2.7
Quality3.7
Difficulty30%
Would Retake125
Reviews30%
Would Retake
125
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
22
4
17
3
22
2
34
1
30
What Students Say
“Gives extremely difficult homework and expect student to get help from TA's to get them done”
CS2500 - 2.0 rating“Really boring lectures”
CS2500 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
12%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.41 avg changeRatings by Course
CS2100
4.0
(5)CS1100
3.8
(4)CS5001
3.6
(5)CS2510
3.0
(40)CS2500
2.5
(67)Difficulty by Course
CS2500
3.8
CS2510
3.7
CS5001
3.6
2500
3.3
CS1100
3.0
Reviews (125)
Relatively new teacher, class is going well.. sometimes class can be a little dry but review sessions for tests are extremely helpful and exams are fair.
Very easy-going. Sometimes it's hard to hear her but I just sit near the front. She knows her stuff and wants her students to do well. Always willing to explain concepts again if needed. Recommended.
She is a very quiet and timid person. She does not seem to know what she is doing and always refers to her answer sheet when she is asked a question. I did not learn from her, I learned by teaching myself. Going to class is pointless so I usually don't. The class is easy with Excel but once you get to Access it gets really hard.
Very smart and helpful. I liked her a lot.
Learn to program before you take the class (Fundies 1) or you're going to be lost. Lots of dropouts even towards the end of the semester
She really expects you to figure pretty much everything out on your own. There is a quiz at the end of almost every class and they are randomly graded. When you ask for help, she gives the least help possible. If you don't keep up with the textbook and homework assignments, you will do poorly.
so helpful and really cares about her students!
Overall she is a good teacher. She shows lots of examples, and really seems to have a good understanding of what she's teaching. Sometimes the class can be tough, and even though quite a few students dropped out, if you pull through it you learn a lot. I had barely any programming experience prior to this class.
she doesn't teach much in class - just go over some examples and that's all, because she assumes that everybody already read the textbook and understand the material
Super nice teacher and really sweet. This class is easy if you read the textbook and learn stuff on your own. The class is mostly used to reinforce concepts.
The homework and tests are the same for every section. Fundies is challenging but fun if you are willing to put in the work. Leena is a good professor, her confidence and lectures definitely improved through the semester. She's also helpful if you go to office hours.
Easy class if you understand the material for Fundies 1. Mostly goes over what we've read and just shows examples. I found the textbook pretty understandable so lectures were just repetitive.
I liked her overall but it is very essential that you read the textbook and do the finger exercises if you do not have experience in computer science.
Gives extremely difficult homework and expect student to get help from TA's to get them done. Lectures are extremely boring, she mostly expects the students to learn the material by themselves. However, she doesn't even provide the necessary resources for students to sufficiently learn the materials, the lecture notes are hard to follow.
Great professor. Go to her office hours and participate frequently in class.
Lectures are extremely boring and repetitive. The information learned each lecture was needed for the previous week's homework. Overall not help. Just read, and you don't really need to show up for class
Really boring lectures. She's very soft-spoken and monotone, so it's hard to pay attention. There's no incentive to go to class, since she just goes over the lecture notes, which you could do yourself. The exams were fair. The homeworks were very time-consuming.
It was a tough class but she's pretty good professor.
Professor Razzaq was extremely helpful, consistently offering support as I sought to enrich myself beyond what was required for class. She was very accessible and encouraging and I learned a lot from her. Definitely recommend her as a professor!
Tough class but learned a lot.
She is very unhelpful outside of class and does not care about the students
Fine person, Bad teacher
She's a decent professor. She's monotone, class is boring, low enthusiasm, but she's not a terrible teacher. In fundies, you really only get graded on the assignment you hand in and the 2 exams through the semester. As long as you get the code from lectures from one of your friends, and you go office hours a lot, you'll do fine in the course.
Lots of extra help and was really understanding.
I struggled with this class and Leena was super patient and helpful.
Tough class but learned a ton.
She is such an amazing professor! she really cares about her students, she really inspired me to continue pursuing computer science.
Easily the least engaging professor I've ever had the misfortune of having. Skip class, read the online lecture notes instead. It'll be way less painful and you'll probably learn faster.
It's really important to get extra help and go to office hours in this class. Honestly, her lectures aren't helpful and it was really hard to learn and do the HW assignments without going to office hours for extra help. Sometimes she handles office hours instead of the TAs, and she is not helpful whatsoever when she does host. Doesnt' care for us
I had to do this class online cuz of COVID so my review might be a little skewed, but the lectures she provided actually sucked, and she wasnt helpful at all in office hours. Sometimes I would stay up past 2am trying to finish the HW because she would not answer my questions properly in office hours or her lectures were bad. TAs are ur saving grace
I am a business student and I chose this class for the extra Excel knowledge. Though I received an A from this class, I had to study three times much harder than other classes I got an A. Totally leaned by myself, office hours were helpful. It's still possible to get an A even though you are not good at cs, but it will be super tough :(
Professor Razzaq would often ignore questions that she doesn't want to answer in Microsoft Teams lectures as well as make students feel stupid for needing help during office hours. You will learn a lot in the class but Razzaq makes the course insanely difficult. Also the tutors are hardly available for office hours as the wait can be hours long.
One of the most unengaging professors ive ever had. Compared to my other CS professors, Leena had dull and monotonous lectures. Came to her office hours a few times and was usually met with confusing answers to my questions, sometimes feeling a little condescending. Would not recommend, especially since other CS profs are so much better.
Not a very good lecturer. Uses other professors' material. Cannot answer questions very well.
I remember that I did not find her particularly engaging, and the lectures were somewhat difficult to follow. She was not very helpful or understanding in office hours either.
Hands down the most boring professor I've had so far. Skip the lectures and read the lecture notes and you'll learn better in half the time.
Don't go to her lectures she's so boring and they don't help at all. I hardly went to class and was able to do fine on the homework watching the lecture videos and reading lecture code uploaded by other professors.
Her class is very boring, but I had no choice but to take her. I learn everything from the homeworks and barely pay attention in class since she goes so fast. If there is another option, I would definitely look into them.
incredibly boring and was so unhelpful any time my friends or i reached out. tended to explain blatantly obvious concepts in heavy detail and then skim over the new, tough material. i would honestly recommend skipping class and watching the recorded lectures or sitting in on a different prof's class.
She was incredibly unhelpful when I asked questions. When I would come to ask a question, she would spend 10 minutes with another student and only a minute with me. She also made some kids uncomfortable with weird aggression when answering questions. When asked if we would talk on something in class she said, "What is there to say about it?"
Her lecture is not helpful for most of your homework. You are going to have 2 homework per week and they would take you up to 15 or sometimes even 20 hours to finish if you don’t have a good CS background before taking the class. And the homework grading are extremely tough. It’s easy to score 60-70 though you have spent all those time on it.
awful. awful. literally the worst professor I have ever had. Do not bother attending her class, you will do better just watching the lecture videos and getting another professor's code. So so boring she sounds like she doesn't even want to be there. We learn very simple code in class that does not at all prepare us for for the assignments.
Fundies is a very difficult course, but this professor helped make it more bearable. Keep careful notes of the lectures, because all the problems you do in class can help you figure out your homework. The class is super difficult, but her attitude to the class helps. Additionally, she always takes questions about homework everyday before class.
lectures she goes over super easy functions that a 2 year old can figure out then makes the assigned homework much harder. not good at all at preparing students in class. watch lecture videos they will help alot. it is done by a different professor who actually can teach well
Extremely boring lectures, probably one of the worst profs in CS department. Avoid at all costs. Luckily this sem the prof for the other class was much better and I attended those lectures instead. Cannot stress this enough, only take her if you must.
Prof. Leena was Extremely boring. Her lectures are not helpful whatsoever, she doesn't require attendance(which is a plus so you could spend your time watching the lecture videos instead). also don't take cs in spring( there are better options in the fall and summer! also her exams are on paper (EWWW)
Her lectures are extremely boring and unhelpful, and frankly a waste of time. She can be rude/condescending when students ask her questions, and she rarely, if ever, seems eager to help her students. One of the worst professors I've had during my time here at Northeastern. Save yourself the trouble and enroll in another lecture section if you can.
Did lots of extra office hours which was really helpful.
I was a little nervous to take this course because of some of the comments I saw here, but Leena was great. I'm new to CS and I learned a ton. Honestly one of the best courses I've taken so far, well organized and fair.
lectures were not helpful, I recommend watching the recordings instead of going to class, lecture just wasnt a good experience for fundies 1 or 2, but part of that comes with the class
She is an extremely sweet teacher but does not cover FUNDIES 1 well. I will always leave the class clueless. I do not recommend this professor if you want to understand the content.
Pretty friendly, the lectures are well done. Course is tough though.
She is a great and caring professor, but she does not express concepts and ideas in a very clear way in classes.
There are supplementary videos and modules online that make it possible to pass this course with an A without ever showing up to lecture. Labs are way more important and impactful. Supplied reading/documentation is also helpful.
Lots and lots and lots and lots of material, with very little good instruction. Honestly, this course is self taught.
Leena was alright. She didn't actually outline what she was teaching and her lectures were all over the place. The content was basically self-taught
It's clear she wants everybody to succeed. The course is challenging but she is an excellent professor.
Going to her lectures is not useful and is a complete waste of time. Her lecture is like a glass of water, drink it as if nothing has happened. The grading is extremely harsh, even deducting students' marks for things that don't matter. This was not an easy class and it was made worse. A relentlessly middle-of-the-road woman.
Razzaq headed Fundies 2 and was not flexible at all when it came to grading.
Professor Razzaq's lectures weren't bad but were hard to sit through at points. Going to lecture is not enough for this course as you have to read the online notes before hand and it's easy to fall behind if you don't. Assignments are very hard and time consuming. However, Razzaq would stay over time to help students in office hours which was nice.
She was an okay professor. The class she taught was hard itself and a difficult concept if you don't have prior java experience. She will help you as much as you can but your best bet is to go to the TAs or self-study. Class is intensive and super time consuming
Awful. It's no surprise that every other professor's lectures got filled up completely but Leena's was left empty. As far as the course goes, the grading criteria for homework were unclear at best. Tests were also written badly with no possibility for clarifying questions. Furthermore, Leena was impossible to reach over email and not understanding.
Professor Razzaq seems like a nice person, but the way she manages the Fundies 2 curriculum is awful. Assignments have very vague descriptions and expectations, forcing students to always check Piazza for clarifications and join office hours, which have a maximum of 6-hour wait times. Class is very time-consuming and basically a weed-out class
Prof. Razzaq isn't a super mean teacher but definitely isn't very passionate about the subject or her students. I thought the course would be easy after getting a high A in Fundies 1 yet that was obviously not the case. Homework took immense amounts of time for some assignments and tests were graded very strictly.
Homework was extremely hard and office hours had a line of up to 6 hours (minimum 1 on a good day.) Professor was nice in class but not very caring of the situations of others outside of class. If you did bad on just one homework your grade went down immediately. Tests were really hard as well.
tough!
She never talks about the material, every class she just talk about random questions that has nothing to do with the course materials. 0/5, would never take her class again. I am sorry.
This class is definitely a full-time job. I think Prof. Razzaq gets a lot of hate, but its just misdirected bc the content itself is really hard. Make sure to use TAs and OH extensively. I found that Prof. Razzaq's own OH were extremely helpful to go to. HWs and tests felt very hard throughout the entire class.
She does not teach anything in lectures
She just sits and codes in front of us in class, not a lot of explanation and not a lot of resources outside of the code from lecture. She kind of just writes it and expects us to catch on. I didn't find lecture super helpful. Homework can be long and its hard to get help for the difficult ones.
She seems like a nice person but she was not a good professor. Class time was just her coding in front of us which was not helpful and she moved through material so fast. The course is run extremely poorly and the material is difficult. I would not take her again. It is also really difficult to get help in office hours bc the queues are so long.
Is caring compared to other professors but lectures seem very confusing. It is best to sit up front to ask questions and make sure to utilize piazza.
terrible lectures
Good professor. Some people keep saying she's boring, but that's because she spends a lot of time on solving the question and doing a lot of examples in class, so you get a decent practice of doing problems in class. I will agree, if you are a great student, lectures might get tedious. If that's the case, consider testing out of CS2500 altogether.
Good professor, but Fundies2 is trash, I don't understand why students admitted to the main campus are treated like this and it's so ridiculous that the Global Scholar students learn Kotlin with an average of 90% (and they are equipped with better teaching faculty?)
Great course, one of the few I felt I actually learned something useful
I really liked her teaching style, as she does tend to do lots of examples. Each lecture goes through multiple examples. She is also super nice and accessible.
While sometimes the lectures were a bit boring because the content felt simple, that simplicity quickly becomes important for some of the more complex topics. I really appreciate Razzaq's ability to actually teach and not just spew out information she already knows. Great professor, I don't know why everyone hates.
Terrible class
She would be a 5/5 professor, but man do the lectures make you fall asleep. She is probably your best chance as a freshman to learn something especially if you have not coded before, but be prepared: that exam3 is a train that will plow you to straight to hell.
I wasn't able to pay attention during lectures because she was a very boring lecturer. We use Professor Patterson's discord server for communication, where students can ask questions about the homeworks; TAs and Professor Patterson respond very quickly. Overall not too difficult of a class but we use Racket, which is very annoying but not too bad.
Not the best lecturer but very nice and always starts class with questions. Allows for an environment where mistakes are welcomed. If you just pay attention and ask questions you'll be fine.
Prof Razzaq is alright. I mean, shes not terrible - just didn't work for me. She does the bare minimum and isn't particularly good or bad. I went to all her lectures (though they weren't very helpful), still didn't help much. TA's will save you, just work on your own and ur fine. Dont not take her, but if you have the option for better, GO!
She doesn't teach in the lectures, she just codes in front of us and describes the code in an extremely monotone voice that makes you fall asleep without explaining anything. You're better off learning it by yourself than going to class.
This teacher doesn't care about you, or your grade. Most of the time she didn't know the answer to basic, clear questions. Instructions were messy, and you would often get points deducted for the most unnecessary reasons in homework. She has no clue about what she's teaching, since she isn't the one who made the lesson slides Overall extremely bad.
Lectures extremely extremely boring. Besides that, great person who is very caring and nice.
If its Sloan and Razzaq for the last rounds of fundies 2 again, I'd go with Razzaq personally. Stopped going to Sloan's lectures to go to her's instead. Boring lectures, but she is kind and willing to stop to answer questions. Though for for fundies I'd say the homework and office hours are where you are going to be doing most of your learning
Homeworks are long and grading is unclear, you'll most likely get points deducted. She doesn't teach anything just codes in front of you without explaining anything. Extremely boring and disengaging causing you to likely skip class. Basically learned the curriculum on my own and with TA's. Tests are somewhat hard especially if you struggle a bit.
Professor had a poor teaching style, boring lectures that would just repeat stuff of the slides. It wasn't even worth it to go to class. Stubborn on grading, very harsh criteria and would not hear you out for anything.
Not a strong professor, it was just a super random class that made no sense. She would just code on the board and not teach anything. Would not recommend.
Lecutres weren't real, she 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.
Probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances.
Thueb material was presented in a disorganized way. Tests were much harder than what we covered in class. Office hours were limited and not very helpful.
CS with Racket just doesnt make sense anymore. She barely knew what she was doing and would just code and then explain it. Good luck asking a question, or doing anything remotely impactufl here.
Probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recomme
Lecutres weren't real, she 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.,
Probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances.a
Honestly, lecutres weren't real, she 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..
Basically, probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances.!
Actually, the material was presented in a disorganized way. Tests were much harder than what we covered in class. Office hours were limited and not very helpful.
CS with Racket just doesnt make sense anymore. She barely knew what she was doing and would just code and then explain it. Good luck asking a question, or doing anything remotely impactufl here.e
This professor clearly doesn't care about students. Lectures were confusing and disorganized. When asked questions, they would just repeat the same explanation without clarifying. Exams tested material never covered in class. Avoid at all costs.
Seriously, lecutres weren't real, she 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.
Lecutres weren't real, she 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.!
Lecutres weren't real, she 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.!.
Probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances..
Lecutres weren't real, she 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..
Probably the most challenging class I've taken. The professor will not help you, and any questions you have will be met with a blank stare. The material is very difficult to understand and the tests are way harder than the homework. I would not recommend this professor under any circumstances.!
The material was presented in a disorganized way. Tests were much harder than what we covered in class. Office hours were limited and not very helpful.
CS with Racket just doesnt make sense anymore. She barely knew what she was doing and would just code and then explain it. Good luck asking a question, or doing anything remotely impactufl here..
This professor clearly doesn't care about students. Lectures were confusing and disorganized. When asked questions, they would just repeat the same explanation without clarifying. Exams tested material never covered in class. Avoid at all costs..
Overhated professor. Offers many extra credit opportunities and always replies on Piazza. Many students just use ai on their HW and take out their bad grades on her instead of learning.
The lecture is relly boring
Fundies I and II are like if your calculus professor introduced limits and never really moved on. They kept saying how it's the foundation of everything. Then, right at the end of the semester, they casually mentioned, "Oh yeah, people in the real world actually use things like the chain rule...." Razzaq is fine, Lectures are mid. 0 prep for coop.
Decent professor, lectures are informative and are necessary to learn the style submission guidelines but not necessary for content material. Style guide is similar to fundies 1 styling. Easy to work with, reasonable person, will give some extra credit on big homeworks. points taken off from homework and lab grading is mostly styling.
Loved the class
One of my favorite courses
Just came to say this was a great course. I was sorry to see that its gone
It was a good class
just extremely boring. She'd have ppt presentations and the slides were just text copied from the course website. She also dragged out her sentences which made it really hard to pay attention to what she was saying.
Mrs. Razzaq's class was almost useless. In the CS2100's first year of the class, she was unable to answer actual questions about the confusing homework. He level of teaching was comparable to an AI chatbot. She displayed no depth of understanding. For the CS2100 course, at least in the fall of 2025, the homework made no sense.
pretty good class
Definitely agree that Prof. Razzaq is over-hated. She is not the greatest professor, but she does care and can answer questions about the material. I will cut her some slack about not being able to answer some questions about the autograder because it is literally the first time this class is being taught; that is not her fault. A kind professor.
As some others have noted, Leena is definitely an over-hated professor. Her lectures are typically reasonable/understandable, but sometimes she'll take a moment to "explain" something in depth, and it might not be logical or easy to follow. Most of the problems in this class were due to the autograder--something that she has no control over.
I feel like I learned a lot in this course. The assignments were interesting and there was even one about bias in RMP. Makes you think ...
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
12%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.41 avg changeRatings by Course
CS2100
4.0
(5)CS1100
3.8
(4)CS5001
3.6
(5)CS2510
3.0
(40)CS2500
2.5
(67)Difficulty by Course
CS2500
3.8
CS2510
3.7
CS5001
3.6
2500
3.3
CS1100
3.0