Wasn't as bad of a class as I was expecting. Salazar is definitely not the most efficient lecturer, as unlike the other PIC professors, he doesn't use slides that are easy to follow. Most of the class is just him punching in console commands to bring up various commits and then trying to show examples among a sea of rather confusing code. He is also difficult to understand at times.

However, he is definitely helpful, posts all of his materials online, and is not a very harsh grader. The assignments are rather easy and he isn't too strict on due dates. The midterm and final were also completely reasonable, though the midterm was somewhat tricky. Thus, while my learning style didn't click with his lecturing style, the course is still very manageable.

DO NOT take any class with Salazar. To give you a feel for how terrible this professor is, the class started with roughly 60-70 people, and ended with 20. I took this professor both for PIC 10A and 10B (a HUGE mistake). If I ever went to lecture I would see about 10 to 15 people sitting in a room meant for 70. I got a B in 10A purely by teaching myself, and halfway through 10B decided to force-fail it and take it with a better professor because I missed the deadline to drop the class.

If you are one of those people who thinks to themselves, ah I can do it, the professor does not matter... I am the same and have been getting away with that in every class I have taken at UCLA. BUT, unless you are willing to put in a lot of individual effort you won't be able to sneak your way past this class.

try to teach yourself

I think some of the reviews on this site are somewhat unfair. The professor knows his material cold (as evidenced by his slides and formal lecture notes which are brilliant), but his lectures are somewhat hard to follow , and he sometimes goes off on tangents. If you have trouble, be patient and wait for his notes /slides. That being said, the tests are very fair and he gives you a lot of material to prepare for the test. Overall, he also has a brilliance that goes well beyond the textbook for the class (perhaps he should write a book himself). I especially liked the part on algorithms where I think he really showed his mettle. His TA Bowen was also wonderful and helpful and did a great job.

He is a good person, his slides are good and self-explanatory. He can be ambiguous some times. But overall he is okay so I'll take him again.

Worst Math professor ever!! His lecture is not clear and explanation is useless, so do not expect to learn something from class but just do your own study.

Do not take this class with salazar..

Class consisted of a few HW assignments and a Final Project and two exams (Final & midterm) the exams are not difficult except for when they test you on the
very minutia of things... like how the compiler would interpret something that crashes. I think the class and grading was very fair; there are no due dates on work and you have a lot of time to study, it’s just that there is a looooot of minutia in c++ at this level so it becomes difficult to memorize.

If you're astrophysics or just want to take this class to learn coding don't take this class. Or if you're really interested in computer science and want to learn coding well, also don't take this class. Salazar is pretty competent at coding, but he doesn't know how to teach it. If I hadn't come into the class with a coding background I would have been screwed. He focuses on graphics with C++ which is useless, and doesn't go over the basics for people who don't understand computer languages (binary, processing, etc). If you already know how to code, this class is easy and fine, if not, save yourself the pain and find a better professor.

He is very helpful. He answers email promptly but he assigns lengthy and confusing assignments. They can be interesting or dull depending on your mood. He is in constant effor to teach you about Mexican culture ( both inlectures and homework assignments) .

His midterms are super challenging especially considering the short time you have. He likes to test you on technical terms which I detest so badly. And also it is hard to review for the exams since he like to tets on minutiae.

Doable ( many extra credits and curves) but not recommended.