He's very funny and very informed.

You will like this guy. Homework can sometimes be tricky, test checks understanding. Lots of office hours and super helpful. Sometimes lost me in class, but overall not bad. Had 2 midterms, a big plus for people who get test anxiety (like me).

You'll like this professor. He has a great ability for teaching -- keeps everyone interested in the material and makes it fun at the same time. Tests were easy, homeworks also easy but required some time. Final project was bulk of the grade and that took serious time -- its group work though. I was pleased with the professor and course.

Very friendly, very good teacher.

Excellent professor. Expects a lot, but gives you the tools to do it.

Professor Hopper is a really excellent teacher. He is well informed and very experience in the computer science world. The lectures were great, lab was slightly tricky, but we got to try out tones of cool stuff, i.e. html-website, programming. I strongly recommend this class and this professor. Plus, he's the guy who invented CAPTCHA.

Great teacher! passionate about the subject, which in itself is kind of boring. Fairly easy tests, with very relevant practice tests

Nick is great and genuinely cares about his classes. He routinely handed out evals bi-weekly throughout the semester looking for feedback. Quite the nerdy character which adds the much-needed humor to 4011. Homework can be difficult, but quizzes are drop dead easy and exams somewhere in-between.

He is a great teacher. His homework is actually pretty easy but it requires you to understand the course materials well. If you don't even understand basic concepts, you won't have a good time with his homework.

He is a very smart person, he can explain the course stuff very well. However, the labs and homework are talking too much time. I have to spend over 10 hrs on each homework and sometimes cannot finish it. Hopefully, the exam was not too hard, but you have to understand everything very clear to do it, since you don't even have a time to think.

His lectures are nice and clear, so long as you understand what's been covered in the class so far, and he answers questions as clearly as possible. The labs are very helpful, but short, so expect to work on them a bit outside of lab-time. The homework is very long, and very involved, introducing new concepts, so expect to look many things up.

Has lofty expectations, reflected in long, frustrating homework. Clear lectures seem cursory compared to intense assignments. Tests are moderate & curved with extra credit. Work focuses on applications & may seem irrelevant - many obscure topics covered. Class is challenging, yet rewards committed students. Those expecting an easy A will struggle.

Homeworks in this class are long, esoteric, and focused on applications - some of which would be more appropriate in 4xxx/5xxx-level classes (and some of which I learned in those as well!) Tests, however, are a cakewalk if you study. Homeworks are graded harshly, tests loosely. He gives extra credit to the entire class instead of curving properly.

Fair professor, with understandable lectures and really interesting and helpful topics. As long as you work hard enough to make yourself understand, you will successfully receive good grades. Fair tests and homework with moderate length. This course may not be easy as just show up to get A, but really makes you learn things.

In general, he is very clear and thorough in his lectures. He definitely knows the material and comes to class prepared for the lecture, as evidenced when his laptop failed at the beginning of a lecture, and he stopped to think for about a minute, then proceeded to finish the lecture without any notes. He was helpful when I had questions.

Amazing class with a good wealth of material. From OS security to network security (with a bit of cryptography), you will learn a lot. Be ready to work real hard, with good amount of homework and exercises, along with a semester long project. This class will not turn you into a 1334 h4x0r immediately, but a really good start to become one.

After this course, I consider Dr. Nick to be my favorite professor and 5271 my favorite class. He has a lot of passion and knowledge - very accessible and friendly. Grading and expectations are very reasonable but expect to put in a lot of work. However, the "hacking" assignments were actually fun, and they really solidified 2021 and 4211 content.

Lots of extra credit, take advantage

He is a model of a modern CSCI professor. Mad respect for the man.

Had weekly exercises and quizzes, and bi-weekly projects. Taught us Ocaml, which is basic at first but became challenging and increasingly time consuming throughout the course. Lectures were useful, but the homework was usually much harder than the examples in class. Fortunately, exercises could be partially completed and still get full credit.

He's a genius (he was on the team that invented CAPTCHA). He explains things well in lecture, but it sometimes got really hard to hear, even from the front row. This class had a lot of homework, which became very hard as the semester went on, so its important to start early and not fall behind. If you understand the homework, quizzes were not hard.

Nick Hopper is very smart but he is not a good lecturer. The course material itself isn't very interesting in the first place but even so his lectures are very boring. The class itself takes a lot of time. It has weekly exercises and quizzes, and bi-weekly homeworks but it does not have midterms.

Nick might be a bit dry and teach OCaml, but he's an excellent teacher. Does many examples and provides thorough lectures. No midterms, just weekly quizzes that he grades himself (professors never grade so A+ for that). And despite the amount of hmwk, it's for your benefit and at a reasonable difficulty to challenge and make you genuinely learn.

Nick is my favorite CSCI professor! I thought I would hate this class and was just taking it to fulfill a requirement, but it ended up being very interesting and enjoyable. TAs were also very helpful. If you put in the effort to truly listen and understand what Nick lectures about, you should easily get an A.

Nick is perhaps the most inspirational professor whom I had the pleasure of taking classes with. He has a dry sense of humour, and while his lectures can be just as dry, the man carries an aura of authority in whatever subject that he happens to teach. His classes are rich in content (very dense 3 credits), and he does care for his students.

I believe Dr. Hopper is the sole instructor of 5471, modern cryptography, for good reason, it's his field. He has very very high expectations for those who take this class, and it's a class you don't take unless you are genuinely interested in the subject. However, he understands his expectations are high and offers a TON of extra credit

Do all the homework and exercise sets. OCaml is very difficult at the start and he moves quickly but the class moves faster once you learn OCaml. Solid choice from a smart man albiet the lectures are boring as hell

Pretty solid professor with good explanations and helpful slides/notes. Homework is pretty tough, but exams and quizzes are pretty easy to prepare for and do well on. Lectures at times could seem oddly paced and answering questions in class he seemed strangely evasive, but overall decent choice if you want to learn something+very open to feedback.

Nick likes the material in this course quite a bit, and it shows. He was excited to teach us about the material. He kept the homework challenging while at the same time being fair. The quizzes were easy and the tests had no surprises. The course itself was fairly easy if you understand how to write math proofs (most proofs are by contradiction).

Nick Hopper puts a lot into his lectures. He expects just as much out of his students. The textbooks aren't quite as helpful as lectures and discussion; I found myself researching online if I was confused by a topic. Homework questions get pretty hard, the test questions are completely fair.

Modern Cryptography was a tough, math-heavy class, but it was super rewarding. Homeworks can be challenging, but he offers enough extra credit to get an A if you really try.

I really started respecting Professor Hopper when he made a comment in the class to ask questions because it shows that someone is striving to learn. His class was pretty easy if you have knowledge of networks and some pen testing experience. Highly recommend the class if you don't have any exp either! Group Projects made up most of the grade (45%)

Daily reading quizzes with an additional weekly quiz, weekly lab assignments, and coding assignments every 2 weeks. If you stay on top of things and visit the TA's whenever possible then the class really won't be that difficult. My only complaint is that the lectures are kind of dull. Other than that, Nick is really helpful during office hours.

Cool dude. Pretty frequent projects and labs, but the material is reasonable and taught well.

Dr Nick was pretty good. Class was asynch lectures/readings, a reading quiz per lecture/reading, synch lecture for review and questions, a lab and quiz once a week, homeworks once every other week. Lectures were clear, didn't bother doing readings, reading quizzes kept me on track, ez points, labs were tougher, quizzes not bad, hw's were rough.

Best online class I've taken so far. There is a lot of work, but it MAKES you at least SOMEWHAT caught up, very important for an online class. Asynchronous meetings were structed well, normal meetings never ran out of time. Highly recommend. He expects you to learn, so can be a little weird about "stupider" questions, but overall a solid choice.

Asynch lectures were clear and helpful. I'd recommend skip the readings as the lectures are good enough. Reading quizzes ez points. Synch lectures for review/questions. Weekly labs were challenging. Weekly quizzes were not bad at all. HW's were every other week, very rough, time consuming. Class forced me to stay on track. Fav online class so far

Prof. Hopper's class was fairly straightforward in terms of structure, which I felt was nice. He presented the material concisely, and labs and projects were not too challenging. We played Kahoot! to learn proofs, which is always enjoyable.

There was a lot to keep track of and having a synchronous and asynchronous lecture for every session was kind of annoying, but otherwise it was a pretty straightforward CS class. Labs and homeworks were time consuming and lectures could be dry at times. Hopper is a solid choice though and hes a pretty helpful guy in OH

I enjoyed his class. He is a hilarious person and makes the lectures with quirky examples. It was a lot of work for sure, but as long as you keep up with the assigned readings, you should be fine. It also helped the class was shortened for the summer session. The class was sometimes challenging, but I found it appropriate.

Nick Hopper is a good professor. His lectures aren't dry and he keeps things interesting. He is excited to teach about the material. The homework was challenging but, weirdly fun??. The quizzes were easy and the tests had no surprises. The course itself was fairly easy.

Nick Hopper is one of the best professors I have ever had. His course structure is very simple and straightforward. Had only a few Projects that took about 2 hours each. There was no midterm and the Final was a breeze. I was very ecstatic to hear that he is the head of the CS department and we should be proud that he leads the forefront of CS.

Professor Hopper is by far the best mentor/professor I have ever had. His lectures are engaging, and he is incredibly kind and respectful to students who didn't quite grasp the material the first time around. A few short programming assignments that stem directly from lecture. OCaml is an industry recognized language and very useful.

Nick is one of the best professors I've had at UMN. I've had him for several classes and he has consistently been great. His lectures cover a lot of material and are very clear and understandable, and he gives great feedback on homework, especially on the projects for this class. He also graded at lightning speed in this class.

Spring 2022. Lectures were flipped: watch lectures at home, then go over examples during class. He covered a decent amount of content. The projects were quite lengthy. Labs were also lengthy, but you're given a week to do them. The quizzes (10) were covered by the lecture. Final was essentially like one giant quiz-- not hard at all.

Fun lectures, not condescending as other reviews said, good OHs, tests were open notes and taken out of class, gave good extra credits. Might be an outlier because honors classes get smaller lectures, but Nick taught this class well. Lots of HW compared to non-honors 2011 but you *really* learn discrete math.

Professor Hopper takes questions as a personal attack on his teaching skills and his answers are condescending. But, I'm grateful I had him because he did a great job ensuring we were ready for upper div classes. The homework was tough so you should start early and you can get extra credit, the quizzes were simple, and there was a take-home final.

GOATed professor, highly recommend

Good professor, just a boring class

Nick is very sassy and tends to take questions or clarifications as personal attacks. Homework's and labs are so easy a child could do them. Projects are difficult get ready to spend multiple long nights of nothing working. Grading criteria is unclear. Nick responds to emails quickly. Within a day though often he would respond even at 11pm. Funny

- He's passionate and knowledgable about the field and a nice guy. - Not only do you learn how to exploit code, you learn how to threat model and present your findings (via paper not presentation lol) - The project is fun, i'm convinced everyone who complains a lot about it is used to relying on AI (its against AI policy to give you exploit code)

class was great, pretty hard but also fun. Nick is a great lecturer. SOO much work. Most organized course I have ever taken. He comes off as kind of rude (sassy as someone said) but I think it's just because he's awkward. he clearly cares like a lot and he's really smart. But I totally thought he hated me/I had offended him or something lol