Howard did an amazing job of teaching this course in such a way that even though I had no coding experience (it took me a couple of days to realize int meant integer haha) it was by no means a hard or difficult class. The workload could at times be excessive, but that is just the nature of coding and the time you have to put into actually typing code, and even testing it. It really helped me initially to attend OH and ask clarifying questions early on, but after week 4 I had a strong enough understanding of the course and its material to really breeze through the class. Tests are easy, projects take time, lecture could at times be confusing but was overall very clear. And pixie is a big plus :)

Stahl is a great professor, although I did take computer science in high school, so I had an advantage. He tells you all you really need to know for the projects, although for one of the it was really unclear, but he has a forum where people can ask and answer questions. He provides a lot of tests for your programs to make sure you are heading in the right direction, and the only tougher part about this class is the final because the harder material is pushed towards the end and there were some oddly specific questions that I could not find the answer to anywhere.

I took this course in the summer after graduating high school with barely any coding experience. As an absolute beginner who did the tiniest bit of java, this course was very introductory and not too difficult if you take the time to understand the concepts. I think Howard does a good job of explaining everything in his lectures but the slides and class notes are a bit hard to read. Other than that, if you put in the effort, you will do well. The midterms and exam cover everything you learned and never go too far beyond what was covered in class.

I went into this class with no coding experience at all, and Stahl taught pretty well, but I definitely learned more by just doing the projects. The online midterm was super easy, and the final was also relatively easy but definitely required you to actually understand the coding part (moreso than the midterm). Projects 3 and 7 had me wanting to die for a little bit but I finished them (mostly) by myself.
I did not go to a single lecture in person and I'm glad because he talks sooooo slow and I understood him better at 2x.
Overall I thought Stahl was really nice and good at answering project-related questions. Would recommend!!!!!

Pretty much the easiest class I've ever taken.

Overall, I did not find this class too difficult. You do have to put a lot of time into the projects, but you will walk out with a great understanding of C++. Only reason I got an A- was because I did not study for the midterm.
Project grades are based on wether or not you pass all test cases, and Stahl supplies you most of them before you turn it in. Getting 100% on all the projects is very doable. Although, you do have to study for the exams quite a bit, as there's a multiple choice section that requires a lot of practice to remember without a compiler.
If you put in some effort, you will succeed!

Stahl did his job, nothing more, nothing less. I started the class with 6 weeks of zoom lectures, and 4 final weeks back in-person, and frankly, in person was the most boring thing I've ever attended. It was disengaging, slow, and gloom. I will say that I did learn what was needed for CS31, and it is not hard to do well in this class, but it was a slow and tough process to adhere to.

As someone who has never touched CS with a 5 ft pole, this class was honestly doable. In fact, the lecture may have been a little too slow. Howard is really helpful and attentive (he responds to emails and discussion post questions pretty quickly). He also offered extra credit for people who attend discussion sections (0.5 added to your midterm score). His tests were pretty decent and both my midterm/final grades were higher than my projects grade. For tests, I would say the projects/worksheets he gives out are the best way to study (although the textbook is free, I gave up reading it because it was too dense and I couldn't comprehend most of it; just take lecture notes).

I would say the hardest part about this class for non-coders is the attention to detail you need when you test your code. Even if Codeboard says you did well, you still need to test A LOT of other cases to make sure you don't have logic errors. I did pretty badly on one project (heads up Project 3 is a huge jump in difficulty so start as soon as he releases it), but I was still able to salvage my grade with other projects/tests.

Stahl was a great guy and very nice, but his lectures worked the same as melatonin gummies. They literally made me fall asleep every time. I don't think I attended more than three lectures in the entire quarter and learned almost entirely from the discussion. However, his tests were pretty fairly made and reflected what we were learning from the projects. The projects were also manageable and he often extended the deadline. He even ended up changing one of my project grades from a literal F- to a C after I spoke with him and clarified some things. Overall, he's a very sweet man, but it was just a really boring class overall and I feel like I learned more from outside the class.

Goated professor. I've had friends become miserable after taking CS 31 with Smallberg, and then I personally took Huang for CS 31 during the winter, but had to drop it because I had no idea what was going on in class. I decided to take Stahl for the summer, and it has been the best decision ever. His exams are EXTREMELY fair. His homeworks are assigned once a week and are all multiple choice (20 problems long), they're also pretty straightforward. The projects are very similar to what other professor's for CS 31 assign, as expected. However, Stahl takes the time during his lectures to thoroughly run through the project specs, and he mentions common errors people may run into. He also basically does the projects for us part by part, but just by using different examples. If you fail this class with him, then IDK what to tell you bro. He is the reason I no longer feel like an imposter in CS. If you have no prior coding experience, Stahl is your best bet. If you have prior coding experience but just want an easy A, Stahl is also your best bet. Though, if you have prior experience, his lectures might bore you because they're pretty slow. Overall, he's great at explaining concepts and uses analogies that make the material easier to understand. I'm looking forward to taking him for CS 32 this upcoming fall.