Nice, friendly guy. The first half of the class is a bit slow, but the later half is interesting. The tests unfortunately require a lot of memorization, but also some thinking. The later projects are interesting and fairly challenging. No book required, which is nice.

Good teacher, very clear. Class was a little too easy and almost a little tedious at times, but that may have just been me.

Loved this class and Dr. Young was really helpful.

Dr. Young is a boring a dry lecturer, but other than that is a solid professor. Reading out of the textbook is important, but generally tests and assignments are fair.

He is the best professor I have ever had. He is interested in student's learning. Labs are supper hard but it it expected in CS! If you put some effort you can do really well in this class and learn a lot for the future. Loved it!

Boring lecturer, and sometimes he gets confused on what he's talking about. Regardless, he's a super nice guy and it's obvious he cares about his students. The material itself is hard, but the textbook is super helpful, so make sure to read it often.

Very nice, approachable guy. Lectures are 2 hours long and very dull however. Labs were fun, and while difficult and time consuming they were very rewarding. Only problem is that he didn't understand much outside of what's on his tests. Not a problem if you just want a good grade, but frustrating if you ask anything that's too advanced.

Bill Young is a caring and approachable professor. Lectures can be pretty boring, but that's probably just the material. He speaks very clearly and answers all questions. You'll have a good idea of what to expect on the tests, as he dedicates a day to ask questions for each one.

Wonderful professor. He's always there to work with his students, and he always wants his kids to do well. Remember, you need to earn the grade in his class so you need to work hard. Start labs early, too!

Not the easiest class but it could be a lot harder. He does a good job explaining the material and if he can't answer a question that comes up in class, 9 times out of 10 he'll get an answer for it within a week. Really nice and had some great TAs.

For those who didn't like his teaching in 429, and thought that he got confused often, don't let that deter you from taking his security class. Security is his passion, and he knows so much about it. He got confused like once or twice, and that was mainly because the student had worded their question weirdly. Projects are fun, and you learn a lot.

Go to class or you will fail. Expect to pay attention during lectures and do lots of reading outside of class. Homeworks are relatively easy. Labs are difficult only if you procrastinate. Tests are straightforward and medium difficulty if you studied. Okay lecturer and someone I don't mind listening to for 2 hours. 10/10.

Good teacher. Not hard to get an A

Great lecturer who knows his stuff. Bi-weekly labs are a pain in the butt and take a long time, but they really teach you the material. No pop quizzes until the last 2 weeks (which most people bombed both of them). Not a class that requires any participation. Study groups are highly recommended.

The class for our semester was a lot tougher than previous semesters. Young teaches everything that you need on the exams though exams can be rough. The labs in the class are time-consuming and require a lot of work. Pop quizzes are tough if you don't study outside of class. Young is a great lecturer and nice guy, but don't take it in the morning.

Lectures can be a bit dull/confusing but the tests aren't bad if you review the slides well. Pop quizzes can be tough, but they're a small portion of the grade. The first lab (Bit lab) is notoriously difficult, but the rest are manageable. Bill is a very nice and caring guy, and if you're close to a certain grade cutoff, he'll bump up.

He is a great professor overall. The course is pretty difficult but his grading style makes it easier. Make sure to read the textbook and all his slides before the exams. Labs are basically free 100, as long as you pass all the tests he gives before you turn it in.

Though his lectures are somewhat boring, he explains the material well. Just reading the slides is enough to get a good grade on the exams. The coding assignments are relatively easy, though kinda difficult to start because the instructions aren't clear and he isn't very knowledgeable about them. Stay on top of the material for pop quizzes.

The content can be extremely boring for people that want to work at a higher abstraction level, but Bill Young grades leniently and makes the content easy to digest by making all the necessary info available on the slides. As an aside, Bill Young is an amazing person, and if you need support from a professor, he would be a great choice.

Solid class. I felt that I learned what I needed to. Also, he was really nice and didn't make the content harder than it needed to be, which I appreciated. Slightly boring lectures at time, but that was more the course than the professor.

super boring lectures but it's not his fault comp architecture is so dry. Class was hard but getting an A isn't too bad if you put in effort bc he gives u the grading program for each lab (unlike mike). Study old tests and tbh read the book to do well in the class. Overall super nice guy but DO NOT talk/be disruptive during lecture!! I'm warning u.

Really caring and awesome guy. He has a passion for security, so he teaches well and his lectures are interesting. His labs are also interesting but not too time consuming, and his homework assignments/exams are all fair in difficulty. Highly recommend taking any class with Dr. Young!

Lectures can be pretty dry, but that's more due to the material at hand, and it got more interesting as the semester went on. Exams are easy, labs take some time but you have all the test cases so you know your grade. Aside, Dr. Young is an insanely nice dude and obviously cares about his students a lot

Really caring professor, lectures tend to be pretty boring (not completely his fault though) just hard to sit through 2 hours of computer arch. Exams honestly get easier throughout the semester and the final is optional. Labs/HW make up half your final grade so as long as you don't slack pretty easy to get 100s on labs/hw.

Not gonna lie, I was clueless in the first few weeks, but as the semester progressed, this class became so incredibly interesting. Sure, the material is dense but I felt happiness as I began to understand how a computer actually works. Great lecturer, labs can be somewhat challenging, weekly homeworks are medium. Would retake in a heartbeat.

"What tha haleees in %rdx" is probably how to summarize the class. I love Bill and he loves you. Material is as dry as your mouth after sitting in the cramped lecture hall for two hours straight, but Bill gets the information across well. Tests are okay and his grading is very very leniant. Labs are okay and can be fun (except bits.c ... bleh)

Dr. Young is a good professor. The lectures can be long and dry, but he actively tries to keep students engaged. His security course wasn't great, too focused on policy without enough practical security exposure. Clearly knowledgeable in this field. We had 6 projects and 2 exams, which made up at least 80% of the grade.

He's a very nice professor but there's only so many interesting things to learn about architecture that it's often dry as a desert. As long as you pass the test cases provided for labs you'll get a 100. Tests aren't that bad, although T/F and multiple-choice can trip you up if you don't know the material that well.

Bill is a great guy. If you take time to meet with him out of class, he genuinely cares about you. Knows his stuff. Class is straightforward, and you have the option to take all three midterms and skip the final if you want.

For someone who has never coded before, Professor Young's class is a very good choice. All of the lecture material was asynchronous this semester, so if you enjoy that you will like the class. While you will have to try to get a good grade, there are lots of TA office hours if you need help and some extra credit. I would recommend!

Ok here is the thing, he is a great professor and a great guy... but not for CS303. He's one of those professors who is so knowledgable about his topic and field, that he has a hard time communicating and teaching students who have never opened anything related to coding, you have to teach yourself a lot, but it's not bad!

Taking this class online during COVID was hard, but Dr. Young was really caring and understanding. Our class didn't do very well on the first exam and he was generous enough to allow us to take a makeup exam. There were weekly HWs, 3 projects, and lots of extra credit opportunities. The TAs are helpful and questions on Piazza are answered promptly.

A great intro to comp sci! Weekly homework and a few projects that were a bit challenging but super possible and relevant with what we were learning. I feel great about the my future comp sci courses b/c this class taught a lot of the essentials it seems for a beginner like me! I do however think exams were a bit unfair for the difficulty did spike

I really enjoyed this class. I had no prior experience with coding and felt that I learned a ton in this course. I utilized the TA office hours, which happened at nearly every hour of the day, and I always ended up fine. Some of the assignments were challenging but definitely doable. You just have to be willing to ask for help, and not give up!

The class was hard but everyone knows it is. I learned a lot due to the copious amounts of work. The time crunch on exams is bad, but it's really not as terrible as many people exaggerate it to be (avg 80s). The TAs help a lot and were accommodating to my personal circumstances. Overall no surprises, just work.

Don't be scared by all the negative reviews! The class wasn't easy in the sense that no prep was needed for exams but he covers EVERYTHING you need for exams/homeworks in his lectures. Take notes and do all the extra practice. Don't rely on just the slides. Yes, the grading was slow but it's somewhat understandable for a class this big.

This class is fine for an intro to programming course. Dr. Young definitely makes you work for it but as long as you start early on assignments (which he tends to post 2-3 weeks ahead of time) it is doable. The TAs I interacted with were great and the response times on Piazza were fast.

Don't listen to the negative reviews; this was my first computer science class ever and I guarantee as long as you watch the weekly lectures and take notes, do some practice problems-- it's a definite A.

Fairly easy intro class. About 1-2 hours per week. Assignments are given 2-3 weeks before due, so there is plenty of time. Quizzes and exams are exactly what you would expect. Don't listen to all the negative reviews.

Your experience in this course is highly dependent on background. I came in knowing python and spent very little time on this class, but I know that some people coming in with no programming knowledge really struggled and dedicated a LOT of time to assignments and practice problems. It could be helpful to watch some python videos before starting.

don't cheat. he catches everyone who cheated. Do a bunch of practice problems and you should be fine.

I never coded before this class; it depends on how quick you learn the way of thinking. problems are tricky, but with time, doable. There's A LOT of work. Expect 8-10 hrs weekly. 2-3 things due every week (combo of projects, exams, quizzes, HW). Piazza is useful when things get hard. just SO time consuming for an intro course, but not impossible.

People were not joking when they said this class was HARD (I'm an RTF major with no coding experience). Prof Young was not a bad professor, but he assumes that you have the foundation for this class. I took this after not dealing with math in over two years and it was HARD but very rewarding. You will need to spend lots of time studying to do well!

He catches every cheaters in his class, and I extremely like it. He's a nice professor who gives useful feedbacks and advices when you personally reach him. However, this course could be very hard especially for first coding experience. Class materials get exponentially harder after the first half. Get prepared with lots of given practice problems.

Dr. Young provides a lot of practice problems and support with prompt Piazza responses. Only complaint is that assignments took a long time to grade so it was hard to gauge how I was doing in the course.

I went into this class without any previous coding experience, but Dr. Young includes a lot of helpful tips throughout all of the homework assignments and lectures. Exam questions could be very specific so be sure to study the slides. Practice Problems were extremely helpful for quizzes since you knew what to expect.

There are two homeworks every week and a quiz every other week. There are also 3 projects. The content is pretty difficult.

Young's class can be a rude awakening for people who think the CS certificate is easy. I'm not a first-time coder and can still see how the course is challenging. But the syllabus was transparent to me. The assignments, recordings, and lectures were always posted ahead of time so I would do everything in one day every week. Your mileage may vary.

Very sweet guy in person, good at explaining (although this is an intro course), and would definitely take other courses by him if the school made it possible. One thing to note though is that lectures are all online likely due to the large amount of people taking this class, which is a bummer since he's so cool when you get to meet him in person.

My biggest advice is DO THE EXTRA WEEKLY PRACTICES! Exams are SO easy if you can figure all of them out, but not everyone does it. In fact, I saw that only 12 people attempted one of the more recent ones even though hundreds of students are in this course, which says a lot. If you can figure them all out, you will be more than ready for the course.

I've been coding python for 5+ yrs and would've been lost without experience before this class. I scored perfect on all quizzes and HWs (except 1) and found the exams...interesting. A majority of the points came from conceptual MC, True/False, tracing, or remembering to add random vocab words to your note sheet. Only 2-3 coding problems on exams.

Quizzes are very important to succeed in this class, where you only get an hour to solve two coding problems. Exams consist of very niche Python questions, where you have to memorize some very random terms and scenarios in order to be able to answer, some code tracing, and T/F questions; only have two actual coding problems. Do practice problems.

Dr. Young gives very good lectures and explains the content very thoroughly. I had 0 experience with CS before this class, and I scored a 60 on the first test. I did well on homework, quizzes, and the final and ended up getting an A in the class. It is definitely feasible, just keep up with all the work. SI sessions and office hours are helpful.

Young is pretty good, although his lectures can be a little boring or unclear if you have no prior coding experience. He is very accessible outside of class though and if you're planning on taking this class online, just be prepared to take initiative and do a lot of work on your own

CS 303E was very doable with Young, I appreciated the fact that all of the lectures were concise. All of the projects/homeworks weren't to bad. I found the tests to be fairly difficult, he tended to test on a lot of obscure python trivia that wasn't gone over extensively, but as long as you keep up with the HW and Projects, an A is very doable.

He is a great professor and teaches very well. The course requires a lot of work, but It's normal as all other cs courses. There will be a curve after the final exam. I spent about 8-10 hours watching lectures and finishing the assignment every week, sometimes more because of projects.

His lectures are great and he does his best to be available for students through an online platform where you can submit any questions regarding materials in class. He also drops a few assignments to help with your grade. I didn't have any coding experience but managed to get an A. But you need to be willing to learn, if not, don't take this class.

Take the time to learn the content and PRACTICE. His recorded lectures were good and I liked the flexibility of his online course.

Good professor who wants you to succeed. Didn't like that homework deadlines weren't consistent. Check Canvas daily to stay on top of deadlines. Prof and TAs were quick to answer Ed Discussion questions and gave great responses. Do the worksheets, go to office hours, do the extra practice, and watch lecture videos. Plenty of resources to succeed.

super easy class and great professor, very nice but serious about academic dishonesty

If you keep up with the homework and don't wait until the last day to start it's not too bad. If you learn/understand every part of your code for the homework you are set, so don't copy if you want to succeed. I didn't do too good on exams, but his grading policy worked in my favor and everything turned out well.

To succeed in the class, do your homework in a timely fashion. There are moments in the semester where there will be a quiz, homework, and project due in the same week. The class is straightforward and not too complicated. Homeworks are weekly and quizzes are every few weeks, projects are every once in a while.

Online lectures and slides are helpful. Homeworks are very doable, just use logic and keep pace with the class. The 3 projects take longer but can be fun to work out. Handwritten Midterm and Final test you on more detailed and specific intricacies of code rather than just making another program, which hit my grade worse. You get cheat sheets though

Having almost no knowledge of python or coding in general, this class was extremely easy. There was only single assignment that took me more than 45 minutes, all you have to do is watch a lecture a week and do the corresponing homework and or quiz plus a couple projects. On each test you get a large cheat sheet and there is tons of extra credit.

The class is very straightforward. I had very little experience with coding so the only thing I had problem with was the timed quizzes. However, he drop 4 assignments (quizzes included) and there's only 5 quizzes. His exams are pretty doable if you use the cheat sheet well and do the weekly worksheets

Young is a sweetheart who is well-knowledged and willing to help. However, it's true those without prior coding experience, like myself, are disadvantaged in this course. Certain TAs also graded more harshly than others. Tests are the hardest part because of niche questions, but with studying and practice you can succeed. An A is very achievable.

Professor Young is a sweet person and I believe he did his best to teach the material. I recommend using the textbook over his lectures, as he cannot compress all of the material via video and the textbook offers so much more. Overall, this was my hardest class I've taken yet, but I do believe I learned a lot as someone who had never coded before.

Bill knows his stuff and structures the course in an organized way, but towards the second half things really pick up and it gets rly hard. The online videos can get a little monotonous. Exams are actually pretty hard if you never done any computer theory and coding before, lowk got an A cuz there was a curve on the final. Him & TAs accessible tho

Material taught very effectively. You LEARN in this class, which I appreciated. Projects and homeworks are respectably difficult. He and the TAs are very good about answering questions. Do not use AI cause they WILL find you. The class is incredibly well organized. Very glad I took it with him.

I think most of the frustration comes from the volume of assignments and the difficulty of the tests, but Professor Young curves this class so high you can't not pass with at least a B. TA's are largely unreliable but instructed to be lenient. Exams are tricky at worst, manageable at best. You will be fine if you put the work in.

If you have prior experience in coding just even a bit you should be fine, Quiz are pretty easy and sometimes even repeat from the slides. I didn't go to many of the friday sections because he mainly just goes offer programs similar to that weeks homework. Tests are a bit difficult but easier than the practice tests and hackerrank practice.

This class is only good if you have the time for it. A lot of people tend to claim that Young grades harshly, but if you attend his office hours and participate in Ed Discussion, he tends to be more generous. The tests are hard and worth 20% each, so you'll definitely have to prepare for those. He's generous with grading, and hw % can go over 100%.

He gives great comprehensive lectures, although I have heard that referencing the textbook is more helpful. Having a Python background is pretty beneficial, but not necessary. Exams are much easier than the practice problems. This was not the hardest class I've taken at UT, but it was still fairly difficult. Overall, I learned a lot!

Practical and interesting class. As a first-time coder it was approachable if you watched lecture videos and took notes. In-person lectures weren't very useful. Weekly homework is short (under 1 hr). Test prep is manageable with lots of practice problems (harder than exams). Plenty of extra credit. Hybrid format works well if you stay on track.

Definitely need to use resources given (optional weekly worksheets/practice problems, SI sessions). Since it's hybrid it's a lot different than most classes but I thought the professor did a good job organizing the weekly lecture videos and weekly homework assignments. The in-person session is just going over examples and attending is extra credit.

The content of the class is fairly easy to grasp, and weekly homeworks weren't difficult, just time consuming. Honestly the only thing students should worry about is the exams. They are very tedious, and mcq portion reads more like trivia, mostly the reason I kept failing the exams. However, Bill Young is super nice, and generous!!

Homework assignments and quizzes are not bad, try to do all of them because it pays off extra credit wise. If you actually watch the lectures and take notes you will know everything you need to know for tests. The tests are very doable if you are tedious and read and write carefully. Dr young is super caring and a very good professor.

Dr. Young tried his best to make the class as easy and seamless as possible. The material was difficult at times and there was a lot of work to be doing in the background between watching lectures, doing homework, projects, etc. However, the class is very doable if you stay on top of your work and give genuine effort.