This quarter seemed pretty similar to past quarter in terms of difficulty. The midterm median was ~70. I did about median, and I personally thought it was a pretty doable midterm. There was a "trick question" where you're screwed if you misread the problem. Other than that, it was pretty straight forward. The final median was 80. It was more difficult than the midterm. There was a pretty tricky question involving QUIC, but everything else was very straight forward.

There were 2 projects for the class. The first project was an HTTP server that was the same as past quarters. The second project was a new one for this quarter that replaced parts of the old reliable transport/congestion control project with a new part about security. Since the project was new, there was also a lot of hiccups for the TA/LAs. For example, the autograder was released pretty late in the quarter with 1.5 weeks left until deadline. If there wasn't an autograder I would've definitely not been able to fully debug everything. Other than that, it was a straight forward project. I read the textbook's chapter about security and it gave me all the background I needed on the security side of things. The grading was also initially very binary, but in the end the TA/LAs graded the projects manually to award partial credits.

Overall it was a good class. Professor Zhang had a strong passion and deep knowledge of the internet and the human institutions/constructs that operates it. I appreciated the hands-on projects of the course.

Fun fact: Professor Zhang had a "Saddam Hussein ID card" style playing card for herself: https://www.businessinsider.in/54-women-who-rocked-the-tech-world/lixia-zhang-ucla-professor/slideshow/46224954.cms

this class is complete garbage. i've had the whole spectrum of cs professors at ucla and zhang is among the worst. she is overall rude, condescending, and pretty terrible at lecturing. as noted in an earlier review, the most bizarre moment of the quarter for me was when a student sneezed in class and she publicly called him out and said he wasn't paying attention. shout out Xinyu Ma and Boyan Ding for being the only two active TAs on piazza, would not have made it through this class without them. can't say anything about the curve/if there even was one because we never got scores back for the last hw or for the final.

some screenshots from the absolute lawless dumpster fire that was our class piazza: https://imgur.com/a/aiVIfu1

Just ask people who took this class my quarter. It was not a fun time :(

the quizzes are actually not too bad but 15 minutes makes them miserable. in general homework and projects were doable, so the overall workload is ok, but i would never recommend this class with this professor to anyone (and i do mean anyone). she is a poor lecturer who often answers student questions with derision (if you get an answer at all, because she will often misunderstand questions and go on unrelated tangents before ending with "it depends") and is extremely active on piazza seemingly for the express purpose of mocking questions. every other lecture she would start by insulting us. midterm was very easy, final exam was much harder. the quizzes were very different from the midterm which was very different from the final exam but i would say final exam is sort of like much harder hw questions. if you do intend on taking the class, do all the practice problems in the textbook and check both textbook edition readings (because the textbooks are different and she assigns based on 7th edition but then says on piazza you should get the newer 8th edition). i actually have no clue what my final grade is whatsoever (ETA: more or less what i would expect in a different class, so there's that). actually the worst class i have taken at ucla, and it's not even that hard

Advice: just don't take this class with her.

not helpful, rude and unfriendly on piazza, 15 min quizzes with 8 questions including math, etc. idk how her curve will be but its not worth it regardless

Just ask people who took this class my quarter. It was not a fun time.

Great professor. Makes the subject extremely interesting, and tests are fair but difficult. You will leave the class with a solid understanding of networking. The second project is time-consuming, but clarifies important concepts.

Overall professor Zhang is a better lecturer than most professors. She's to the point, but also not too fast. She also drops small stories of her time at Xerox Parc and it's insane she was at the center of networking and computer research. Project 2 was the worst because the TAs kept making mistakes and changes to the example program and it kept confusing everyone.

The professor is very knowledgeable and loves to answer every question in the class. The course helps you learn something really useful and interesting. However, the exams and projects are not very easy and you need to study really hard and understand every detailed concepts to perform well in this class.