Let me preface this by saying I had absolutely no CS knowledge before starting this course, like actually none. I'm not even in the math department. Here are the things you need to know:
1. Prof Zhang's grading is actually pretty fair. She had two grading schemes: 50% HW, 20% midterm, 30% final and 50% HW, 50% final. The midterm was in week 7. There are 8 homework assignments in total (one due each week starting week 3) and you can drop two scores. I ended up doing all of them anyway--they are the best way to test if you know the concepts you're supposed to.
2. Her lectures are not very good, but I still recommend going (she does not post the recordings). Her lectures are basically her mumbling off the slides (that she already posts on bruinlearn) and showing a few practice problems in xcode. However, I do think it was easier for me to absorb the information from lecture compared to just reading off slides (I skipped lecture like twice and it was definitely more difficult to learn the content on my own). That being said, I also had no coding background, so if you have some experience I bet you can just skip lecture and read the slides.
3. The homework is doable, even if it seems difficult on first glance. There were no homework assignments that I actually had no idea how to solve. They do require some trial and error, but I don't think they were above the level of what was taught in class. Just make sure to check your code in the PIC lab before submitting if you have a mac like me.
4. The class gets much harder after the midterm. I thought the midterm was very fair -- 3 questions, closed book/note, short answer (find the error, predict the output, and define functions), and on paper, but no content that was not covered in lecture slides. The content itself was also pretty basic. The final, on the other hand, was honestly a mess. The content after the midterm was much more complicated and it felt like I could never understand enough to confidently say what would happen in any given scenario. It was similar to the midterm in that it was closed book/note, short answer and on paper, but there were 7 questions instead of 3 and some questions had concepts that were only vaguely covered (if at all) in lectures.
5. Talk to Prof Zhang. She is definitely not suited to be a lecturer as she seems very introverted, but I do think she was helpful when I asked her questions one on one after lecture. She is very reasonable and will help you look through your code if you just ask.
6. Show up to discussion. The lecture slides have a couple example problems, but not enough to grasp the content fully. Discussion is where you will get the majority of your practice problems, which are really useful for preparing for the midterm/final (I used practice problems from all three TAs to study). Take Jason Brown if possible--he's the best TA I've ever had and is probably the reason my experience in this class was not as negative as some of the other reviewers.
All in all, this class is definitely doable for beginners, but it takes some dedication for sure. I used w3schools for the first few weeks of class to make sure I was really getting all the foundational concepts because it only gets harder as you go, and I recommend all beginners do the same. I would say this class was a decent introduction to programming and it deserves like a 3.8-4/5. Not great, but not the worst either.

She reads off the slides moderately fast with an accent that is slightly difficult to understand (the words kind of blend together). I stopped attending lectures after the first two weeks because going to class was not helping me whatsoever. She posts the slides online, your best bet is to self-teach yourself with those. Luckily my TA (Jason Brown) was much better than the professor and really, really helpful, but if you're taking Zhang please make sure you have a good TA.

The midterm was really easy and covered easy topics, but the final was very difficult and confusing. It was mostly topics we covered after the midterm (in around 3 weeks) and I don't think anyone was adequately prepared.

I also don't recommend taking Zhang if you're a complete beginner to programming ~ I don't know if I could've kept up with the class if I didn't take AP CSA or was a beginner to programming. The assignments for this class are due at 5 pm, so aim to finish them the day before so you have time to go to the PIC Lab and check if they compile on Windows (if you have a Mac). Definitely attend discussion sections and ask your TA if you have any questions, the professor isn't much help ~ I don't know if she understands our questions 😭

Her lectures were really hard to follow (she speaks softly), but she uploads her slides so I stopped going to lecture after a while. With no prior coding experience this class is going to be hard, but if you do well on midterm 1 you can completely drop midterm 2 grades; and final was fine. Homework is graded lightly too. I wouldn't say this class is as horrendous as other comments describe but it requires a lot of work to be put in.

Horrible teacher but the content is not too hard to self learn. Definitely avoid taking her if possible.