Reviews are right about the assignment schedule, we had two 30-minute problem sets and 1 quiz in the first 8 weeks (basically nothing for the first weeks). Class material is not hard, and he tries to upload lectures. Most of his lectures were uploaded, but sometimes just looking at the lecture slides he provides is easier. He had a very generous late policy, giving 7 late days to spread out on a total of 3 assignments. However, the two design assignments had, one serving as the final, were slightly confusing to understand, and his Autograder was pretty rigid with errors so if anyone misunderstood the spec they just got 0's on the performance part of the grade. (I think a lot of students did this because the means were always like 15/40). Anyways, he curves/makes adjustments in order not to fail half of the class. He also grades on area cost (best score is used as baseline), so there was pretty cutthroat competition for about 20% of the grade. Wasn't too sure if I was failing the class or getting an A until the final grades came out, but I guess it worked out. Since you're reading this, I think you should be okay taking this class if you have no other choice. Know what to expect in the last two weeks and start early on the design assignments so you can ask questions about the spec.

To preface this, I've had bad professors before. but Prof. Srivastava is far and away the worst professor I have ever have the displeasure of being instructed by.

- His class grading scheme is needlessly complicated, always leaving you wondering whether your going to pass or not.

- His lectures barley manage to keep me awake, and I was excited to take this class. Half the class even bothers to show up, he's lucky he isn't teaching to an empty room. He also records and uploads his lectures on a "when I feel like it" basis, so good luck if you have time conflict.

- His piazza posts are grating and unhelpful, most of them can be summed up by the line "read the assignment". I find this funny since to receive credit for piazza posts (yes, part of your grade is dependent on being active on piazza) you need to make at least 50 contributions.

- Speaking of dumb requirements, part of your grade is dependent on attending office hours! Office hour attendance and piazza account for 5% of your total grade.

- The first 5 weeks of the quarter had no assignments/homework to speak of. I'm usually not one to complain about a lack of homework, so what gives? Well, we still had to do a full quarters worth of work (what would the class be graded on?), just dumped in the last 4 weeks, and further concentrated in the final 2 weeks of instruction. What a great way to end off the year!

- His quizzes (some might call them midterms) are unreasonably difficult. Expect the average to be around a 30 to 40%. You won't receive any partial credit for large, multipart questions (obviously). I guess the only saving grace about these quizzes is that they are online and curved. But really, being online is just more justification for making the quizzes even more difficult.

- The design assignments, or really design assignment, was honestly the only part of this class I almost enjoyed. It probably would have been more fun if it wasn't dropped at the end of the quarter, without ANY prior experience in the design software we where meant to use. The single design assignment was supposed to be 2 assignments done throughout the quarter, so that we could gain some experience with the design software before trying the hard stuff. But it wasn't.

- The final was so ridiculously hard, I barely made it out with a working solution. If I hadn't taken multiple CS classes beforehand I don't think the assignment would have been possible. Luckily, your grade is not only dependent on how well you did, but also how well everyone else did! So even if you have a working solution, someone else with a better solution can come along and steal 20% of your grade!

To conclude, I'd like to address the Prof. directly:

Your class sucks, cry about it.

Do not take this class with this professor he is HORRIBLE. His grading policy is absolutely abysmal exactly like the other reviews say. It seems like he is extremely lazy and will not grade quizzes or tests himself and if you want a regrade he will literally brush you off saying you are insulting his intelligence. He is very stubborn and quite frankly should not be teaching this course here. He will insult you if you are trying to get an education by asking "dumb" or "silly" questions and again brush you off. If you are looking at your phone in front of him he will call you out saying that you are distracting everyone, however everyone is literally looking at a screen. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR HE IS HORRIBLE!

worst thing you could do to yourself is take this class with Mani. I honestly learned a lot (but could have learned the same thing in a better manner) but his class format and everything is so mentally draining.

The way this class was taught was deeply flawed. No assignments or homework or anything for the first few weeks and then you get hit with a 1-week project and a quiz. What other reviews said in previous years is right: basically nothing for long spaces of time and then intense projects that take upwards to 20 hours due in a week. This is especially bad during week 10 and finals week. Discussion sections basically teaches you all the material in this class, while lecture just briefly skims over things with no examples. Combine all this with the extreme competitive nature of the class (projects are graded on efficiency, and for project 1 (of 2) if you were more than 10% less efficient than the best design or his, whichever is lower, you start losing points; double the "cost" would mean a 0 on the project even if it is functional) and the class is hell. I really enjoyed the concepts though. Oh also the extremely condescending tone of the professor to any questions asked.

Professor Srivastava is probably one of the most helpful professors that I've met so far at UCLA - he was constantly on Piazza, and willing to answer most of the questions that the students have. His lectures do lack some clarity, but the overall concept becomes clear with a little self-study. My decision of taking this class on P/NP wasn't due to the quality of his teaching though - I accidentally took too many classes, so I changed this class to P/NP so that I don't mess other classes up. If possible, taking this class on letter grade would be the most sensible option since the materials are quite important for EE majors. Like some other posts suggested, I would recommend taking this course with him only if you're someone who truly enjoys digital systems, since he gives out tons of work towards the end of the quarter. Otherwise, taking this course with other professor would alleviate a lot of pressure.

Prof. Srivastava was very passionate about teaching. He puts in effort to hold extra office hours and responds to Piazza questions extremely quickly, sometimes very bluntly but still gets the point across well. Towards the middle of the course pacing ramped up and quizzes were definitely hard, but grading scheme was generous and TAs helped a lot with projects. Participation was counted if you showed up to class or office hours or posted on Piazza, pretty sure everyone got full marks. Would recommend his class but definitely be ready to put in the work and be patient!

Honestly it really depends- if you are an EE major and really interested in digital system stuff, then be prepared for hard work and go ahead and take this class. But if you are a CS major just taking this class to fulfill requirements- then wait for another professor's M51A or M16 PLEASE. Mani is a super nice guy and very very passionate about teaching. His lectures are really inspirational and he interacts a lot with students via piazza, answering almost all questions on his own. He is super willing to help, so take him if you are really interested in the topic.

OK here let's see something about the course. The first 7 or 8 weeks of the quarter is nice- almost no homework, only things to do is understand what is going on in lectures. But the last two weeks are driving me crazy. There is a project due every week in the last few weeks, not including the finals week since there is another final project.. It really takes a lot of time and efforts, especially when everybody is under the stress of other finals, etc. For the quizzes, I think the professor is really expecting you to go though every corner of the class materials carefully. And the time is very very tight- something around 30 min 15 questions.

This class was very tough, but also very rewarding. Professor Mani put in a lot of work to transition the class to the online format, and it definitely shows. Expect to spend a lot of time on the design assignments, especially the later ones. The quizzes were very tough, but the curve was generous as most of us got lot scores. I would recommend reading the textbook, as the lecture draws a lot from the chapters, and it helps to get exposed to the concepts twice, especially later in the quarter when it gets more complicated. During this online quarter, there were multiple grading schemes, and the best grade overall was chosen. I learned a lot from this class, and Professor Mani is a great teacher.

Mani's M16 is a lot of work. This was the first class EVER to make me cry, although that might have been from the pandemic. Still can't believe how stressful this class was for me and made me feel like I was failing until I saw that final grade. He expects hard work from his students but also works really hard himself. He's willing to hold extra office hours over zoom to answer questions and help you debug. His quizzes are a timed disaster, but in the end they won't hurt your final grade too much, as he has many grading schemes choices. His lectures can be a little long to sit through but they are worth the time. The projects can take very VERY long, so really do start early. Overall, this class is one of the more organized ones I took this online quarter (but also made me cry)