I thought this course would be way worse than it actually ended up being. They kinda fixed it a little bit by giving way more hints on assignments so you aren't just roaming the stackoverflow forest of information with no clue what to even search about. Now you have something to search before you mindlessly wander the internet trying to figure out the assignments. The assignments are still really time consuming ~10-20 hours per week and sometimes longer on the really hard assignments but the TA's did say assignment averages are higher this quarter because of the hints so they are clearly helpful. The final wasn't nearly as bad during my quarter (first corona online quarter) since the average was a 70 while eggert said he normally aims for a 50. It was less about c programming than past quarters and more about explanation of topics and how interactions would work. Ultimately I think the class is easier now but its still time consuming . That being said, I learned a ridiculous amount in this class and would recommend it because of how it just alters your workflow through technologies and software you can add to your repertoire.

This class is pretty interesting. The project makes this class more similar to CS 130, where you collaborate with a group to create a real world application. This means you get some experience with practical software engineering and if you put the effort in, you'll come out of the class with a unique project that will look good on your resume or portfolio. You also get to learn JavaScript - React and Node.js, along with modern frameworks that are really good to know for industry.
With that being said, all this practical work comes at a cost: the original 35L assignments end up being worth very little (5%) of your grade. This means you'll put much more effort into your project than the assignments. A lot of the time, Eggert didn't even make it to the topic of the assignment in lecture before the assignment was due, and even if he did, he lectures about the topic at a very high level, in a way that doesn't really help with the assignment. Of course, the TAs and LAs are always there to help, but it is a lot of self learning for the assignments, just like in 35L. Because they are worth so little, it is easy to lose motivation to even attempt the assignments, and I'd imagine that this results in you not really getting the preparation you need for later courses (111, 131, etc.)
Exams are still tough, because it's Eggert. Another thing is, because the project is worth 50% of your grade, and the final is 23%, you really don't know 73% of your grade until the end. I think a significant portion of this class took it Pass/Fail for this reason, but future students unfortunately aren't going to get to do that.
Overall, I'd still recommend this class over 35L. I think the class structure and grading balance will only improve in the future, because this was the first time it was ever offered.

I took CS 97 as a replacement for CS 35L. Considering this was the first time 97 was offered, I acknowledge that there were a lot of gaps in curriculum/planning.

The topics we covered were some basic linux commands, emacs, basic scripting (python/bash), git, client/server-side programming, and a little bit of C.

Homework: There were 4 homework assignments (regex/scripting, Git, React, and Makefiles with C). They only counted for a total of 5% so I only did 3/4 of them. The homework itself took a decent amount of time, but a lot of students (including me) didn't bother with doing them completely since it was worth so little. One of my concerns is that since the hw is worth so little, none of us really cared to learn it thoroughly, and I feel like there could be gaps in our knowledge compared to those that took 35L and had to do 10 assignments.

Lectures & Exams: Eggert is a great lecturer. One of the main reasons why I took 97 over 35L is because there are actual lectures. From my experience, write down EVERY LITTLE THING HE SAYS / TYPES because all the exam content is from his lectures directly. LITERALLY WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. We had 2 midterms, each 10% of our grade, and a final worth 23%. His exam style is mostly short answer, very little coding, and a lot of explaining/writing for conceptual questions. Since we were online this quarter, he made it open note and open computer (but the test is still insanely hard lol). My biggest tip is to literally write ANYTHING. Don't leave anything blank and the TAs will give you partial credit.

Project: We had a group project worth 50% of our grade. You're free to create any type of app you want. My group chose to make a web app so we had to learn React/Node.js on our own, but luckily some of my team had experience in web development. As long as you created something, the TAs were generous with grading the project. It was stressful in that the guidelines for the project seemed very loose, and there were random project check-in due dates that weren't laid out beforehand. Besides those logistics, it was mostly self-learning.

The remaining 3% came from LA surveys/feedback surveys.

Overall, there is a lot of room for improvement for this course in terms of organization, but I think the group project definitely gives you experience for industry since you have to collaborate with others through Git.

CS35L has made me seriously question my decision to come to UCLA.

This class is definitely challenging, and the material moves at a very fast pace. That said, Professor Eggert is the best lecturer I’ve had at UCLA. His explanations of software development concepts are clear, and it’s obvious he has deep knowledge of the subject. Whenever a student asked a question, he would explain thoroughly and make sure they fully understood the answer. The main drawback, as others have mentioned, is the difficulty of the tests. Still, if you take solid notes and review the lectures before each exam, you should be able to at least hit the median.

There's a project each week, so 10 assignments total over the quarter.

Each project covers that week's lecture of some new cs topic (i.e. shell scripting, ssh, linux, system calls). The projects really don't require much time, but each one requires that you understand that particular cs topic well and getting a good grasp of it in one week might be difficult at times.

The final is hard, but honestly pretty doable and partial credit is key to getting a solid score.

I mean... it's Eggert.
This class is insanely hard, because it's Eggert. The tests are difficult even after watching every lecture, studying, doing the projects, and reading the textbook. That's just how it is. But the curve is great! Midterm and final were both very low averages, but significantly curved, as is classic in Eggert's classes. The lectures focused on the theory behind programming languages in general, as well as the theory behind specific languages (OCaml, Prolog, Java, I'm probably missing one). The projects were much more focused on exploiting specific features of those languages. The final project was non-programming, but rather a comparison of features among a few languages based on what we'd learned in the class. Projects were /insanely/time-consuming if you didn't have help, so start early and set aside a lot of time.
Lectures, as always with Eggert, were engaging and interesting, but kinda hard to follow since they are rarely organized and linear.

I did not like this class very much. I thought the material was very very important, but I feel like the online format combined with Eggert's brand of more chaotic teaching methods were not a good fit. The TAs were really nice.

The most important thing I got out of this class was I made a bunch of friends doing the project together, and I feel like I got a good overview of SWE.

The worst part of this class by far was the tests and the very non-transparent grading. The test averages were abysmal. The curve was a lot harsher this quarter, too, probably because projects were worth more than usual (15% as opposed to ~5%).

Overall, 5/10 class. Get through it and you will be a better computer scientist. It's like a light hazing.

This is the most pointless and unreasonably tough courses I have taken at UCLA. You will teach yourself 90% of the material. The projects, with the exception of hw1,hw4, and the project, are all unreasonably difficult and convoluted, and really, nobody knows whats happening and you can bet that tons of students in the course are githubbing most of the hard parts. The exams are written the night before, as stated by the professor, and the averages can wildly vary from 50%-70%. Make sure you read the book and/or review lecture to perform as well as one can on his exams. As usual with eggert you can expect a fat curve at the end but its never consistent so you cant rely on it. FWIW, when I calculated my raw grade with all assignments/exams graded I had a 59.9, and came out with a C .

Honestly people should be pretty prepared for a difficult class whenever it's with Professor Eggert. Projects are time consuming (especially for the second OCaml and the Scheme one). Tests are difficult but something might help for all Eggert tests: they are more about intuitions, so basically whenever you come up with some sort of answer, just write, don't even bother to think too much or too deep about the them. Just let your intuition guide you through would be less confusing and might give better outcomes. Ahhh all that being said I do learn many things in this class and honestly Eggert lectures are good, it's homework and tests that sucks :))