This is a challenging programming class. From what I’ve observed, those who were at the top of the 31 Fall class typically transition well into 32 winter but those who were able to skate by in 31 fall usually get hit hard in 32 winter so take Smallberg’s advice about reviewing your C++ for a quarter and then returning in spring. Be prepared to place this class at the top of your priority list for the quarter you’re taking it in cause it is an unnatural time sink, particularly the later projects. You’ve probably heard this before but believe the hype- Projects 3 and 4 are very time consuming and challenging. If you really laboured with the projects and homeworks like you were expected to, the midterms should come fairly naturally to you. The final on the other hand is a very tricky exam and you have next to no time to prep for it as the difficult Project 4 is due 2 nights before and you practically have a day to recap a quarter’s worth of material. On the bright side, all exams are completely open book, open notes. So you don’t need to memorise stuff, you need to understand how things work and know how to apply them. Most of the learning takes place while doing the hard projects, so make sure to invest time into them to get as much out of it as possible. I don’t know if this class prepares you enough for interviews though, due to the quarter system, there certainly isn’t enough time to cover graphs and hash tables comprehensively enough towards the end. Would be ideal if UCLA made this a 2-quarter sequence but oh well. Difficult but a solid learning experience!

When I took this class, no one received anything about cheating. I think it's because in spring cheating is very prevalent.

As for Smallberg himself, I'm really not a fan. He's about as discouraging as it gets. He spent the first week or two telling us repeatedly to enroll in another easy class so when we ended up dropping his CS32 class -- which he insisted we inevitably would do, due to its difficulty -- we would still have enough units. He also sent out an email after the course was finished saying they had noticed some cheating and giving us the opportunity to turn ourselves in. I got the sense, however, that it was actually just a trick he uses in all classes to get students who had cheated to admit it -- he even addressed the email to the wrong class.
I did enjoy the class overall. CS32 is a key transition from knowing about coding to actually being able to code and create something useful and dynamic. The projects are interesting but VERY TIME CONSUMING. You'll be fine taking this with a normal class load as long as you plan ahead or are willing to pull a couple all-nighters. START PROJECT 3 (and maybe 4) AT LEAST A WEEK AHEAD OF TIME.

Smallberg is a great professor and a great guy. He puts a lot of energy into this course and makes sure we know a ton of material. With that being said, though, the content can become dry and you zone out a lot in lecture, it gets repetitive at times. Prepare yourself for a very intense workload with this class. Expect multiple all nighters the week when you have to make a functioning video game. I would not recommend taking this course if you don't have to or don't plan on pursuing computer science.

Smallberg is a great professor. He's been teaching CS 32 for years and knows C++ as well as any professor knows anything. He's very clear as an instructor and is helpful in office hours. The projects take a lot of time but they're also interesting to do and you learn from doing them and they are clear in what is required. Tests are fair. I would definitely recommend him as a professor.

Ah, Prof. Smallberg. What to say about him.

He is honestly one of the best professors I have come across. He makes students learn, and more importantly, want to learn. Yes, his classes are hard and he can be a bit of a hardass, but in all honesty, if you are passionate about learning CS, he is the professor to take.

Similar to CS 31, I'd say CS 32 is also a straightforward class, though it's considerably more time consuming. Grade breakdown for Spring 2015 was this:

1% Project 1
30% Projects 2-4 (10% for each)
19% Homework (split evenly among 5)
20% Midterms (7% midterm 1, 13% midterm 2)
30% Final

The difference here is that CS 32 projects are considerably longer than CS 31 ones, so people who got away with not putting in too much time in CS 31 due to previous CS experience (like myself) should actually start early on these ones.

Of the projects, Project 3 lives up to its reputation for being time consuming, but that's just it. It's very time consuming, but other than one particular aspect, it's not that difficult. The one difficult part is compartmentalized, so you can get everything else while not getting that part correct. Know your inheritances and polymorphism, and that should save you quite a bit of coding. Project 4 is not quite as time consuming, though it can take some thinking to get the right approach.

The homeworks aren't particularly consuming and I think they are roughly the same scale as some of the longer CS 31 projects. That said though the infix to postfix notation homework probably took the longest time for me.

Smallberg's lectures are very thorough, but so much that it gets pretty boring sometimes. Instead of just telling us what to do he would first talk about some of the background of the problem, which I guess is cool but for those who aren't interested it's just boring. Still, do go to his lectures because it's ultimately helpful, and 4 hours of your time per week isn't too much to ask for right? Truth is, projects and homeworks are much more straightforward once you go to his lectures, though I don't like how he sometimes talk about the relevant topics the day before it's due.

Fully knowing the homeworks and projects is key to doing well in the class. Nearly all exam questions (except for maybe the last time complexity question on the final) has at least shown up in some way on the homeworks or projects, so you would be wise to know them well. Exams are open book and notes, but frankly don't count on relying on them in the exam because time is quite limited. You either know it or you don't.

Gradewise, the averages are really high on the homeworks and projects, while exam scores are lower (and for my quarter, it seems to be lower than normal). But Smallberg is pretty accommodating and lenient when it comes to giving out the final grades though. He's not stingy about giving A's, and I got one even though I didn't do stellar.

Smallberg is like a good professor of algebra, but he ask you to know Calculus to get a good grade. He grades with bias, specially against students who are computer science majors. Those students are the one who are worshiping him below because that's another way to get a good way to get a good grade: Worship him, that's not hard.

Smallberg is like a good professor of algebra, but he ask you to know Calculus to get a good grade. He grades with bias, specially against students who are computer science majors. Those students are the one who are worshiping him below because that's another way to get a good way to get a good grade: Worship him, that's not hard.

CS32 will destroy you