Finally passed this class. I only need a D- to get my degree, so this grade exceeds my expectations.

Eggert 131 is fantastic, but come prepared for war. His teaching style is brilliant if you can keep up - his lectures are packed with insights and you'll learn more than most courses combined. The only catch is the workload. I started this class when I was 20 years old. I'm 24 now. The assignments are intense and time-consuming - this isn't a class, it's a lifestyle change. Quality comes at a cost. Just know what you're signing up for.

genuinely one of the best professor's i've ever had, and i'm not even a cs major lol

This class took years off my life. An absurd amount of work if you do it legit

Oh Eggert. Sweet sweet Eggert. The grade lottery I am playing right now and don't know where I'll come out on the other side. Needless to say, the midterm was horrid. I cannot wait for the final (to be even worse). I like his lecture style, I don't find the information to be presented in a way that's hard to handle, but where I draw the line is the labs being worth abyssmally little percentages and taking hours on end. I know this is for our benefit, but if I'm putting in the effort to get a good grade on the lab, I wish it mattered more. Another thing. The project. THE project. Basically zero guidance on where to start and what you need to know. It follows the Standard Eggert Model: self teach. But I literally pay so much money for these classes that there is zero point to self teach. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have gone to college. Simple as that.

I don't know why people keep giving this class a bad review. It's a great class and I learned a ton from Eggert!

I think as it is with all Eggert classes, he bins you on the final based on ur project grades. So make your project grades are very high (other wise you'll suffer more than the bad project grade!)

This isn't rly a review for Eggert or CS 111, but rather the TA Yadi Cao (and by extension Brian Rosyar). If you see any discussion section TA'd by Yadi Cao, even if you aren't in his section, DROP THE CLASS. Yadi Cao is a TA straight from the depths of hell. Yadi does not prepare for his discussion sections (if he is even present), is always late, and is very rude both in-person and via email. If you try to email him or ask questions on Piazza, don't expect a response from him (or Brian for the matter). The worst part though is his grading standards. Yadi had completely asinine grading schemes for Lab 2 and Lab 3. For Lab 2, he changed the lab significantly and provided no test cases, then proceeded to use over a thousand randomly generated test cases that caused the class mean and median to be in the range of 60. And for Lab 3, we don't even know how he graded it, just that tbe class mean and median was once again in the 60's. It's absurd he's still allowed to TA classes frankly, but I suppose that's to be expected from UCLA.

Unlike 35L, this class has a textbook, which covers 90% of what you need to know for the tests. You don't need the textbook, as everything on the tests is covered in class, but it's nice to have anyways. The tests were decently difficult (average around 60 for both the midterm and the final I think) but fair enough. There were a few particularly challenging questions on each of the exams, but I think you could get a solid grade just by answering the simpler ones and hoping for partials on the hard ones.
The grading for the final and labs 2 and 3 was so ridiculous, I honestly can't tell if they just used an RNG. If you're set on getting a good grade, this may not be the class for you.

Paul Eggert is an absolute legend. A veteran of the software development industry, he shines in his lectures while he doles out wisdom from his years of experience. He is irreplaceable.

In terms of exams, yes, they are hard, but one can easily get away with 1-2 standard deviations above the mean by writing down what seems reasonable. Much easier than other exams where you absolutely must know the answer.

Readings were a little bit harsh. Too many readings, not much useful content on them in the exams. One of the books, Principles of Computer System Design: An Introduction by Jerome H. Saltzer and M. Frans Kaashoek (SK), was way too stuffy.

Projects were an absolute disaster this quarter. Way too easy, the skeleton gives everything away. Takes me only like 2 hours to complete. Absolute disgrace, learning nothing from them. Please note that I talked to the professor about this—this isn't his fault, he says he has to keep the labs because the TAs are only trained on them.

I didn't really attend discussion, but the first one was pretty good. Solid TA. Just by design of the course, this discussion wasn't very useful. Reading over the PDF worked just as well for me.

This is a classic Eggert class, lectures are interesting but very inconsistently relevant to the assignments. The exams were hard, but the projects were very manageable, I hear they are much easier than in the past.