My grade in this class does not align with my rating for this professor because I found myself self teaching a LOT in this class. The professor is very hard to understand and he speaks very quickly. I attended all of the lectures and discussions but honestly I don't know how helpful they are. I absolutely recommend using the textbook and finding youtube videos on topics you don't understand. These resources are the reason I was successful outside of class. The content is not that bad but I had to put in a lot of outside time for this class to make up for the professor being so unhelpful. Also he gave us no information on the format of the final before taking it and when someone asked for a practice test he simply said "no." All in all, it is definitely possible to do well in this class even with no prior coding experience like me but you definitely need to utilize resources outside of the professor.

Prof. Yang is a really great teacher! He was very prompt in answering questions in class and he explained the intuition behind basic programming structures very well. The concerns I had were that he moved a little too fast through the slides (but also, lectures were recorded), but his accent was not too bad; in fact it was quite wholesome. He had a good sense of humor, and the exams were fairly straightforward.

I was kind of scared coming into this class because I had never coded in C++ and heard that it was a notoriously hard language, but it was not bad at all. At first, I wasn't too much of a fan of Professor Yang's lecture style, but I admit that he grew on me. Admittedly, he does tend to go a bit too fast at times, but he's actually really good at answering questions/clarifying when students are confused, going through examples, and encouraging participation. Also, if there's something that flies past your head, the slides are self-explanatory enough for you to fill in your knowledge gaps after class. My TA, Kye, was probably the best TA that I've ever had at UCLA, and the discussion sections were immensely helpful.

The grade scheme consisted of 13% midterm, 36% final (or 49% if you did better than the midterm), 1% course eval, and 50% HW. The HW assignments were really doable (and dare I say fun) and could--for the most part--be knocked out in a few hours. The exams were fair, but you definitely still need to study (no cheat sheet allowed). I thought the multiple choice was a bit trickier than the short answer/free response, as some of the questions required you to discriminate between very fine details of syntax. However, compared to Stats 20 (the other coding course I took before this), the exams were a breeze. I will say that the grade cutoff for an A is very strict. You need to get at least a 94%, and the professor does not curve. Fortunately, the HWs are worth a substantial portion of the grade, and if you make sure to check your code, it isn't too difficult to get full credit on most of them.

Overall, I'd say this class is very beginner-friendly, and the professor is pretty good if you give him a chance. Some people found him annoying and stopped coming to class, but I thought he was actually kind of funny and did his job well. I'd definitely take Yang for future PIC classes!

If you need PIC 10A, take it with Prof. Yang. He was an excellent prof as his notes were super clear and his tests were not too hard. He is also great at answering questions during class and is very helpful. I would highly recommend taking his class.