Honestly I consider CS31 very very easy. Were there complicated things? Yes, a few, but nothing you can't understand if you look at a bit into it. The homework does take time, but it's all easy and I don't get stuck on anything. I also never went to discussion, in fact, and apparently you can do well in this class if you don't. Howard is very humorous, and his dog Pixie is very cute. He is also very helpful in answering questions on CCLE, very patient.

He Types Everything Like This

Howard Stahl can be a bit of a boring lecturer, but he teaches what needs to be taught and his tests ask very reasonable questions. The projects can take a good number of hours, but with the amount of time he gives you to do them, they're not bad at all. I was able to complete most of them in one day, though I would say it is smart to not let that one day be the last day, as there can always be unexpected issues that arise or simply errors that you realize you need to fix after the fact. The one thing I was not pleased about was the visual formatting of the tests. They were not very readable and formatting alone definitely contributed to me answering questions slower which is kind of a lame issue to have in a college course.

Professor Stahl is not the most engaging professor (I only attended lecture three or so times), but he is helpful and accommodating. I had 0 prior coding experience in C++. I found that watching the BruinCast on 2x speed and taking notes on Notion worked best for me. There are 7 projects, but he took off project 6 which was a quiz on pointers rather than actual coding. Going to TA office hours was SUPER helpful. Shoutout Pranav and Dale!!! They were incredible TAs and did a great job on explaining and breaking down concepts.
I got an A on both the midterm and final, and for someone who always thought they were confused in this class, I thought he made them super clear and easy. Before the midterm, he did a full review day in class, the TAs reviewed during discussion, and UPE hosted a review session. For the final, there were the same review opportunities at the midterm + another lecture reviewing (so you basically get a dead week for this class during week 10 to review and study).
If you have time, the textbook is actually super clear and I skimmed through parts of it before the midterm and I thought it helped. However, I did not do so for the final and felt fine.
You can attend any discussion section you want and the professor randomly checks attendance for one of the sections each week and you get 3 points back on one of the projects, which can often be very helpful although it does not seem like that much. It is a good idea to go to office hours and meet the TAs then decide what section you should go to depending on who is teaching. I did not really engage in discussion sections but I did read over the slides and worksheets prior to the exams.
Overall, I did not necessarily enjoy this class, but I did well!

The content itself was not THAT hard as a student coding for their first time. The projects do take up a lot of time though so keep yourself accountable for that. The exams are a little challenging as they are on paper and in person so watch out for that as well.

I really liked this class. I am not a CS major or anything adjacent and thought I've coded before, my previous experience compared to others is minimal. I feel like this class was very fair and accessible. There are some reviews here saying Stahl is mean and not accommodating and I couldn't disagree more. Stahl is extremely caring -- I turned in a project that didn't build (I would have gotten a 2) but he emailed me before the due date letting me know about this issue. Super nice! He is super good with e-mail and got back to me about taking the midterm an alternate time super quick. Advice: if you ever get a horrible score on a project (I got a 15 once) do not just leave it; email him and he will change it to something much more reasonable (I ended up getting a 95 on this project). I didn't go to lectures because they were 6-8 pm during winter. But I usually watched them and they were helpful like 50% of the time. I will agree that sometimes it gets boring, but I think that's expected when learning CS mechanics. Class time helps you a ton with projects though. For projects (40% of your grade) I would definitely say start early. Every time I started a project I was stressed and was like how can I do this in a week and then it ended up being fine. Going to UPE or a TA usually really helps if you're super confused. I had no idea how to start projects 5 or 7 but I went to UPE / a TA and got it done in a few hours. Use Codeboard and look at the project discussion boards because they help a lot. Also tests I feel like are pretty fair. I was so stressed for the final and the midterm but I ended up getting an A and A- on both. For tests, don't be afraid to ask him if it will be on the test, he will tell you. Saved so much time not studying pointers, overloading, etc. Study the content he lists as fair game and you'll be good. Overall, super accessible and fair in my opinion. I don't find CS easy and didn't find this class easy but I still managed to do okay!

Howard was not the greatest teacher. He would often have long-winded explanations, and went at a very slow pace. In fact, he would introduce a topic to you, and you'd forget what he's talking about because of the slow pace of his lectures.

The discussions were better than the lectures; in 2 hours, I learned more than 4 hours spent in the lecture during the week. If Hunter is TAing again, please go to his discussion! He is one of the best TAs I've had. The LAs are also very very helpful.

Projects did not take long. For some projects, you could get it done in one sitting. The midterms were weird... Howard is not the best examiner, and even he admits it.

Overall, I would take this class again. Attend office hours frequently and discuss the project materials with others, and you'll be perfectly fine.

Lectures for me were a bit slow (though I had prior coding experience) but Howard is really approachable and easygoing. Projects were pretty straightforward (especially if you've programmed before) and directions/expectations were all laid out. He explains everything, including which software to use to code your projects and how he wants you to submit them.

pray to the bald norwegian god, blop blop, walk the arrow, goated prof love this man and his dog

I came into this class with 0 coding experience, so I think I had a more difficult time than others (it definitely helps having prior experience; if you don't be prepared to put in extra work). Stahl is a very nice, understanding professor but as a lecturer he is very boring. His slides aren't the most helpful and coupled with the 2 hour lectures it was very easy to drift off. The projects were reasonable, with project 3 being the most time consuming/hardest. If you put in the hours and pay great attention to detail, you should be able to score well on all of them, but the projects do take a decent amount of time (the discussion boards on every project were super helpful--I would often go there to read other people's questions/answers clarifying specific parts about the project). That being said, tests are a little different in that you need to know C++ down to every bit. I wasn't prepared for this on the midterm and basically tanked my grade, but reading the textbook helped me majorly score better on the final. I recommend forgetting about the project and really getting to know C++ as a language for this. This class was really difficult to me as everything was super new and unfamiliar, but Stahl is a nice guy to start out your C++ journey with.