1.8
Quality3.5
Difficulty19%
Would Retake198
Reviews19%
Would Retake
198
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
16
4
14
3
13
2
27
1
128
What Students Say
“Absurdly narrow-minded for his age haha”
CSE373 - 1.0 rating“He is reusing everything that created by another prof”
CSE163 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
49%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.79 avg changeRatings by Course
CSE390
5.0
(1)CSE142
5.0
(1)CSE
4.0
(1)CSE143
2.8
(29)CSE391
2.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
CSE
4.0
CSE163
3.9
CSE332
3.6
CSE143
3.6
CSE373
3.1
Reviews (198)
Classes are mandatory and grading is arbitrary
Great instructor. His explanation is on point and not confusing. Really enjoyed his classes.
The lectures are amazing. Really bright instructor which explains concept insightfully.
He does a terrible job teaching in class. Since he doesn't really teach things in class, so if you do not understand the reading, you won't understand his lecture. I learned everything from TAs.
He experimented with a reverse lecture style. In class he wouldn't lecture. We had to read his terribly written readings he made, littered with typos, and not beginner friendly. He never gave straight forward answers in class. Active learning can work, but it fails if the instructor refuses to lecture even 1 minute. In this case, he never lectured.
Professor Lin knows how to teach well. He puts his students into small groups every lecture and let them discuss. I found it amazing.
Kevin is amazing. He changed the crazy system of CSE 143. Instead of grades, he cared more about how much his student could learn.
The assignment is once per week. The grading of assignment is tough, and you should be extremely careful about comment. Internal correctness usually takes a few points off per assignment.
The prof is great imo. The thing that was lacking from the complete course was the relevance of questions on exam with the actual class material. The topics he covered during the class had very little weightage on the exam. Topics covered by GAs during sections weigh heavily. If you think you won't be able too attend section; DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS.
PLEASE READ: Horrible communicator. Doesn't teach. Pre-lecture readings have typo's and little/no information. Always starts a sentence with "kinda related to what we talked about on Monday." We never talked about it. Dabbled with a reverse classroom, so you are paying thousands to hear peers say they don't know what's going on. UW can do better.
Assignments specifications are very vague and difficult. There also is no output comparison available, so you don't really know what they want from you in your code. The class uses an online programming platform which checks if you passed the assignment, and loads the error message if you didn't. The error message is often vague and hard to underst
He spends half the class putting you into groups with other classmates who don't know what's going on and don't want to talk. We're CS students for a reason, not communication majors!
The grading is bad, ESNU scale may seem easier but quite the opposite, in order to get E you need to met all criteria's, in essence E is equivalence of 100%. Some of the criteria is pretty subjective. Also his specifications are very confusing. Take the class only if u can learn 80% materials independently bc he spent very little time lecturing.
The guidelines for grading are so unclear and the specs are poorly written. I've been marked down from getting an E (in the ESNU system) on every single assessment just because the grading is so subjective (I've lost so many points on commenting and small details). You have to be perfect to get a 4.0 in the class. Just hoping the class is over now
Kevin does a lot of research on CS education and knows what he's doing, but I didn't like the way he taught 332. He overhauled the old system of that class by getting rid of group projects and making it more like UC Berkeley's data structures course. You shouldn't change a class so much and so quickly, especially an important one like 332.
Specs are unclear. He just laughs throughout lecture. Learned more from the TAs.
Tired work, fancy website with tons of work to do Kevin doesn't care much about He killed my cse interest
The homework is extremely hard, if you do not have a good skill in programming consider other prof. Moreover, internal correctness is excessively important for grading. I hate that. Forgetting 1 indent on code may change you grade. He should spend time on lessons instead of asking to make a group project on last 2 weeks. So disappointed.
Kevin was a real treat to have as my first CS class at UW. Because we were online, he tried really hard to reduce our stress for the class by making the grading criteria a lot easier (I can't say for in-person though). It's clear he loves the material and has a lot of passion for teaching.
Kevin is awesome. The TAs were accessible and were VERY helpful. There are weekly assessments (bigger coding problems) which are difficult, but I enjoyed struggling through them. If you show up to lecture you won't have a problem. There is a final group project during last three weeks but I enjoyed doing that too.
This was the best class I've taken. It's a seminar where you watch a lecture or something and respond to it. You learn about important concepts in programming that isn't taught in any other class. I learned so much and it's easy to pass this class (just show up 6/9 times). HIGHLY recommend this class :)
This professor was not the best at running CSE143. His lectures consisted of mainly repeating our readings in a more confusing and vague way than I ever had in any CS class before. His grading criteria is harsh and arbitrary, while his project specs were confusing, screwing a lot of people. New CS students, beware.
Mr. Lin did a great job at combining real world examples with code. Class felt relevant to real life even though its beginner java which made the class feel like it matters. Weekly take home assessments, which you can resubmit. Final project is open ended and "final" is an explanation of your work. You get what you put in, no CS class is easy.
Pros: very nice person, passionate about cs education, no test but a project of your choice and videos of yourself explaining cs problems, allowed hw resubmission which makes it easier to get a 4.0 Cons: doesn't teach, lecture slides are hard to understand, extremely vague spec that makes you question your life, be ready to learn cs by yourself!
Kevin is very friendly. I never interacted with him much, but he was always excited and energetic during class. The class was pretty easy, and I stopped going to quiz sections and lectures towards the end. The final project was fun, and was a good opportunity to apply the lessons in a practical manner.
we don't need him I think... just talk 10-15minutes in class which is totally useless. then we enter the breakout room to do the questions on his website. In this way we can totally self-learning. What is teacher for???
Kevin CAN NOT teach. DO NOT choose him expecting to learn anything from lectures. His TAs literally do everything for him. I don't even know what he does besides sit around laughing uncomfortably through lectures. He also likes to use overly complex words to compensate for his lack of teaching ability. The class is easy just don't listen to Kevin.
Turned this CS class into a class about answering MC questions, lifeless breakout rooms, and now meaningless projects - solution code is provided, and the idea of projects is to critique code and the impact it has on society, which is in contrast to a technical breakdown and approach to learning data structures and algorithms that I registered for.
If I wanted to take a class where we analyze impacts on society, I would have registered for a VLPA. Kevin has completely derailed the helpfulness of this class in learning critical technical skills and has diluted content with his focus on soft analysis. This is not the first class Kevin has derailed in terms of structure either...
It is currently more than halfway through the quarter for my Data Structures and Algorithms class, and we have learned almost nothing from Kevin. He outsources all the lectures to other (better) professors, and we spend lecture talking about meaningless societal implications of our algorithms?. I signed up to learn about programming...
I signed up for this class thinking it would give me solid practice for coding problems and a better grasp of data structures. It turns out that wasn't the case at all. Kevin spends more than half of this class talking about the broad social implication of code that we have no control over. If I wanted to learn that, I would take an info class.
You learn everything through outsourced youtube videos, mostly by Hunter (another UW instructor), and ppt slides from Princeton. I'm not really sure what his role is in this class... seems to be just to put us into lifeless breakout rooms that for some reason he's very adamant about. Also, more than 1/2 the class is about societal impact a such.
It seems 50% of this ALGORITHM and DATA STRUCTURE class is about ethics and social effects of different algorithms. I know they are important, but that should not take that much portion if this class. Also, the lectures are basically doing problems with other people in breakout rooms while he only talks about 10 minutes at the beginning.
I really like Kevin, and his dedication to teaching students about CS societal implications. That being said, the curriculum is being lost on most students. He kind of bait-&-switched people by making a historically v technical class focused on social implications. Uses a mediocre flipped classroom model. Lots of hard, time-consuming group projects
Uses a "flipped lecture" style-- which is saying "you'll be doing all the learning yourself". He doesn't teach anything himself besides briefly going over the exercises, but even then we were expected to figure it out in our groups. Don't even get to learn actual coding because most of the class is focused on the social implications of technology.
I see a lot of students defending Kevin when they only took CSE 143. The thing is Kevin is derailing from the 373 curriculum which is the most important class for interview prep. He keeps focusing on "affordance analysis" which means nothing when you're a junior engineer. Anything taught of substance is from other professor's lesson videos.
He does not teach anything, and he even starts to lecture on youtube. What you do in class is listening to him talk about something unimportant in the first ten minutes, and you do exercise for the rest of the time. He likes focusing on something irrelevant to cs such as Inlakesh. This is a CSE class, not social science.......
After taking this course, I don't think I understand data structure completely bc the lesson videos are from different professors and different education systems. Kevin does not provide any help. If he does, I think is by confusing me. DFS algorithm, BFS and sorting, I really do not understand Very sad.
Had Kevin for 373. He did not teach. Full stop. He very clearly wants to teach a CS ethics course, but rather than do so, he chose to discard a large portion of the course content and all of its rigor in order to shoe-horn in ethical questions that were only loosely related to the topics at best. If you actually want to learn, avoid at all costs.
BBBBBBBBAD
Don't expect to be taking the traditional "Data Structures and Algorithims" that the UW has offered up until Kevin... He's obliterated what the UW has taught in the past and instead restructured it into "The ETHICS of Data Structures and Algorithims." Be prepared to spend more time writing papers on ethics than learning about actual programming.
I took this class hoping to become more familiar with common interview topics, safe to say it would have been a better use of my time to self study... since that was all "lecture" was anyways. Don't take unless you only care about the societal implications of code and not bettering your understanding and programming abilities.
i lose interest in data structure thanks to Kevin
His teaching style is very strange, at least when I took the class. He never really taught anything, and just used lecture time to answer questions. Instead we had to learn everything through class readings. This setup was a complete waste of time.
Kevin is a generational talent. His lectures were immaculate, using well-researched, state-of-the-art lecturing techniques. His ability to grasp the "inner learner" inside me, paired with his impeccable explanations, made me crave for the next class day. Moved by his character, I've made great strides in my professional & personal life. Exemplary.
Absolutely learned nothing from this course, which supposed to be the most important topic in CS filed. The instructor basically just laughed throughout the course. TAs did all the teaching. If you are not a genius who can figure out data structure theories by reading materials, you ain't gonna learn thing from this course.
Kevin was one of the worse professors I've ever had at UW. I've never seen more unclear assignment topics and a lack of care towards the course's intended curriculum. This was one of the last quarters I could take data structures and algos, and I got an ethics class for CS. All I can say is thanks kevin for ruining my experience at UW......
He teaches nothing in class. The only thing that we can study is the videos from the previous quarter.
I don't understand why many of the reviews are so low - Kevin is a considerate, accessible, and engaging professor. It might come as a shock to CS students, but data ethics and equity are important sometimes. I interacted more with the TAs, but he creates a welcoming environment that set the tone for the class and I appreciate his teaching style!
I took 143 with Kevin last year and was not a fan. He was just not very clear about his expectations and he kept saying not to worry about grades but then graded harshly. I was worried about taking 163 with him, but he was MUCH better in 163 and his lecturers were actually a lot more interesting. But I'm still not sure what my grade is going to be.
Best choice I've ever made is to drop Kelvin's CSE 143 at autumn quarter. He basically taught nothing throughout the class, repeatedly emphasizing about codes in social lives. The project is a mess too, no guideline for it. Be prepared to teach your self if you are unlucky enough like me to have a TA much like him.
Honestly really enjoyed this class with Kevin! I think that his retry rule was really nice so youre able to refine your assignments for a better grade. The assignments themselves were fairly easy and pretty similar to the learning modules. The final project was a bit more tedious but I think thats because my group chose a complex topic.
I would not recommend him for Data Structures and Algorithms. I would spend sleepless nights on his projects, simply because he would give us a vague spec as well as expect us to know how to code the algorithms ourselves. His modules are also graded on completion rather than attempt, which means that even if you get a 90% on something you redo it.
Kevin is really nice and wants to see his students succeed. The course is graded by completion so as long as you finish everything and get a good project group you'll do fine.
Definitely, the best professor at UW, a great lecturer without a Ph.D., and have been a symbol of discrimination of non-major students for the greater social good. Reference:Links and images are not allowed in comments, I am submitting this review to show my enthusiasm in this great course, and please completely ignore such 1.0 on the grading. !!!!
An easy 4.0 as most assignment are graded for completion. Group assessment is kind of annoying. The worst part is he never taught but assigned a ton of prelecture readings.
Trust me, go to another professor if you have options. Kevin will give you a slide to read before the course which contains several professor's videos from this exact course. Then why on earth should I listen to his lecture? Leaving all real content outside class, doing some "group collaboration" in class is super irresponsible and meaningless.
He literally doesn't teach anything in lectures. All course materials including other professors' videos are in pre-lecture readings. DON'T take this class with him if you don't want to teach yourself.
He's friendly and that's all the good there is. Readings and videos outside of class. Lectures are just group work. Projects are the worst, where you have to implement algorithms after just learning about them. For one project, we had to learn about like three complex classes that we never talked about in lecture. Expects way too much.
This was a "flipped" class, where we learned outside of class and practiced in class. It did not work particularly well for me, but it was not that much less effective than the normal style. Although I did not feel like I learned as much as I wanted to from this class, I appreciated Kevin's enthusiasm and readiness to help students.
This is an old rating of solely Kevin's CSE 143 course, it does not translate to 373, etc. He helped usher in a much better grading structure and new projects. I personally don't like flipped lectures, but by nature he had a lot of resources available to make up for that. Very encouraging prof, but you'll likely need to visit the IPL or TAs a lot.
This professor's lectures are totally mess. No useful information for learning 143. RUN!!!!!
He cares about his students and the topics he is teaching. He highlights the importance of data ethics and teamwork which I also think is very important. Most people take data structure and algorithm have a goal to work in the industry. His way of teaching doesn't prepare you at all.
Pre-class assignments were literally TAs reading slides on Ed. Lectures were pieces of paper with problems that were barely covered in pre-class (and you WILL go over time by 3 minutes each class). TAs at the IPL are NPCs with limited dialogue; can only say, "Have you read the spec", "Have you drawn it out", or "Try thinking about it differently."
I do NOT know why people absolutely talk as if Kevin is the worse professor ever. If you ever questioned "why am I even learning this concept?" he talks about real life scenarios of data structure applications which I love! Simulated midterm and final, and assessments were manageable. Teaching style is different but just showup to TA section.
Kevin gets a lot of unwarranted hate in my opinion. His lectures aren't perfect but I did learn a lot once I figured out how to navigate the class. You learn the most from doing the sections and assessments though. And if you ever get the chance to work on a question with him personally, he is so helpful and so great at explaining.
If wasn't Kevin who invented the Mastery-Based Grading, the intro-CSE course would not be more beneficial for learning. Weed-out and competition are NOT the right way to learn coding skills. As a person who will pursue education major in the future, I advocate for Kevin's boundless move for the new CSE courses!
Used a flipped classroom approach for lectures. I liked the mastery-based grading, and I think the pre-lecture materials were very useful for both getting a decent grasp of the material as well as serving as a quick reference for when you need it. Kevin's very positive and wants people to learn. Good prof.
This class discusses some incredibly important issues in CS, as well as in STEM education. However, 373 is not the place to discuss them being one of the most important CS classes for non-majors. Kevin should design his own class based on these issues, I think students can get a lot out of the way he teaches in a different setting.
As an education major, I have to admire his courage to redesign introductory-level CSE courses, because he knows what students want and he really put actions on it. Weedout classes should be demolished as it destroys students' mental health. He gave me inspiration on being a future teacher. People would love STEM if no weedout.
I'm not a fan of CS, but after taking CSE142 with his new approach, I want to become a teacher and major in education. If all the lower-division classes using his new approach I would hate UW less.
He is too set on his approach to teaching that he fails to respond to feedback when it falters. Example: The class anonymously said mind maps were not beneficial to learning. He then used a mind map to waste 30 minutes explaining why mind maps were important. Too set on his own teaching style and I feel in no way prepared for tech interviews.
Great person, awful professor.
Keeeep away from his course!!! Thankfully this was not the only CSE course I took this quarter, otherwise I will lose interest in computer science forever. This guy put all concepts that supposed to be introduced in lectures to pre-readings using Hunter's 373 and josh hug's cs61b recordings. What's in lectures? Martian texts wrote on whiteboard.
Absolutely horrible professor. Although I got a high grade in this class (whole class is project based) I felt like I learnt nothing and am planning on retaking. All the classes included prelectures that were very boring to read and just linked to hunters lectures, and then in class work was just solving different problems in a very arbitrary way
Joke of a class with Kevin, I learnt close to nothing regarding data structures and algos, which is what this whole class is based on. If you see him teaching in a quarter just wait for a better prof
Absolutely hate CS after taking his class.
Not a good professor. This class is important if you plan to pursue a career in the industry but we learned absolutely nothing due to the fact that the class content and TA's were all over the place
I love Kevin! He is so nice and his lessons are interesting and easy to follow. He makes an effort to get to know his students and help them personally and is really interested in creating a good learning environment. Definitely one of the more organized classes I've taken and best professors I've had
Had Kevin for CSE 143, easily the worst class experience of my life. I was falsely accused of cheating on a homework assignment... that has thousands of students complete it each year. In terms of course structure, we were made to read lectures beforehand such that the actual lecture was useless?!
He is reusing everything that created by another prof. And he is not giving lecture but let us study the previous prof video at home. Also, the grading is confused, a clearly criteria is missing.
Will teach you diversity but not computer science
Will resort to "because I said so / because the course is structured this way" instead of changing his mind. Absurdly narrow-minded for his age haha.
The use of another professor's resources without adding original insights or examples made it difficult to fully comprehend the course material. Secondly, there was a lack of structure and focus during class sessions. Often, discussions veered towards topics unrelated to coding, which detracted from the learning experience.
I mean, the first thing before teaching student is that you need to be a normal human
Very rude and not approachable. Grading was unclear and unreasonable.
Ed lessons are irritating & the precise reason why his lecture attendance is so low. It's hard for students to feel their time is being respected when there's a lecture outside of the lecture, so to compensate, many people won't show up to the actual physical lecture. Grading of this course is nitpicky & inconsistent. Project is weighted too heavy
Does Kevin even know python??? Half the time he questions if he remembers how to code in python. Very nitpicky on grading, he doesn't teach the course only assigns homeworks and lectures from different professors that you do on your own time, lectures are a waste. He blames students on learning/using outside sources when he doesnt teach. W TA's tho
He should stick to teaching Java, he clearly knows that - he got Python functions confused with Java ones multiple times during this class. Taking 160 with Kevin won't teach you anything beyond basic Python, but it is an easy A.
As a person, Kevin is great. As other reviews say, though, the structure of the class has very little hands on programming. The whole class is group-work based, as well. Didn't learn much in the way of DS&A. You teach yourself before class, and do conceptual problems in class. I zoned out & missed the random times he taught in lecture.
Personally do not find his lecture useful at all, he's giving not really responsible. Do not feel like paying school for this. Basically self teaching.
As others have said, this class is basically teaching yourself. During lecture time, Kevin often goes on a tangent on something not related to the material. Feedback from the class is also not taken well. I do not recommend this class at all as it is very disorganized
Kevin Lin is definitely passionate about computer science and programming. However, it is clear that he wants to teach a class about ethics in computer science instead of a general programming class. Students will spend more time making PowerPoint presentations than coding and will barely learn how to actually use data structures and algorithms.
If you read the pre-class assignments, check the slides when you do assessments, and submit resubmissions in time, I think you can do well, I just wish he was more open to the grading scheme, as for the Final Portfolio it was all up to him kind of.
Better wait for other options for this class. He is disorganized and doesn't respect students' efforts. He handled academic misconduct based on SUBJECTIVE judgment in previous quarters without evidence. Now, he allows other resources and makes students participate in explaining their work, which is UNFAIR to students who took this class before.
The lecture was confusing and unhelpful. It even made me doubt things I thought I knew.
Took him back in summer '21, my experience was different than a lot of people's here. Essentially we were graded on group projects and we could resubmit in order to get a complete grade, via the mastery system, and as long as you ask questions about the spec, it isn't that hard to do well just by following what was on Ed.
A horrible professor does not teach anything properly.
Kevin went through a structure change this quarter in CSE 163. It's not that big of an improvement. The harder units are squeezed in the same one week time period and makes learning difficult to catch up.
I enjoyed this class and Kevins' teaching model. He substituted exams for peer reviews and group projects. This fostered a good sense of community and helped me better understand how to articulate my code with peers. I recommend this class to people who learn well from working with others.
AN ABSOLUTELY ALFUWL INSTRUCTOR, DON'T TAKE ANY COURSE WITH HIM
His class is very easy because he is not a tough grader and is very lenient. You need to just stay on top of the homework because it takes time to do it, especially if you are not familiar using Python. He is generous with his grading scales. No exams No quizzes homework (once a week) finals is the group project peer code (weekly)
Kevin does not explain how the class is graded: the course does not have a clear syllabus and everything is graded according to his own subjective judgment. Even after taking the course, students still struggle to understand how their final GPA is computed. Prepare to learn everything yourself since he does not know how to lecture or teach.
The assignments were very difficult to complete. The grading rubric was unclear. There are overwhelming course material on each class, but he never had enough time to finish it all. (Totally self-study on each hw!) Just RUN!!!!!!!!
He just introduced all the stuff in a hurry, he could not finish introducing all the concepts in class and never summarized. The Quiz Section won't review any concepts. Just wondering if there is no review, and students need to study Python by themselves, why would we sit for almost an hour to listen to Kevin yapping?
He changes the way the class runs week to week, lectures in a rambling way, cares too much about students using AI and too little about whether or not they understand the material....you get the point. Don't take this class with him -- wait for another professor if you can
Terrible. Would not touch with a 10 foot pole. Do not take this class with Lin
Easily the worst professor I have ever had at the University of Washington. I would recommend you do anything in your power to avoid taking his class. Kevin is an absolute power tripper, and will absolutely take pleasure in making life as hard as possible for you. I truly do not know how the UW's supposedly exceptional CS department hired him.
Went to yap island and they had a statue of him there.
I feel like this class shouldn't be that hard, but because it's Kevin teaching it, it is exponentially harder. Lectures aren't useful because he doesn't know how to teach. He rambles about the most random things and doesn't know how to convey topics easily. Breezes over concepts and expects us to know it all.
Professor Kevin, oh so clever, Teaches code like no other, His lectures are a riddle game, Making students scratch their brain. He talks of loops and syntax rules, But it all sounds like tongue-tied drools. We tilt our heads and squint our eyes, As Kevin's words make our minds rise.
Berkeley should rescind his diploma for how badly he teaches. If I were Berkeley, I'd be ashamed of the atrocity I created.
Lectures are a snooze fest with how much Kevin speaks without teaching anything. Do not ever take this class with him, if you don't want to go insane trying to do assignments, I deeply recommend waiting for another professor or opting for a different class. Save yourself.
He's considerate, trying to support everyone in the class. While the grading system permits resubmissions, the class lacks organization, causing challenges to mount as the quarter progresses. Assignments become increasingly demanding and time-consuming, often covering material not taught in class.
Kevin is not a good professor by any means, he focuses on the unimportant aspects of the class. He does not teach well, his lectures do not prepare you for the homework assignments. He has his TA's grade extremely difficultly. I would never recommend this professor to anyone, in any course at UW.
Honestly, the TAs teach better than Kevin. He rambles, then puts random parts of the lecture that he brushed over for 3 minutes into the homework, so when you actually do it, you don't understand how something works and why something works. They emphasize independence for newer concepts on the homework, but at that point, why are you teaching?
Honestly, he should stop experimenting with the structure of the classes he's teaching. He suddenly announced that there is gonna be a LIVE interview for the midterm 3 days before the midterm code was due -- it's not hard though, it's just so sudden?? Unstructured Data Structure Class.
Somehow the undergrad TAs teach better than him.... Thank you Arpan for actually successfully teaching geospatial mapping. Kevin wishes people understood what he was talking about. Shoutout Arpan!!!1
Kevin is not a great lecturer. He goes on long tangents that have nothing to do with the topic, and when he does get back on the subject he barely covers parts that will end up being on your assessment. The final project is disorganized and messy. The code reviews with TAs were good but besides that don't take this class with Kevin.
If you're taking this class just for credit, it's incredibly easy since he hands out resubmits like candy on Halloween. If you're taking it to actually gain experience in coding, wait another quarter for a different prof because you don't do that stuff. I spent 10x more time explaining how I would code something instead of actually doing it.
This class was actually so useless in terms of learning python. All we did was learning libraries in python and complete projects. Kevin tried too hard to switch up the format of the class to the point where everything was so disorganized. He should teach an ethics course instead of computer science.
Changed the structure of the class so much to the point it is completely disorganized. Lectures are not helpful with any of the homework or exams that are given. When asked a question just completely talks around actually giving an insightful answer. Terrible professor.
he is not that bad as the comments said
Each project has written deliverable requirements + a 6-min video presentation in addition to (somewhat easy) code. This class is great if you're into theoretical/ conceptual stuff but not if you actually want to learn how to code using DSA. Prof obviously cares a lot but the other comments are right - he should be teaching CS ethics, not DSA.
I like Kevin, and it is clear that he is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about the discipline, but the organization of the course was subpar. It felt like the technicalities of the course were still being ironed out until weeks into the quarter. I do think this is a useful class for those interested in SWE, but it is far from perfect.
Avoid taking CSE163 with this professor if possible. The lectures are disorganized, and the assignments cover material not taught. However, the TAs are helpful. unstuckstudy could be a useful study tool alongside other resources.
He's chill and before the final, you have 3.0 if you did all the work throughout the quarter. The final decides your grade between 3.0 and 4.0. Resubmissions for exams and projects. However, he never talked about the actual code, theory only. Coding assignments took so much time because we never did any code in class.
He's just very unhelpful. The lectures always felt like a waste of time. The class I took had him and another professor who alternated weeks and I dreaded Kevin's week every time. He just goes through things like he's marking a checkbox, not explaining anything. It was truly very annoying how I would walk in and feel even more confused walking out.
This guy should teach computer ethics. Take 373 with Kasey Champion if possible. The course structure was very confusing and unintuitive.
Confusing and unintuitive course structure. He should definitely teach computer ethics instead of DSA. Take 373 with Kasey Champion if possible; I regret not doing so.
"Lots of Homework" comes from the time spent on pre-lectures and homework for just a 1 credit class. Pre-lecture includes watching 3-4 10 minute youtube videos + a short canvas quiz. Also have in-class participation quizzes and he throws out Hichews to students who answer his questions. Very nice person, but he needs to stay on track more.
Very all over the place, changed things about the class constantly. Class was a lot of work for just 1 credit pass/fail.
Said that a 5/7 on the final project is considered “100%” but then also says that's just the “baseline” and not enough for a 4.0. Never taking a class with him again. Extremely unclear and unfair grading system. Useless lectures. Not sure how anyone can stand him. Avoid at all costs.
Easily got 100 until the final project where he gave SUPER unspecific criteria. Spent an entire week coding because I genuinely felt really passionate about my project and got a rlly low grade. Judging by the ED, they decided to grade super harsh. The coding portion I got full points (smallest part of grade) and no comments on why I lost points.
He is a nice person but his organization could be improved. For the final project, many students, along with I were confused by what was needed to receive a passing grade. There were multiple inconsistencies with what we were being told by the TAs and what was expected in the rubric.
Unorganized. Unclear grading scale. Goes on long tangents during lectures. Arrogant personality. No syllabus. Bad communication. Does not explain concepts well/at all. Learned more from the TA's than I did from Kevin.
I know the CS department hates non-majors because they inflict Kevin on them. Also, anyone who takes this course is made a participant of Kevin's research and you have to purposely opt out if you don't want to be. Extremely unethical of him and shameful considering the controversy around tech companies' similar policies.
Kevin is a nice guy, but I don't recommend his class. His class is organized in a confusing way, final grades are based on "improvement," and his final project expectations are unclear. His classes seem to be very experimental, which is not helpful if you want to learn. The only props I can give him is that he responds to emails quickly.
This B doesn't know what he is doing. Go on and on about grades depending on improvement.
Nice guy but is still ironing out course policies three weeks into the quarter, so students have no idea how exams, project deadlines, or grades will work. All of lecture is just worksheets on paper, which do not have answer keys because he doesn't solve them before class. Also just generally condescending and seems to have a superiority complex.
His course is just all over the place and organized in a confusing way in general. syllabus is nonexistent/unclear. the grading scale is unclear.
I personally had a choice whether to take this class this quarter with Kevin or next year with another prof, and since I get 2 weeks to drop without consequences, I didn't have enough time to judge the lectures and stayed in the class. There wasn't anything assigned then, but now we get 3 scatterbrained lectures and a homework per week. Regrets
Inconsistent Syllabus
Professor wasn't understanding and made the course very difficult. A course that was designed to help with 351, but course load was too much for a pass or fail 1 credit class.
He just doesn't know how to teach. Several times he had us answer his poll everywhere, but the answer he set is not runnable. No clear structure for syllabus, grading, or anything. Most of the policies in his class are posted on ed, with no edits, and are still unclear. The TAs in this class are just as bad, deduct a lot of points for small errors.
Everybody rates him at a 2 or 1 but I think they're are wrong, his true rating is far below that. He has no idea how to teach code. I can tell that he's very passionate about code but his class is all theory. He makes you do the readings which don't prepare you for the exams at all. Register with a different professor if you want to learn code.
Can be very time consuming HW projects, but that's given for any CS course. Honestly just spam office hours and you're good. Lecture heavy, breakneck speed, but literally only class with exam revisions. Awesome if you're not confident in paper exams. Also, final project is literally just two weeks of build whatever you want with help.
I think he just needs a job where he doesn't have to communicate with anyone because he is so bad at it
Awful professor, doesn't seem to care about students, and has the most confusing grading policies ever. He's very condescending and attempts to be "accommodating" but ends up sticking to what he thinks is best. Very unclear about class expectations and grading. It's week 9 and I have not learned a single thing. Avoid if possible!
It's evident Kevin's passionate about computer science and cares about his students. However, it's not conveyed in his teaching. We discussed class policies well into the quarter and concepts are not taught thoroughly. Everything is theory based; there are no hands-on examples with code, making projects very frustrating to complete.
For a guy who cares so much about teaching effectively, it's truly impressive how bad he is at teaching. Lectures are not helpful, course policies are unclear, and exams are horribly difficult. On top of all that he's just kind of mean.
Kevin Lin does not care about his students and his grading scale is extremely unclear. There is no indication on what our final grade will be and his lectures are horribly taught. Please reconsider and never take any of his classes unless you absolutely need to. The TAs also have no idea what they're doing. avoid at all costs
Terrible professor, AVOID IF POSSIBLE, the grading system is APPALLING, he loves preaching on his new grading system and how its based on the knowledge, but is overall confusing. Grades given for projects are not clear and "black box", no clear rubric, just general opinions. HE WILL GIVE OUT GRADES RANDOMLY BASED ON HOW HE FEELS ABOUT YOU.
Kevin Lin... Oh Kevin Lin. Avoid him for CSE 163 or 373. Kevin is vague about what meets the criteria for the final project. Each "code review" during section feels like a real life job interview: You need to find errors with code in 5 minutes under pressure. Accidentally leaked grades of students on edstem in 373 which violates ferpa.
Don't take this professor's class
The TA's for his class used NEON marker to write things on the board, showed up late, seemed like dear's in headlights and absolutely did not care about the class. He was equally bad at teaching. You probably wont fail this class but if you want to learn something AVOID.
Taught me absolutely nothing. I had to go back and study everything myself. Please do not take his courses - you will truly be in a really bad position for the final. He decided to use his last lecture to teach us about OPTIONAL topics rather than help us study for the final. Aelysha (TA) taught me more than he did during lectures.
Cheerful and preachy guy, coding interviews are intimidating and impersonal and vague, final project based but the instruction changed abruptly from group to individual. Overall okay if you just hunker down and work.
the syllabus is absolutely horrid - his grading is messy. also, the syllabus and grading policies were finalized week 4 or 5 i think. second, most of the material comes from the prelectures and he doesn't actually teach in lecture (which pmo because its not a very engaging teaching style). i thought i could brave through this class.. no.
The most evil professor out there, you will not know your grade until far after the quarter ends. He promotes generative AI and encourages all students to use it, basically leaving those who don't use it to either fail or cheat (because office hours don't exist). Wait however long it takes for another professor to teach the course.
Kevin Lin is an enthusiastic person who enjoys CS, but he's not good at teaching. I would not recommend taking this class. AWFUL GRADING SYSTEM; Poor lectures; Reading heavy; More interested in his research than actually teaching; Uses 3 different websites; TAs were rude and/or didn't know how to answer my questions
Kevin is alright. He's very enthusiastic about the material but I wish more attention was given to completing the in-class worksheets because they can be used on exams, but since we didn't finish a lot of those worksheets it left most of them mostly blank. The hw could get quite difficult and the feedback given on hw and exams isn't very good imo
Worst professor I've had at the Allen School. Avoid his class. The TAs were unhelpful and didn't know how to teach. For the final project, they ignored our hard work and gave careless, random grades. When we asked questions, they couldn't even answer. I honestly don't understand how they're qualified to be TAs.
Lectures: There were low-quality lectures 3 times a week mandatory. Instructor doesn't explain the main concept before YouTube videos and poll everywhere. Communication: You will need to constantly do scavenger hunts on Ed discussion. Very fun experience! Grading: Extremely qualitative and subject, from every assignment to the final grade.
It is a nightmare for the TA who not good at python to be your grader!!! The most basic usage of python grammar they even don't know. When you ask their feedback. TA are unlikely to talk with their students. I don't know if they are so unhappy to lecture and talk with their students, why would they want to be the TA. Grading is so freaking horribl
There is a no clear grading criteria. Will not take his class again.
I read reviews and was surprised because Kevin is really nice and understanding. Then, we had the final project, which was unclear with harsh grading weighing heavily on final grades. Even if you do well (meet 4.0 criteria) the entire quarter, small mistakes on the project have a huge effect. Really disappointed because I liked Kevin!
Kevin has a VERY unclear grading criteria and said himself that he would figure out the final grade weights after the final. He seemed unreceptive to feedback and did not teach clearly. Kevin is a nice guy, and I can tell that he's knowledgeable about comp sci, but he is not very good at teaching the subject. If you're taking his class, good luck.
His lectures are fine and he cares a lot about the subject. Sometimes he would have bugs in his lecture notes and that would be really annoying. Some explanations were not very clear, especially near the end of the quarter. Grading criteria unclear. The assignments were interesting though! The open end final project was nice too. Decent class.
lectures: honestly, not the best professor: Tries his best, but sometimes his best isn't enough, which may come at the cost of your sanity grading rubric: unclear throughout. you don't really get to know your grade until the very end. his grading is also very unclear
you will learn more from the tas than the professor
The class lectures had lots of discussions, and little was covered in lecture. Grading criterion were also unclear, and formula for grade percentage to GPA was done after the final (Hence, you may feel like you're in the dark when it comes to what your GPA will be for this class).
Bad Professor. Pros: coding interviews were a solid exam alternative. Cons: grading was unclear, lectures felt unhelpful yet mandatory, homework was graded harshly (resubmissions allowed), and the syllabus wasn't finalized until week 4. I was also unfairly reported for AI use despite following the syllabus and I have to fight CSSC for a grade.
Kevin Lin is not a good teacher. Lectures are mandatory and the process to make up for misses is glitchy and annoying. Lectures were pretty much just going through a sheet of code, and I learnt more from the TAs and “interviews”. Says AI is okay to use if cited properly, yet still gives 0s if you do cite it. Confusing grading, structure, everything
Bro talks in 2x speed and doesn't give students any time to digest. Ik he prolly has the best intentions but not everyone learns at such a fast pace. Chill out and don't cover so much content if ur gonna speed thru everything cuz pple r gonna end up understanding nothing anyways.
Kevin is nice, but likes to over-design his classes, which usually ends up not being student-friendly. This class is being graded 40% on 4 quizzes and 60% on the final. Still hw/projects to complete, but they can only lower your grade. This made 100 people drop the class. I wish he could take his class as a student to see what it's like.
The final exam's grade decides what your GPA is; every 2 points lost is 0.1 in GPA. Terrible.
Abysmal teaching style. Kevin's lectures move too quickly and jump around, making them hard to follow. Graded attendance feels unfair since the lectures are useless. He discourages any questions, often saying to “just look at the notes,” which contradicts his course website's emphasis on accessible learning and asking for help. Would not take again
This class is a total mess. The grading system makes no sense. Your entire grade depends on exams: four midterms 10% each and one final 60%. Attendance is mandatory.If you miss one and your grade drops, but perfect attendance won't raise your score. Homework and projects are pointless; they only hurt your grade instead of helping. AVOID HIMMMMM!!
One of the most disorganized courses I've taken. The syllabus, homework and lectures are riddled with errors/inconsistencies and continually changed throughout the entire quarter. Staying organized in this class and understanding the ever-changing grading scheme is more work than the actual course material.
Clearly believes he is an expert at teaching while being demonstrably one of the worst teachers I have ever witnessed. Leaves most work up to TAs who are essentially just random CS undergrad students with clearly minimal training or instruction
Extremely disorganized and just a complete mess of a class. Dropped after the first week.
NIGHTMARE. Lin has opaque and inflexible grading based on his whims. He's the definition of "...they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers." The class lacks personalized feedback for someone who talks so much about learning and his harsh grading, leading to tons of time deciphering vague expectations rather than coding practice
just dont.
Awful professor. Very unclear grading policies. Spent more time deciphering grading policies than actually working on the code. Makeups interviews are not guaranteed for those who missed the project interview. This was not stated clearly, is a major portion of our grade (1/4), and causes an insurmountable amount of stress during finals.
Completely arbitiary and incomplete grading scheme does not even consider a single line of out of scope code despite in being very trivial. Will never take his class ever again.
DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS PLEASE DONT DO IT. HE IS SETTING US UP FOR FAILURE. JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU LEARNED THE MATERIAL HE THROWS A CURVEBALL AT YOU. THE TA'S ARE LOST, KEVIN IS LOST, WE'RE LOST. DO. NOT. TAKE. HIS. CLASS.
Passionate but bad lecturer, often go off topic and talk about things that has nothing to do with exams and the covered chapter, never cares to explain the terminology
just don't
Kevin Lin is not the best lecturer in the world, but he usually compensates that with ample revision process and tons of improvement opportunities. However his grading policies change over the quarter and he likes to experiment with his classes. He is passionate about teaching but he isn't very good at explaining the concepts of data programming.
please wait for a better prof if you could
Lectures are boring and not engaging, grading criteria is incredibly strange and opaque, and to top it all of, 100% of the grade is defined by your test taking abilities (40% midterms/quizzes, 60% FINAL!!!!!!), homework actively hurts your grade. He provides opportunities to show growth, but it doesn't help when the final is worth 60% of your grade
Nice guy + passionate prof, but class structure and grade scale is very overdesigned - I had no idea at ALL what my final grade would be due to unclear communication of how exactly grades are computed + many tests/quizzes needing a curve. Lectures are also VERY fast/difficult to follow w/graded attendance, so show up and lock in. Avoid if possible
He moves through content quickly during the first few weeks of class. I felt myself learning a lot more from doing the homework and looking back at lecture slides. The only big criticism I have is about the grading. It is graded on interviews and homework/attendance just scales that. Fairly easy class but grading is kinda unclear if you want a 4.0.
To be honest, Lin is not nearly as bad as the other reviews make him out to be. Was this a challenging course? Absolutely. But if you put in the effort and teach yourself, you will likely succeed. Lin allows you to makeup interviews if you don't get the score you want. There are many opportunities for growth. One score is not the be all end all.
I took CSE 163 & 373. Lectures and notes cover what you need, but the real learning happens through homework, iteration, and reflecting on mistakes. This course rewards sustained effort and metacognition, not last-minute cramming. It's designed to build understanding over the quarter, and earning a 4.0 is very achievable with consistent work.
Kevin is passionate and approachable. He sets up time slots to get to know the students. Just don't be caught off guard by his grading. Instead of adding up your grade in each category, the percentages are multiplied. This gives a worse outcome than you expect because when you multiply two numbers smaller than 1, you get an even smaller number.
The class make me prepared for tech interviews.
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