Great teacher, but hard tests with barely any curve. Would take his classes again.

This is by far the easiest lower division computer science class if you are good at logical reasoning.

Lectures were very interesting: I feel that I've gained a solid understanding of how computers work at a lower level, and Korf does a great job in explaining the motivations behind hardware decisions.

Homework was very fun since it was about designing systems rather than exercises involving very contrived circuits. Workload is pretty light, maybe about 5 hours a week.

Exams were far easier than the homework. If you understand the lectures and homework, you can finish the exams with plenty of time to spare.

Korf is also incredibly helpful and responds quickly to questions on Discord.

This professor is extremely overrated to say the least. He was pretty good in terms of lecturing and was always willing to answer questions at any point in the lecture (sometimes even getting mad when people don't ask enough questions). He also made a discord server where we can ask questions outside of class where he or the TAs would respond pretty quickly. But this class is a GPA destroyer. HWs are insane and grading criteria is even worse. Partial credit is practically nonexistent and when the final average was a 57 he barely even curved. Speaking of tests, the midterm was ok but the final was complete nonsense and even included topics from before the midterm when he explicitly stated the final will be on topics only from after the midterm. You may learn more from this class than the other sections, but save your GPA and take Abari.

Pros:
Korf goes extremely in-depth about the material while being very careful to keep things understandable. He's also fairly funny and a nice person. He covered a lot more material than the other professors based on talking to other students, which I believe will be useful for other classes. I came out of this class feeling like I could make a redstone computer from scratch.

Cons:
This class was entirely homework based (which to most is a pro), but the homework tended to be open-ended design problems that had somewhat vague specs.

Unfortunately, if your design did not match the solution exactly, you would likely lose some points, even if your design worked, based on some criteria that was not mentioned in the spec. Overall, I felt frustrated for parts of the grading.
Some examples of things I've been docked for:
- Rounding a number which I explicitly asked my TA if I could round (my TA was not the one that graded it)
- Not abstracting some components into a larger component before using it (which was never mentioned in the spec, but was mentioned as something that COULD be done if we wanted to in the class Discord (see below))
- My design had the "Correct circuit, but ... isn't as scalable as the posted solution"

Also, Korf joined the class Discord which was helpful, but also annoying because homework clarifications/corrections would sometimes be posted somewhere up the homework channel which was easy to miss. He would sometimes change his mind about whether something was allowed on the homework, so monitoring the chat was important.

Additionally, Korf reused the homework from previous quarters and I know that some people cheated, which was annoying because the class was curved and homework was our entire grade. Not really his fault, because I do understand that coming up with unique problems for the type of problems he was designing could be difficult, but frustrating nonetheless.

HANDS DOWN BEST CS PROF AND BEST REMOTE CLASS AT UCLA. no exams because of cheating, so grades were based on 10 hw assignments. earlier hw was a little time consuming, but the TAs (s/o to ananya and sicheng) were super helpful. korf does a really good job adapting to the online format, and his lectures made the (somewhat dry) subject material interesting and easy to understand. hes also really nice, lots of dad jokes lol.

Of my classes fall quarter, CS M51A with Korf was my favorite. His explanations of material were always completely clear and engaging. I did not go into this class too interested in lower level components of computers, but that's honestly changed after taking this class. Korf also clearly cares about his students. For this quarter all of our grade was 100% based off of assignments, we did not have any exams. Now this is probably (hopefully) a one time thing for online, but Korf is still going to have the same attitude once class is back in person. I would highly recommend taking M51A with Korf.

PROS:
- Professor Korf is the GOAT. His lectures are usually pretty clear and straightforward. He would also sprinkle in some jokes during lectures to keep it engaging.
- The topics covered are very interesting. You start with basics like truth tables and work your way up to circuit design.
- Homework assignments were challenging, but actually really fun to do. You usually draw circuit diagrams for components we discussed in class, but with some added twist (like learning how to build an adder in class, then building a multiplier for homework). They usually take an entire afternoon for me to do (sometimes even longer)
- I had Sicheng as my TA and he is amazing as well. His slides were super helpful for the homework.
- No exams! (Although this will probably change when we go to in-person classes)

CONS:
- Since we had no exams, the homework constituted 100% of our grade. (so each homework is worth ~10% of the grade).
- No curve
- It is super important that you don't fall behind since everything builds on previous lectures.

OVERALL: This was such a fun class and I would definitely recommend taking this class with Professor Korf 100%. You can tell that he really cares about each student because he would stop lectures to make sure that the concepts discussed already are "crystal clear," as he would say. Each lecture builds on the previous lectures, so it is very important to get a good understanding of each concept. Of course, if you are taking it when COVID is over, you'll probably have a different experience, but overall this was still an amazing class with an amazing professor.

Amazing lecturer even virtually!! He really encourages participation during lecture but it’s not mandatory. Korf really cares about his students and made sure we understood a concept before moving on. The homework assignments were surprisingly fun and challenging at the same time. I would really recommend taking this class virtually or in person because Korf is a funny guy and a great professor.

Professor Korf is definitely among the top five professors at UCLA. His lectures are engaging, funny, and informative and he always makes sure that everyone understands the material. Definitely take his class if you can, you certainly won't regret it.

Edit: for those wondering how this class worked with remote instruction, there were no exams--just nine homework assignments, all weighted equally and very much doable as long as you go to class/watch the recording and start early.

Richard Korf is one dorky dude. Gives off big white dad energy.
Overall, class is pretty cool if you appreciate the material. The TAs take off very nitpicky points on homework (probably because homework tends to be easy so they need to deduct for something...). If you understand general logic and circuits, no reason you can't get an A.