Pros: Korf has been teaching for 35 years here and explains the concepts really clearly. He's fun in teaching and super helpful. He replies to questions on discord immediately. Grading only contains 9 HWs, no pressure for exams.

Cons: Korf's teaching is by giving out rhetorical questions and waiting for the one correct answer as the concept he wants to cover. This often takes too long. HWs are too complicated and time-consuming, asking you to design a vending machine or a calculator from scratch. They usually take me 10-hrs and 12-pages to finish, and gotta do this weekly. W8 HW on the other lec is the same as the one we did in H3, unbelivable.

Terrorist. Homeworks took forever, lectures were not clear. Save your time, take Abari if you can.

Korf is the worst professor I have ever taken a class with. Avoid at all costs.

lecture: mostly participation based. obviously you don't have to participate, but it definitely improves your knowledge and understanding for the homework

discussion: optional, mostly reviews lecture material

exams: since this quarter was online, there were no exams.

homework: your grade is basically based on homework. this can be a blessing or curse, since messing up one homework can put your grade at risk. however, they are all definitely doable and the TAs are always willing to help.

rich was the goat. he's probably one of the best lecturers in the cs department; the lectures were interesting and engaging. the lectures were also built from the ground-up, meaning you have the foundational knowledge for everything you learn. since the class is taught in such a cumulative fashion, it's also important to understand everything as you learn. you know rich teaches well, since it feels like the course curriculum was written by him. if you take this class and there are no exams, just beware of the homework, since that is your entire grade. also, this class pairs pretty nicely with cs33, so would recommend taking together if you have the chance. overall, amazing professor, definitely recommend for everyone.

Unfortunately, exams are back. Midterm was easier with the median around 90 and the final was harder with the median around 57. Homework grades across the board were bumped up due to the TA strike (less nitpicky than usual). I believe he did curve a bit at the end.

Overall, definitely recommend taking this class. His lectures were engaging and clear. If you understand everything in the lectures and homework, it should be possible to get a good grade.

Look no further, the absolute best CS class you'll ever take at UCLA is here. If you have the chance to be blessed with Rich's wisdom, you must take it without a second thought. This class is what we pay our overpriced tuition for. it truly embodies everything right about a college class.

I came into class with no clue what the course was even going to be about, but it grew to become my favorite almost immediately. Professor Korf is so funny and is an incredibly clear teacher, even over Zoom. With another professor's M51A class I feel like I would have gotten bored and stopped paying attention, but Rich is extremely engaging, tells funny jokes and hilarious stories, and just has a knack for teaching that I can't quite explain in words. It's something that is only equaled by Carey's CS 32, as both classes just made you feel like you were almost listening to stories as opposed to a lot of boring classes where lecture is purely about scribbling down all the notes as fast as possible.

The assignments in this class are also really helpful, and in our quarter our grade was 100% assignment-based. It was really cool to see how things build on top of each other – for example in the second assignment we do k-maps and later on in the class, we have assignments where we do k-maps again, except by then you realize that you've gotten so much more familiar with doing them that it takes 10x less time than when you did them for Assignment 2. Since the entire class is cumulative, it's important to not fall behind, which is something that Korf says every lecture too.

I thought the contents of the class were going to be super dry, and in a way they are kind of dry if you have zero interest in the low-level stuff. Personally I'm not super interested in low-level stuff, but this course really helped me appreciate how simple everything boils down to. Stuff like memory which seemed to me like it would be impossible to understand turns out to be built through just combining some really simple building block elements. The class kind of felt like learning how to build one awesome Lego machine, where every lecture you add some more pieces to the puzzle and at the end you combine them all together to build a functioning computer, which is super cool to me even though it's not something I'm super interested in.

A few things to note though. The no exam format was just because of the remote learning, so if you're taking this class in person in the future it's probably not going to be that way. Having said that, the assignments should remain the same, and they really helped you learn the material so hopefully the exams won't be too insane to tackle. Also make sure to ask him for stories, he's always got good ones to tell. Enjoy!!

Professor Korf is amazing. The class is hard, but by the end of the quarter, I feel like I really understand the material. That feeling of trying to comprehend, and design machines from the ground up is just amazing. He recorded his lecture, so I watched the lectures very carefully to make sure I understood all the concepts presented. Recommended for everyone, this class with Korf will be a great introduction to how you should approach and study computer science.

Professor Korf is certainly an old white man set in his ways. This doesn't stop him from teaching an excellent class here, though. Lectures are quite clearly laid out (if moving at a quick pace), and the content is fascinating in my opinion. You start with basic logic (and/or/not/etc.), start drawing circuits, start abstracting those circuits, and by the end of the class you've designed not only a basic CPU but you've fundamentally understood how assembly language code is translated into raw logic on hardware. That is, you've understood the line between hardware and software. If that doesn't make you giddy, then yes, Abari might be better for you; he goes at a slower pace and doesn't cover quite as much. But if you'd be sad to miss out on that culminating topic I just explained (since Abari doesn't go that far), I cannot recommend Korf more.
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Some other notes. Homework is challenging but rewarding when done (and quite cool to look at!), while also being a fun logic puzzle. Korf's lectures encourage participation, and I'd highly recommend participating! Tests are straightforward if you understood lecture and homework. As I mentioned in the first sentence, his way of explaining won't work for everyone, and for those people the class is a helluva lot more challenging (just from listening to other's complaints). In that case, definitely ask your TA for help, since Korf is often bad at explaining in different words.

Korf is a decent lecturer. That's where the pros end.
If the homeworks don't make you wanna kill yourself, the exams will. Each homework would take you hours of scratching your head in confusion (except maybe the first 2), he teaches basic theoretical topics in class and expects us to design high-level industrial circuit designs.
It could have been a fun class but Korf does everything in his power to make sure it isn't. Save yourselves, don't take it with Korf

Korf is a decent lecturer. That's where the pros end.
If the homeworks don't make you wanna kill yourself, the exams will. Each homework would take you hours of scratching your head in confusion (except maybe the first 2), he teaches basic theoretical topics in class and expects us to design high-level industrial circuit designs.