The textbook is very useful for this class. If you do all reading assignments, going to lectures is not necessary.

So, I stopped attending lecture after week 2 or 3. I didn't go to discussion either. Zaniolo is pretty hard to understand, and I ended up self studying everything with my friends. We'd understand the concepts together by going through the slides (the discussion slides in particular were very useful). Then we'd work on the homework. So, the homework is good practice for the difficulty of the midterm, except the midterm requires a bit more thought. Definitely check out the UPE testbank for this class if you can. Go through the concepts using his slides, and do all the practice problems on his slides before the exams.

Project 1 was pretty straightforward. You just need to use PHP to create an IMDB style website. Decoration matters for Project 1B. Project 2 is conceptually very difficult even though it's probably about 200 lines of code total. I strongly recommend starting early, since looking at the source code is pretty overwhelming at first.

Don't take him. I didn't understand anything he said the entire quarter. Shoutout to Das for being the best TA ever though.

Professor mumbled in class. Gave the easiest tests so he ended up having an average grade of like 93-94%. His solution was to curve everyone down. So I got a 91% but ended up with a B. Also all I learned was SQL and B+ treees. Terrible class.

Complicated feeling about this class. Like other posts have mentioned, this professor's lecture is far below average, with unclear spoken English and outdated & unclear & sometimes misleading slides. Yet he is an nice guy, he would answer questions in great patience. Textbook is not necessary, but it helps if you'd like to skip the lecture.
The professor used curve, in this quarter, to down-grade the average to around B. It is fine with me but I think he should at least mention it at first. So, be prepared for this! (I got 95% overall, ranked top 20%, and got A-)
TA is super nice and helpful, Jason, I would say he is the best TA ever. He is responsive, held extra OH, provided detailed and clear explanation on Piazza. This class will be tough without him.

Well, I should say this course practice my listening and understanding ability.

If you want to learn database by reading the book on your own, then take this class. The professor doesn't teach very well. Learnt most of the stuff from TA and the book.
The extra credit is useless since the grade is based on the curve. This means extra work since everyone is going to do the extra credit.

Worst professor by far that you will take at UCLA. This guy <<<<<<<

Zaniolo is a nice old guy that is clearly knowledgable about the material, but his lectures are terrible. He mumbles too much and is bad at explaining things. Most people skip lecture (but I went to every one!).

The tests were very reasonable and fair if you read and understand the gist of the slides, and there is even extra credit on them. There are 2 group projects, one of which was easy (basic IMDB clone with PHP/MYSQL), and the other was hard (implement new features in Apache Spark using Scala). There are weekly homework assignments that are kind of hard because the material isn't explained well.

I wouldn't really recommend this professor if you want a great exposure to database systems, but it's okay if you're looking for a somewhat chill class where skipping lectures is fine.

Class:
I hear one complain (from other student) about expectation of going to this class that is to learn MySQL ONLY. I can tell you right now that you did not just learn MySQL. You learn to write MySQL query better, setup database schema with various of I/O calculation and theory.

Professor:
He uses slides, and they are OUTDATED slide. Some of mysql on the slide does not work anymore on the newer version of MySQL. The essential query statement still is the same. He lecture alright, he could put you to sleep if you didn't follow him for one second; because he MUMBLES. However, it is strongly encouraged that you go to lecture, because the book DOES NOT do a good job at all. The textbook is one of bad textbook ever. You might misunderstand something in the text and you definitely will; therefore, it is better to go to class.

Projects:
The projects are connected dependently, meaning whatever you did wrong on previous project, you might did wrong again on the next one if you don't correct it.