each of them within 8~10 hrs (btw I knew nothing about PHP beforehand)- which is pretty friendly considering the fact that this is an upper div CS class lollll. Lectures are helpful and clear, and Prof. Cho also releases the slides. In general great class!

Awesome class. Cho has been a great professor this quarter, and I always liked attending his lectures. He is an engaging lecturer, and I did not find him to be a monotone speaker at all. He uses slides for lecturing, and does tons of examples in lecture to make sure everybody understands the concepts. Cho is also an all around nice guy - he was very receptive of student feedback and learning outcomes, monitored workload (e.g. how much time students are spending on projects), and even adjusted the project workload in response to feedback. All the decisions he made for the class were for the students' benefit.

In terms of material, this class has been revamped from previous offerings. In an effort to keep the class more up to date, Cho has introduced MongoDB and Spark into the class curriculum, so you get a brief introduction of those, in addition to a pretty thorough coverage of basic SQL. He's also replaced the B+ Tree implementation project from past classes with three new projects this quarter:

1) Data Transformation: JSON -> MySQL Relations and back

2) Basic Data Storage and Retrieval with MongoDB

3) Distributed Computing with Apache Spark

In my experience, the new projects are both easier and a lot more relevant for modern software engineering, which is a huge boost for the class.

Tests were fair and straightforward. Averages were really high (A- on midterm, B+ on final) so there was no curve. Still very reasonable to do well though. All in all, I could not recommend Cho more. Definitely the choice for CS143.

He was really great. I liked his classes. he explained clearly. he communicates well and responds to all of my emails. the midterm was hard for me but
Perfect!
highly recommended

He is probably the best choice for a CS 143 professor. The material is clearly explained in his note sheets. The lectures are clear and in depth, and he moves at an easy pace to follow - as a result its rather boring.

Frankly, the CS 143 curriculum is pretty outdated for a class claiming to teach "Database Systems" in general. There is not a single mention of noSQL databases throughout the course. From a relational database standpoint, this is a good class to get an introductory grasp of SQL, and is useful material to understand prior to software engineering internships.

The tests are fairly difficult and focus on theory, you need to be detail oriented, work carefully and have a good grasp of concepts to succeed.

Great lecturer and great lecture notes.

First project was easy; second project was difficult.

Did well on the exams, but really messed up on the second project.

Overall, would recommend the class because I did learn a lot from the lectures. Would really recommend starting very early on the second project. There's minimal tests given for each of the early parts, so you'll likely spend a ton of time debugging when you think you have your finished project.

John is a great lecturer. His slides are clear and he is very helpful to whoever raises questions in the class. The material is not hard, but the project definitely takes some time.

I'm not sure what the reviewer below me is talking about. I took Cho this past quarter, and I think he's definitely one of the better professors I've had. Yes, CS 3400 is a crappy classroom, but that's a separate issue. I thought his lectures were easy to follow, which is generally the mark of a good professor. He even gives you printed out notes to fill in as he's lecturing, so those should be enough to filter out any digression from useful material. His tests weren't bad at all, especially compared to some other CS classes. I would definitely take him again. But yes, there should be a ban on Boelter 3400, that class is ridiculously stuffy and gets way too hot.

Cho is a very good professor. He gives out copies of his notes so students can fill them in as they follow along with the lecture. His lectures were well planned, very clear, and he made a good effort each class to answer any questions students had. The class has two projects: Project 1 is a movie database (PHP & MySQL) broken into 3 parts. Part 1 is cake (literally like an hour, including learning PHP), Part 2 is a little more involved but still straight forward, and Part 3 is the most involved but still very manageable. The medians on this project's parts reflected its difficulty, as they were all 100. Project 2 was much different. We were required to implement a basic B+ tree (in C++) for a simple database system they provided. It was MUCH (MUCH) longer than the previous project. Definitely start early (which is required, sort of) and debug each part as you code it. I wrote parts A-C without debugging at all and ended up spending around 15 tedious hours in GDB fixing bugs.

Cho is a very generous grader. He excludes grad students from the curve, which I guess could be a good or bad thing depending on how they do. I actually bombed the midterm AND final (10 pts below average on each), but my project scores were good enough (100 for 1, 20 above average on 2) that I still ended up with a B in the class. I was totally expecting a grade lower than a C given my exam scores, but somehow Cho gave me a B.

If you need to take 143 take Cho!

Very good professor. Pretty much bombed his midterm, but managed to score well on the final so saved my grade. I would totally recommend him.

Some warnings:
- keep an eye on the class forum and go to discussions just to make sure the TA's don't spring something on you that wasn't covered in the specs.
- his tests are tricky and/or sometimes focus on one particular area which can be good or bad
- projects will take a while to program (just watch out for bugs / plan ahead and you should be fine)
- the TA's aren't that good. Chu-Cheng is okay, but Ying was incredibly condescending.

Prof Cho is an extremely good lecturer. His explanations and the notes he passed out was very detailed and helpful. Hands down, he's one of the best I've had at UCLA. He's relatively new so he understands the students and conducts the lectures in a lively way.

The three parts of Project 1 were basically very doable. They ranged from easy to moderate. You just had to put some time in and very guaranteed an A. And they were well written projects, too, that tied in everything we were learning.

But Project 2 killed everything. We had to build a B+Tree, and it totally stumped everyone. It was very hard, very time consuming and exhausting.

But, he's a fair grader and he did a great job with everything. Watch for his exams, though, they try to trick you.