Honestly I can barely tell you a thing I learned in this class but somehow I pulled off a grade I am happy with and didn't struggle too much along the way. Prof. is extremely kind, funny, and means well... just did not learn much likely given I took the 101 series before the 100 or 102 which is my own fault. You don't have to go to class, but I did since he only posts unannotated slides.

Anyways breakdown is as follows:
30% homework (5x 6% each) - coding of class concepts I did in python
40% midterm - in person exam consisting of multiple choice, true/false, short answer, proofs, general problems
30% final project - ours was on NBA data, pretty cool but can be tough with a random group if you don't know people in the class

I definitely recommend to take since he grades off of class rank which obvi is how I got a decent grade despite struggling on the midterm (0-10% A+, 10-30% A, 30-70% A-, 70-80% B+, 80-90% B, 90-100% B- or lower). Plus you will have some good laughs along the way if you go to class.

Very easy class, but I learned nothing. Lectures were pretty useless as they focused on highly theoretical concepts with very little practical applications. There was also very little room to learn during the homework assignments because they were a joke. This was disappointing as I anticipated this class to be one of the most important ones I would take. We didn't have a final exam and virtually had no homework. However, Shirong is very nice and I like him as a person. This was also his first time teaching a class at UCLA I believe, so I think with extra preparation on his part, he could teach this class in more applicable way in the future.