This was by far the best class with the best professor I’ve taken at UCLA so far! Professor Nader assigned a lot of work, but he gave the majority good grades. I felt I was able to learn a lot without worrying too much about grades. This class felt like the gold standard of what all classes should be like.

- CLASS STRUCTURE: The class includes topics like ISAs, pipelining, out-of-order execution, memory design, and multicore systems. Each topic builds on the previous topic & the homework/projects directly supplement what is taught. The assignments were pretty well spread out, so I did not feel that I was under a lot of stress (although material and workload did get a little heavier toward the end of the quarter). We used Campuswire in this class to ask questions & contact the professor/TAs.
- PROFESSOR: Professor Sehat was an amazing professor. He was good at communicating with the students (via Campuswire) and was super accommodating to student needs. He also had a generous grading scale & gave out a lot of extra credit. He made sure that students can learn effectively without making it too stressful.
- LECTURES: The lectures are all recorded. He tends to read off the slides directly, but that is not that big of an issue since his slides were very good (he also puts memes in them). He also provides a lot of examples that relate directly with the homework and quizzes.
- DISCUSSIONS: Both TAs for this class were great. I had Louis Delhez, who was awesome at summarizing what we learned in the past week. He also gave pretty good examples and was very helpful for the homeworks/project. This is one of the classes where it is absolutely worth going to discussions for. The other TA Justin Feng was also very nice and helpful on Piazza.
- PROJECTS (35%): We had 2 projects (although 3 were planned). Project 1 was about building a pipelined processor. Project 2 was about implementing various types of caches. You can use either C or C++ for both projects. Even though starter code and traces were given, I suggest that you start the projects early because they can take quite a long time. However, they are not difficult and correspond with the lectures very well.
- HOMEWORK (30%): Fairly straightforward, but can take quite a bit of time. He drops your lowest homework if you get above 50%.
- QUIZZES (35%): We did not have any midterms or finals in that class, but we did have 4 quizzes. The first quiz was pretty hard, but the other 3 were not that bad (he also made the last 2 quizzes open-note, which was really helpful). He drops your lowest quiz that is above 50% as well.

Lectures: He records his online lecture so you can check his site to see the lecture and the slides for yourselves. I think that his slides was very good, some of them have memes in them. I think that he can probably incorporate more example relating to homework and quizzes in the lecture. Also, I think he doesn't talk about the project enough.
Homework (30%): I think most of the question is straightforward, and some questions similar to the example given in lecture. But it will probably take a while to get through so I suggest starting them ASAP so you can ask question in your discussion section for those that you are stuck on. He drops the lowest homework that is at least 50%. Although this quarter he allow us to drop the lowest homework (regardless of the grade we get on the lowest homework).
Quizzes (35%): We didn't have any midterm or final for this class, but we have 4 quizzes. I think that the quizzes was pretty challenging given the time constraint. Although the last 2 quizzes was open-note, which was really helpful. The last one seems to be easier compare to the rest. He drop your lowest quiz that is at least 50%.
Projects (35%): Originally, he planned to have 3 projects but we ended up only doing 2. The first one was implement a pipelined processor and the second one was implementing cache. We can use C/C++ for the project . He gives us a trace (sample test) and some skeleton code. I think that the project correspond with the lecture well and you can refer to the slide if you forget the concept. I suggest to start the project early since it take a long time to finish them.
Discussion: I think that both TAs for this classes were great as they were really helpful on Campuswire and always staying on top of Campuswire questions. I had Justin Feng discussion, I think he was really helpful to help us understand the project/homework and always willing to answer student question in discussion. I suggest going to the discussion as it can help you a lot.
Extra credit: For this quarter, he gives 5% for attending discussion (which you should really do even if there is no extra credit) and answering question on Campuswire. Also, he gave a 5% bonus to the second quiz if 80% of the classes answered the mid-quarter survey and 5% on our quiz averages for if 80% of the class answered the instructor evaluation. To make up for the fact that there is no project 3, we were given the choice of implementing a L2 cache in exchange for either getting a bonus points of 20 on project 2 or having your lowest quiz dropped (regardless of the grade we got)
I think that by far, this is the best class I have taken at UCLA. Professor Sehatbakhsh give a lot of hard work. But we were able to learn a lot without worrying about my grades. Especially with his generous extra credit and grading policy. Also, he is also willing to accommodate student request (he extended some deadline which helped us a lot). Also, he was always able to stay on top of Campuswire discussion. I would suggest take him if you can

Dr. Sehat is one of the best instructors I’ve ever had at UCLA. His lectures and presentations are incredibly organized and clear. He is not only knowledgeable but also caring and approachable, making it easy for students to reach out for help.

The class includes three projects, each of which is cool and engaging, adding to the learning experience. You never feel overwhelmed in his class because he ensures a balanced workload—there’s either a homework or a project due, never both in the same week.

We had three exams: two midterms and a cumulative final. Although the grading can be a bit strict, it is always fair. Dr. Sehat's course is perfect for students who genuinely want to learn and enjoy the process at the same time.

His lectures are Bruincast, which is super helpful for reviewing material. Additionally, homework and exams from previous years are made available, providing excellent resources for preparation and extra practice. Homework assignments are graded based on completion, which encourages effort and consistency.

If you want a class that is both educational and enjoyable, this is the one for you!

Relatively easy class with great lectures. As a CS major who isn't very interested in hardware, I still felt like the class was worthwhile and I learned a lot. There were completion graded homeworks that were extremely relevant to the exams, and 3 in-class open-internet exams that felt very fair. There were 2 coding assignments, which aren't too difficult but are time consuming.

Cool and very understanding professor. Taught classes clearly and provides past HWs and quizzes that you can practice with.

Grading is based on two programming assignments, 3 quizzes, several homeworks, and participation. The homeworks are graded on completion but are very similar to the quizzes. The two programming assignments take less time to complete compared to other CS class's projects (118, 35L, 33, etc.). For participation you need campuswire points or to go to 70% of lectures.

The quizzes were very reasonable and Nader was (in my opinion), a very lenient teacher. He made the quizzes open-Internet/open-book. He extended project due dates because people asked for an extension on Campuswire. He drops a HW grade despite them being graded on completion. I somehow got an A- despite scoring in the 70s for all 3 quizzes (not because they were hard, but because I am stupid). Overall an extremely chill teacher who made the class material very engaging.

10/10s all around for this man. He is an amazing lecturer, breaks down complex concepts so well, and has one of the most forgiving grading schemes ever. He structures the class in a way where no single exam or homework would break your grade so that you always have a chance to recover in the class. He does not keep a final for the class, instead he breaks up the exams into 3 quizzes. Now the breakdown of the class:

PARTICIPATION: about 5% of your grade is based on participation but you can achieve that by either just attending lectures or discussion or answering and asking 2 or 3 questions on Campuswire

PROJECTS: together about 30% of our grade. Super clear, fun, and chill to do. The first one takes a bit of work (but it isn't hard at all) and the second project is very straightforward. Grading on these projects are also super student friendly where you can know your score on the autograder on Gradescope as soon as you turn it in and can keep turning it in to get a full score!

QUIZZES: There are 3 of them, 15% each. If you do the homework, the practice exams, and study the material well enough the quizzes should not be too bad! The quizzes are also open book and open internet.

HOMEWORK: Based on completion, not correctness! 1 is dropped too!

The best computer science class I have ever taken at UCLA without doubt.

Prof. Sehat is a really good professor and this class is really engaging with a minimum but meaningful workload. I would definitely recommend Prof. Sehat for this class

most ppl find this class very easy. i didnt bc i hate low-level so studying and paying attention to lecture were pretty dreadful for me (lec is recorded but even that was difficult for me most of the time). the HW concepts came from lecture, but how to do the HW itself was not too clear most of the time. you really had to rely on looking at old HWs or the TAs (limited) discussion videos (there were no official discussion sections in this course, the TAs would upload an asynchronous vid each week), but even those were kind of limited. i personally had a hard time figuring out how to do the HW myself. that being said, if you understand the HW well, you'll be pretty fine for the quizzes. there are 3, non-cumulative quizzes that are about 80-90m. the quizzes are conducted in-class but theyre online (password-protected pdf). the grading scheme is as follows:

10% HW (graded on completeness)
30% over 3 projects (not necessarily uniform)
60% over 3 quizzes (20% each uniformly)

there were a few extra credit opportunities for participating on campuswire, on project2, and submitting course evaluations. the quiz graders were pretty lenient and generous imo. the projects werent too bad, but the 3rd project was rly killing me (so your mileage may vary). it was implementing an LRU-based MOESIF cache coherency protocol in C++ and i really feel like the lecture and discussion material on the MOESIF cache coherency protocol was not adequate at all. the quizzes never rly tested you on stuff from the projects. he posted previous quarters' HWs and quizzes, and they were good study material (but it was never enough for me). bear in mind, a lot of difficulty i faced in this class was just having the desire to care for it but i could not bc i genuinely hate low-level programming so much but this whole class is about computer architecture. i still would never take the cs m151b version of this course, bc nader was an amazing prof. would i take this class again? no. am i happy i took this class w nader? yes. i also wouldnt worry too much about whether or not youll get this class bc there are always sm seats offered and hes open to PTE

class is recorded, so no need to attend class in person
3 quiz in place of midterm/final
weekly paper reading
2 small projects
overall pretty chill and interesting, would recommend