Bennoun is an interesting man, and don't worry about his accent: you will understand.
Textbook: he gives you a pdf of a textbook, so no, you don't have to pay for that and I never even used it.
He has lectures with mandatory attendance (taken with Clicker questions, but he gives you extra credit for going to 16(?) of the 20 lectures. The clicker questions are pretty helpful to get a good grasp of what you're learning in class. For iPad/tablet users, he has a pdf of the day's notes on Canvas that he fills out throughout the lecture, which made the class engaging. He also stops frequently to ask if anyone has any questions and tries to get the class to participate, which I thought was really nice, but then again, he is an overall nice guy. He also does record lectures, which are helpful if you missed a class or want to revisit something.
There's one weekly 8-question homework assignment, though I *heard* that his 9am lecture got fewer problems because he was doing some sort of experiment, but I'm not sure how true that is. However, after the midterm, everyone did end up getting 8 questions for homework. I think the only time he didn't assign homework was week 10.
Content-wise, if you took AP Calc AB, or some sort of calculus, this class should be a breeze. If not, it's still doable as long as you know how to do basic math (adding fractions, which, surprisingly, a couple didn't know how to do). There's some new content either way so you will still be learning something new, even if you took calc before.
One midterm and one final; he posts 3 practice exams for them, which you should definitely do, as they're good practice for the actual thing. I thought they reflected the content on the actual exams pretty nicely, but you really have to pay attention to the wording of some questions. I also liked that he gives partial credit for questions, so even if you have no clue what to do, just write something remotely related to get any points you can. They are doable, but you have to dedicate time to doing the practice exams and past homework assignments. And don't leave all your studying to just one or two days before the final. Just don't. I'm not 100% sure if he curves, but I know he will round you up to the next grade (so like B to B+) if you are SUPER close to it, which is why I recommend doing the extra credit.
Labs are 1 hr 50 min, mandatory attendance, and they are soooo unrelated to the actual course content, but python is a pretty good skill to learn. You do have to pay just under $18 for it, but it's a required part of the class. Even so, they are tedious and annoying, but you work in groups so you can and should work together. You often finish before the class is up anyway and get some practice problems at the beginning of class that actually look like what you've been learning in class. For written questions in the labs, be as thorough as possible. I know it's annoying to describe something so clearly obvious but describe everything to get full points. You can also always ask for the TA and LA for help. I'm not sure about other TAs, but I had Ajay C. and I have no complaints about him. He was super helpful.
Another thing I recommend in going to office hours, whether to the TAs' or Bennoun's. I'll admit I only went once like the day before the final and I still got an A in the class but they were actually so helpful and you get to meet other students that way too.
He has two grading schemes, and apply whichever of the two gives you the higher grade.
I can't say anything about how useful this class was for LS30B since I didn't end up taking it, but I have to say I agree with everyone else that says this math is made up because it's so stupid and even though he gives you examples of real world applications, you will probably never use this again.
Overall, I'd highly recommend his class, especially over Shevstov's (I heard her class was hard).

Bennoun is a great professor! Don't get me wrong. However, DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. TAKE ANOTHER MATH COURSE. DON'T DO IT. Personally I have a bone to pick with my NSA for telling me I needed to take this course and this course only, when there were other math courses I could have taken. Just to reiterate, Bennoun is a great professor, but this review is for the course overall (across all professors, since the material is the same regardless of who is teaching it). For context: I'm an MCDB major, and in high school I excelled in math. I got a 4 on AP Calc AB (during COVID, but the second year, when the tests were in person again) and had a AP Calc teacher that was really strict and nationally rated/awarded for teaching. That being said, when I went to college, I expected math that introduced new concepts but wasn't necessarily more difficult....This course made me feel like I was losing brain cells. We hardly do any actual math (which, if you don't like math, then...cool, I guess!), but instead the math is all a bit...theoretical? Like, "what would happen if we changed this variable?" or "why does the human body do this? (????????)" instead of like, "solve this equation" or "derive this solution" or something similar and more straightforward. Admittedly, the class is easy, so if what I said seems good for you, then cool, take the class. However, the worst thing in this class was not the class itself but the labs. I knew the labs involved coding but not to this extent. The first two or three labs were relatively easy even if you weren't paying attention, but then all of a sudden you're running out of time on the labs because you spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why you're getting a syntax error in a code you've typed millions of times before, and then it turns out that you have an extra space somewhere, or a semi-colon instead of a colon, or a myriad of dumb little mistakes. Sometimes labs would take me days to figure out because I would get frustrated, and wouldn't want to go back and finish them. However, I got through the labs! Now I'm in LS 30B, and guess what? I hate it. The labs are exponentially more difficult. The jump from 30A to 30B is less like a jump and more like a 100m sprint. I really, really, really, REALLY wish I had taken another math course, but at this point it's more cost-effective to just finish the class and suffer until March.
Don't take the class if you don't have to. Seriously.

I definitely prefer 30B rather than 30A. There's one midterm & one final. Bennoun was so much better at teaching. I'm sure if you attend office hours & ask for help, you can definitely pass this class with a better grade. The only thing that sucked was that the homework is based on accuracy. The workload is manageable but the labs have always been useless to me. We did have a project in lab based on a model of your groups choice and we had presentations during week 10. Also, he does take attendance through iclicker.

First of all I would like to say I enjoyed this class a lot more than 30A because the material was more math based and just easier to understand. Everyone says 30A is a lot easier but I disagree. However, Professor Bennoun teaches 30A a lot better than 30B so be prepared to be confused in lectures and to teach yourself when your trying to solve the homework problems. In lectures, he goes over very brief concepts but the actual material you need to know for the final and midterm go in a lot more detail. The midterm was pretty easy for this class, but the final was a lot harder. No matter how much I studied, the final covered questions that were meant to trick you, content that you briefly covered in lecture and overall just a difficult test that is worth 60% of your grade. Luckily I did better than I thought which saved my grade. Additionally, the labs for this class are a lot more difficult than 30A and most of the time you're not going to finish in section. Especially the last few labs are very difficult but if you get lucky with a good T.A. your life will be so much easier. Lastly, the capstone project was not bad at all and was extremely doable since the TA's allowed the students to use Chat GPT for it.

I should've done a lot better in this class than I did. Overall the class was very manageable with homework and labs, but I hated going to the labs and my TA absolutely sucked for my lab. If you have a good TA, this class is a lot easier. If you put effort into the homework and check the answers once they're graded, you should be fine. The midterm was much easier than the final, which I did not do well on. The final was unexpectedly difficult for me, but to each their own.

Prof. Bennoun is great at teaching the material (just like 30A). Although there were some times where he just over explains which might get one confused. From someone who didn't to the best in 30A, 30B material is much lighter than 30A, heavily focused on linearity and matrices. The midterm was much easier than the final in my opinion. The HWs are about the same workload, the only difference is that now we use some textbook practice exercises.
For the Labs, during the first half of the quarter it was not too bad. You are able to do them on your own without much help from TAs. But then they start getting longer and complicated. The two hours during lab was never enough time to finish. But that might just be bc my TA would spend the first hour making us work on a warm up exercise that no one paid to much attention to. The point is, the coding get more complicated, so seek help when you need it. The worst part was how we had to do a capstone project in addition to labs. Your told its recommended to meet with your group outside of lab but tbh my group never meet up and would just work on a shared doc and communicate as needed. The project is not graded too heavily but as long as you have an idea of what you are doing you will be fine.
I thought I was going to fail the class once I took the final. Throughout the whole 30B quarter, I felt like I knew the material pretty well. I found the practice finals to be simple and most of the Homework's aswell. The final was nothing like the practice final. They ask basally the same question/concept, but in a different way which is why you NEED to understand the why to every question, not just the process. The final is what really dropped my grade so as long as you have good scores in everything else, you should be fine. I would recommend taking Bennoun as he can make the lecture interesting and tries his best to engage with students.

LS30B is going to be significantly more difficult than 30a. Everything you learned in 30a like oscillations, time series, and trajectores will all be amplified and expanded upon. There is more math than can be very complex at times like multivariable calculus and partial derivatives. I have had roommates tell me this like Calc 2 or 3 concepts which is pretty crazy for this class. Some of the math is also very bizarre and more conceptual based. Often times it felt like this class has very limited resources. Sure there is office hours, but it you're like me who likes watching youtube videos and khan academy its going to be rough. The labs are also hardy, they don't hold your hand like in 30a. Honestly, totally manageable though, just go to office hours and compare the work with others. The tests are also graded pretty harshly. The midterm had to be regarded because of a certain question's weird and strict grading scale. BE PREPARED TO STUDY WAY MORE THAN 30A.

Bennoun is a great guy, but the class itself isn't really that great. His lectures are easy to understand because it's in a fill-in-the-blanks-as-I-go format. However, the exams are quite tough and kinda sucked. Grading scheme is just like LS30A, but this is definitely a step higher in difficulty, so if you plan on taking this class be wary that it's not as much of a walk in the park like 30A. Homework is pretty mediocre, takes at most 1-2 hours if you know what you're doing, same textbook from 30A. Labs in my opinion are kind of useless and feel more of a separate thing. While they do cover the course content, it's mostly about coding functions for theoretical systems that you won't really see on your exams. There is a capstone project at the end for labs where you make your own system and explore it, so pick wisely who your group is going to be. It's also reliant on TAs and LAs to help you process what's going on in the labs.

I know I probably got a C for this class, but it's mainly because I got a C on the final and it's worth 60% of the grade because I did worse on the midterm.

TLDR class is okay, exams are not that okay so study for it, labs feel like they're kind of a waste of 2 hours of time.

The LS30 series in general just sucks, but Professor Bennoun is not bad. Weekly labs and homework assignments are do-able, although the coding can get pretty difficult sometimes. The midterm was fair, but that final...woah, it was crazy hard. The capstone project also seems oddly placed considering this is a math class, but it's easy enough. It really just depends who your group is, since the rubric is pretty specific. Would've much rather taken actual calc than whatever fake math this is. I actually started to dream about matrices at some point, 1/10 don't recommend.

The professor himself was good, he is understanding and is okay at explaining things. But the material just did not match what we saw during the midterm and final. No amount of preparation could allow someone to do good on these tests because of how poorly they are written, and the test are basically your whole grade. It was really unfair, and it you get to choose between the 30 series and 30A, take 30A to save your GPA.