I understand this is his first year teaching. However, he is very unresponsive to campus wire posts asking for more information. He also does not go in depth in his lectures on the topics in any sort of way. Solved examples are few and far between. I may be overreacting as this is the first few weeks, but few resources seem to be provided to learn.

Professor often comes unprepared and not ready to teach class. Recitations feel like a goose chase, where he is constantly confused on how to solve the problems he wrote. Struggles to confidently answer questions. I have years of experience in algorithms... yet somehow leave confused on topics I am knowledgeable in.

Professor comes to class entirely unprepared and seems like he is trying to figure out the lecture notes alongside us. Sometimes, his notes are even wrong and he has to change them. He posts recitation worksheets

Professor is difficult to follow along with and presentations are unclear.

Prof Varma seems like a very smart person, and even could be a good teacher--if his curriculum wasn't so garbage. What we learn in class seems entirely disconnected from the homework, with little in the way of actual, practical examples. Most of the class will be learning on your own and consulting other sources where prev sections did not have to

Get ready to teach yourself the entire curriculum because what he attempts to teach in class will be entirely different than what is given in homeworks and written assessments.

He literally can't teach. That's it. Also had people who had him in the past & they said they always went to the other prof's lectures instead. He's the only option this semester so!...

I'm literally going to be teaching myself the algo curriculum, he just reads paragraphs off his slides. Waste of time going to his lectures, you'd benefit more by studying on your own.

This teacher has no idea what he's doing. He gets mad when people don't ask questions, but gets even angrier when you ask one. The lectures are mostly him reading directly off the slides, and the material he covers doesn't really prepare you for the quizzes or homework, so you're left to teach yourself everything.

I took this summer of 2025, it was not a good class. Basically ruined my summer. The lectures teach you very minimal material. I would not know how to solve any problems. He never shows and teaches us example problems and quiz problems, so basically it's a guess game. Find a tutor on Knack who took the class, that's my suggestion.

I don't think I've ever spent this long doing homework before and been completely clueless. Have never written a review before but this felt warranted given just how bad an experience this has been. 1+ month into classes and still no feedback or grades on quizzes or homework.

Getting scores back takes... forever. Lectures are constantly riddled with errors. We cover non-helpful example problems, as they too are also filled with mistakes and problems. Can confidently read off a slide... but not confidently get information across to the students. Wouldn't recommend.

Still no grades yet over a month into the class. His lectures don't cover anything of use and are often riddled with errors. Gotta come back to the fact that we haven't gotten a single HW or quiz back yet--what are we doing here.

Asks if anyone has questions and proceeds to get mad when someone actually asks a question. Wish there was something that could be done about this because there are about 500 kids taking this class and struggling.

I don't know what to say. You will have to take him if you anything tech major. He's the only algorithms and data structures professor at Northeastern University. I would say from day one, go hard and try to understand the material. If you don't do that, you're screwed. Go to every office hours and find tutors on Knack. That's the only way to pass.

The professor presents topics in class which have little relation to the homework or quizzes given. He does not like people asking questions but gets mad when no one asks questions. The expectations for all assignments are unclear. Finally he gives no info on the type of questions quizzes will have.

This prof is not real

if he is the only prof available for a class you need to take, drop out.

The professors notes and lectures do not help at all in the class while being the hardest CS class I have taken at Northeastern.

I have never spent this much time on a homework. The lectures are not helpful to complete the homework.

I think this dude actually finds joy out of wanting people to ask questions and then immediately shutting them down like they are the dumbest person alive. Horrible lectures; horrible grading schedule. Dude single-handedly has turned my somewhat easy work load into what feels like 5 or 6 classes. Run as fast as you can. He haunts my dreams.

Hates answering questions, will straight up laugh at poorly framed ones. Homework takes numerous hours per week, and is incredibly difficult. Doesn't even attempt to make course material interesting, or make lectures engaging. Avoid him like the plague.

The practice midterm reads more like a final. It's 16 pages with over 10 algorithms to develop and three proofs, and there is definitely not enough time to complete it.

At what point does making students stay up egregiously late solving impossible problems, hurting their wellbeing (because he took a shortcut and didn't want to take the time to prove his own problems he made) become a larger issue that should be addressed by the university?

Professor Varma's Algos course is a very badly structured mess which is unacceptable for a course that is a critical part of the curriculum for so many majors, especially when he is the only one who offers this course. He expects that students just understand the material after his lecture and is very hard to contact outside of lecture/recitations.

Professor consistently assigns work, solutions, and reviews written by him, unproven, and filled with errors and mistakes. Makes it extremely difficult to learn and understand the material.

Lecutres weren't real, he would just read from the slides. The material was very difficult to understand and the tests were way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances.!

Good luck in this class. I would just suggest skipping this class until they remove him as a professor

difficult to learn from and is often passive-aggressive when students ask questions, doesn't promote a very positive or productive learning environment.

Lectures are completely unhelpful. He reads directly off the slides without adding any real explanation, and it often feels like he doesn't understand the material himself. His teaching style makes it impossible to follow the course content, and it's frustrating that someone this ineffective is still allowed to teach. He should be removed.

i dont even take his class but my roommate keeps crashing out over him

I love this professor. Is Prudential high enough.

I sign up for rate my professor just to rate this professor. He doesn't know what he is doing most of the time. And very unclear lecture and assume that you know everything.

Consistently posts resources and slides filled with mistakes and errors. Has TAs double check everything but I'm convinced this isn't done thoroughly enough and it's done poorly.

as a person he's funny and clearly trying, however he has a lot to work on as a professor. his lectures are very fast paced and hard to keep up with and he doesn't respond well to questions. he writes all the questions and solutions for everything on his own so there's errors. i feel like i know the same amount about algorithms now as in august. :(

i am frustrated with this professor. Questions are not welcome and he gets mad at students for not understanding. He teaches like we all have our PHD and goes extremely fast. Not to mention homework questions and practice solutions are full of errors because he cannot be bothered to check his own work. 500 students are going to fail because of him!

Professor Varma may be knowledgeable, but his lectures are disorganized and unengaging. He discourages questions despite claiming otherwise and shows little regard for student feedback. Without generous grading, students will fail due to the lack of support, unclear expectations, and assumption of knowledge most students don't have.

Group jump off IV when?

Im not in this class but my roommates are, and i honestly and the stress this professor is causing them is causing me stress and for that reason i made an account to rate. currently trying to keep them from jumping off IV.

Nice guy but a horrid teacher. Grading is extremely slow and attending lectures is pretty much a waste of time.

Only Prof. Varma, and Lord Vishnu have the divine intuition necessary to solve the problems in this class.

The most disorganized and confusing course I've taken. The lectures failed to clarify material, and assignments took weeks to be graded. The classroom environment felt especially discouraging, as questions were met with dismissive and unhelpful responses. Prof Varma's teaching style made it difficult to reach out for help and even harder to learn.

He's a nice guy and I'm sure he knows algo very well but he can not teach. Lectures have no relevance to solving actual problems.

President Donald Trump, please fire this professor. "Akshar Varma, you are fired!" - Donald Trump

Do not take Algo with him.

Anyone else cooked for this midterm tomorrow?

im not in this class but my bf is crashing out over it and clearly so is everyone else lol

Thank you thank you thank you (Please give me an A)

I wonder at what critical threshold of the entire class not understanding and not being successful means anything to this university or to this professor that maybe the teaching style, the teacher, ANYTHING, needs to change.

the midterm is today and not one person i know in the class feels remotely ready, confident, or in any way prepared. the fact that so many students do not feel ready reflects solely on the professor and nobody else. he is responsible for this, everyone i know is working insanely hard on the side to learn the materials because he is not helpful

i never rate professors yet, i felt compelled to drop a review for this prof. he is unorganized, posts incorrect solutions and unsolvable problems. he sighs and groans at questions and is very sassy & sarcastic. learning doesn't feel welcome, but feels rushed and like an inconvenience to him. studied for 40+ hours for midterm still going to fail.

holy that midterm was bad

> Teaches through unclear slides and disorganized lectures missing critical content > Baits class into asking questions > Gives a dismissive answer > Assigns an extremely difficult PSet with problems that feel (and literally are) impossible to solve. > TAs don't even know how to solve them > We take the midterm, it's just as bad > It's over

Midterm was incredibly difficult, comparable question difficulty to homework problems that take hours per week to solve completely. Massive time crunch to complete all parts well, only a small fraction of class completed in time.

The definition of insanity.

prof is in his villain arc.

inspiring me to switch majors

So the midterm I did well because I watch a YouTube channel named take U forward. You can also Google "Strivers A2Z DSA Course by take U forward". He's way better than Abdul Bari, since he teaches you how to code the problems which helped so much on the pseudocodes on the midterm exam. He has playlists of DP and Greedy on YouTube, very good videos.

Run as far away as you can. Terrible professor. Not accessible outside class, don't respond to emails, exams don't coincide with material thought in lecture. Try to take it from someone else.

This guy genuinely cannot teach. If he is the only option for a class in one of your semesters, just delay it. The lecture before the midterm, hes busy making 6-7 jokes and talking about his handwriting while people are failing. The only way to get through this class is serious amounts of grind through youtube and other external study sources.

At this point, I've got used to him. There is nothing to complain about, since that's what he is. The midterm was a flunk, but it's whatever. Sometimes in life, it's hard.

I don't know what to say. Theory of Computation at Northeastern University is even harder. At least, I'm grateful that this class teaches me how to prepare for hard classes.

The midterm exam proves everything in this class doesn't relate to anything. Yes, I understand he posted a "practice midterm exam". 0% of it was related to the actual midterm exam. He makes errors on the midterm and proceeds to not correct it, basically leaving us all confused of the actual answer. He's another Sleepy Joe Biden 2.0.

The worst prof Ive EVER had. Midterm was disgusting. He doesnt answer questions, as in will say "anyways" and walk away. Can't pass this class w/ his "teaching." Ruins my day to see him. Weekly quizzes and long hw that dont relate to the lectures. Hes actively trying to ruin my GPA and my semester. I hope youre religious bc only God can help u.

genuinely the worst professor I've ever had. please save yourself. When I registered for this class with this prof, there was no rate my professor created for him so I left it up to god atp bc I needed this class to graduate on time GOD WILL NOT SAVE YOU! I REPEAT.. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UP TO FATE, GOD OR LUCK. i wish someone had warned me b4.

It's Friday night and my roommate is still studying for this class. She's literally going crazy about this class. She's that scared. We're both watching the World Series Game 1 and she has a notebook and pencils while studying and doing work for this class. She hugs me literally everyday and cries so much for this class.

i'm literally so confused on his slides. it's all theory simple stuff but there's no relation to it when approaching the problems. i have no thoughts in my mind

Not a fantastic time in this class, if it isn't already evident by the extremely large number of negative reviews for Professor Varma. Many students are struggling including myself, as this is such a foundational and core class to the CS curriculum at Northeastern. NEU has strong CS rankings, and he does not represent that ranking in any manner.

Realistically, if you do not have a lot of time spent on Leetcode and if you don't know algorithms beforehand... good luck, this is a near impossible class for you. He does NOT teach or post problem solutions - how you do it is up to you, and if you do it wrong you get penalized. You are a labrat getting carrot and sticked lol. Take another prof.

Who else is dropping this class?

I don't think he is a very good professor, and he doesn't seem very knowledgeable about CS 3000. His lectures and notes aren't very helpful, and they don't feel connected to the weekly quizzes or the exams. Even if you attend the lectures and read the notes, you may not find much success in his class.

don't take this class with professor varma

He is so disorganized that regrade requests made 2 months ago still haven't been completed