I took this class with 7 years of programing experience in C++, and yet somehow this professor was so bad at teaching and explaining that I got a C on the midterm and on the final. Not going to lecture would probably be more useful than going.

The class as I took it is graded by 8 100 point Homeworks, 1 midterm, and 1 final. (participation is 1% of grade). As far as I can tell this professor is the best professor to take for program in computing that being said she was still not great. The midterm took me about 8-9 hours ("designed to be 1 hour) and the final took me 17 hours ("designed to be 3 hours"). My particular TA was not the best at teaching but she was very kind and helped me tremendously with the homework. There was 1 week to complete each homework.. but do not start it late it took me 3-4 days at least. The teacher spoke too fast for me personally so I would watch the recorded lectures and take notes from there. Basically, no collaboration is allowed as all coding needs to be original which makes it hard to ask peers for help. I feel like the people who did the best either had prior experience or just were inclined to computer science. I was not one of those people and it took all my time but still was able to pass. The Homework is %70 percent of the grade and is what basically determines your grade so they are your best bet at succeeding in the class.

This course was very organized, with 8 weekly homework, one midterm and one final. Professor Chu was awesome! She always stopped to ask anyone if they had questions and was extremely helpful and friendly during office hours.

But don't let the reviews fool you. This class was NOT a low-hanging fruit. I felt this course was rather difficult for an intro class. I managed to get an A only because I had programming experience in high school and had to study really hard for it..

Chu speaks really slow. If I took this class in person, it'd be frustrating to listen to lectures. I listened to all the lectures at 2x speed, so the class being online definitely was nice. She is pretty good at teaching the material, but it's pretty much directly from the textbook so I guess you could just read the textbook instead of watching lecture. She added quizzes to the class this quarter because the class was online. The quizzes were kinda hard but it was fine as long as you studied a little before each one. The midterm and final were relatively easy. The homework/projects weren't bad either and you get 1 week to work on them, so that's nice

I took this class online (covid), and I found it fair. I had no coding experience coming into this class, but I was still able to keep up with the content well. I was always able to finish the homework assignments in a few hours (we had a week to do them), and she posts her slides, so you can always look back to her notes/examples. Her quizzes were a bit challenging, mostly because of the time limit (30 min) and the number of questions (only 4-5, so missing one cost a lot of points). Her exams, however, I thought were fair, and they were open notes too. The breakdown was 30% homework, 24% quizzes, 20% midterm, 25% final, and 1% participation (completing the instructor evaluations).

~ Covid-19 quarter ~
Challenging class but worthwhile.
Expect weekly quizzes (4-5 questions each). She gives 30 minutes to complete it and you can take it anytime from 5 PM Monday to 5 PM Tuesday.
All exams are open-note. She posts demos, lectures, and notes on CCLE.
Very helpful in office hours. TAs are also a great source to go to for homework help.
7 total homework assignments, with a week to finish each of them.
Our final was mandatory, but she gave us 24 hours to do it. Open notes and compilers allowed.

I have no idea about programming before coming to this class. As such, it is very confusing for me starting from week 3. One recommendation is to constantly reread the slides after lecture and prepare questions. Please do read lectures and her examples before attempting assignments as they are long. Dr. Chu is very nice and helpful, and the tests can’t be more fair! I would surely recommend her to everyone

Had taken AP CSA before. Most students seemed to not care so the median for midterms was pretty low but if you care, this professor also does and took feedback and actively sought to change how the course was taught. Didn't really have to work too hard. Don't get complacent though and study before midterms and such.