this guy gets a bad rap.. but i think he's a great teacher.

By far the hardest professor I ever had. But there are two very good things about him. 1) He actually helps u debug. 2) After his class you're alot smarter than most other students, and that counts when u're going for a job or internship. Survive...

You should feel honored to take his class. This guys is one of the best teachers around. Even if you get a C in his class (I got an A+ if you're wondering), you still come out smarter than your previous self.

Hilfinger is a great and challenging professor who will teach you alot. If you want an easy class or arent that into CS, then he's not for you.

I'm in my 4th year so I can safely say that out of all my classes, this is the one that taught me the most. Yes, the reviews are right. He does throw you into ocean and make you fend for yourself but, in the end, it worked for me.

He takes pleasure in making students suffer and seeing them write in agony. However, he is also the most helpful and involved professor I've ever had. He is always available, always responsive. He really has a passion for the material and wants you to succeed and learn - even if he makes it a bear to do. One of my favorite professors, so far.

It's a rite of passage. People learned to program in that class. Hardcore, but fair.

He's a quirky, brilliant man. His explanations are clear, his tests are hard, and he enjoys making things difficult. Sometimes, he appears to have a superior attitude, but is reasonable when talked to.

I liked him... yes he's a hard professor, but it's not like you can't get any help. He's a little sadistic and more than a little quirky, but it works... try submitting a bug-submit at 2 in the morning and getting a reply in 10 mins. You will be made to think, but you'll come out of it hopefully feeling good about it

The guy codes in his sleep. He knows every language ever made along with its quirks. The only professor I've had to grade on programming style, and harshly at that. Insane amounts of work, but theres no other proffessor up at 4am along with you answering newsgroup postings.

Hilfinger is smart. His projects are amazingly hard and his exams are worse. He expects way too much out of his students, but his grading is lenient. His lectures are useful, but you probably don't need to go since most of the material is covered online in his slides. Overall, a difficult but good professor. He's funny too.

You'll learn tons if you take 61B with Hilfinger. He's a genius, and expects the same from you. His projects are hard (he even says so) and his exams are harder. Get help from your friends or TAs if you're afraid to ask him a question, and try to do HW and labs regularly, and you should do ok.

This class was overwhelming for a person with little coding experience coming into the class. I ended up with an F in the class, but felt I learned so much from Hilfinger despite what my grade indicated. I retook the class next semester with Clancy and I got an A+. I owe to Hilfinger for teaching me how to code the right way.

Probably one of the best professors I've had at Berkeley. Witty lectures, interesting projects, and impossible tests that you're not supposed to do well on by design (because they hardly count for you grade). If you spend time on the projects, an A is easy.

You will learn a lot.If you do the projects and get a little more than 10% on each exam, you will get a very nice grade.He's very smart and math oriented,so lectures are a bit dry,but never had the urge to sleep in class (he has ways of dealing with this - jokes and breaks).Projects are extremely fun, but start as early as you can.

The best CS professor at Cal! His projects are insane so start early. His exams are very difficult but the projects are worth more of the grade so don't sweat it when you get 50% on an exam. If you want to learn how to hack, take Hilfinger! Don't wimp out, your resume will thank you!

This class is hard. but you learn TONS-- just be ready to put in hours and hours of work on projects and fail all exams. The course is designed so that everyone can do terribly on the tests adn still do well in the clas-- but still be prepared to read and study and work real hard on the projects. Hilfinger himself is grumpy but a good teacher

He's the GOD of CS. Do take this class. Try not to get zero on each test and full score on projects and you will be fine, at least a B. B is a compliment for a student taking his class I think :-D

Best class I've taken. But before I got on, I have to warn you that this was also the HARDEST class I've taken. Projects take 100+ hours, EACH. form a study group, work with students. I encourage you to work in labs; you get a lot of help there. Lastly, ask yourselves this: how many professor will be up at 2:30 am to debug your code? nuff said.

He is not mean and the class is not as hard as people say. The class is designed so if you get 100% on projects and 50% on tests you'll get an A- so it's fair. Tests are very hard though. Keep up with the work and you'll be fine. I came in with only 61A exp and I did fine. I learned a TON. By the last project it felt easy but still took time

Not an easy class, but totally passable with effort. I went in with no programming experience and got a B in 61A and an A in 61B. 50% on most exams was considered top of the class (seriously, a 55% was the 30th best score in the class). He's available to help at almost all hours and isn't an unlikable guy. His sense of humor is just a bit sadistic.

This class was the hardest class I ever took at Berkeley. You have to put a ridiculous amount of hours into his projects but you do learn a lot from them. His tests are very hard and it is not worth studying for them. But as long as you do well on the projects you will do well in the class. I look back at this class with nostalgia.

If you don't take cs61b with Hilfinger you're doing Berkeley CS wrong, prepare for all nighters, impossible exams and overwhelming projects. But in the end if you didn't give up it's all worth it.

This is the navy seals for cs. He reminds me of darth sidious (darth vador's master in star wars). "YOU MUST TURN TO THE DARK SIDE!" (way worth it)

What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. There's a reason he has the reputation he does, but trust me, once you're done crying, you'll realize you learned more in a semester than you thought possible. Pro tip - know java ahead of time, know how to debug, and have some study mates.

Not one professor would help debug your program, not to mention do it at 4AM. True that his tests are hard, but he is a great professor who wants you to learn.

This class is honestly fantastic no matter which professor you take it with. Don't let Hilfinger scare you away from this course.

CS61B with Hilfinger was easily the most time consuming class I've taken at Berkeley, but the material itself is not terribly difficult. The projects took me between 50-100 hours each, and there are 4 of them. No regrets at all, every CS major should take 61B with Hilfinger. Once the bleeding stops, you'll realize you learned something.

If you have Hilfinger for CS61A worry not. This is not the Hilfinger experience. All the assignments and exams are the same as any other 61A class. Hilfinger just lectures and he's a pretty good lecture although he talks slowly so you might want to stick to watching the lecture videos at x1.5 on youtube.

Hardest thing I have done ever, But so worth it

All these people giving low ratings just can't handle the Hilf

Hardest thing I've ever taken, but well worth it. I spent 14+ hours a week just at office hours for this class, but honestly I feel like I've learned to the full capacity that I could have in one semester. You will get frustrated, tired and angry that you don't understand, but it made me realize that that is exactly why I would like CS.

You will never have a second top-shelf CS scholar to debug your broken code in person except for P. N. Hilfinger.

He's a very reasonable professor and he really cares about his students- he'll stay up almost all night to help debug students' code and he's very available to ask questions to. He pushes students very hard, so the class is pretty hard/a lot of work. Very project heavy class. Overall, not the most dynamic lecturer, but he really cares.

Had him for both CS61A and CS61B- not the most engaging lecturer, but you'll finish each class believing you learned all there is to be had, regardless of the grade you receive. He expects you to put in the same amount of work that he does, and he'll push for self-sufficiency. Extremely witty and funny if you take the time to appreciate it.

He's actually a great professor and his reputation for being super difficult and demanding isn't deserved. At least for the 61 series, the level of difficulty of his classes is comparable to any other professor. He really seems to care about his students and wants to help them succeed. You will come out of his class a much improved coder.

CS 61A changed my life. Before I had no programming experience and now I'm going to be a CS major. Watched Denero's videos instead of going to lecture. Hilfinger's reputation is irrelevant for 61A. Take the class

Hilfinger is very funny. He doesn't like 61A much because he only co-taught because Denero had other classes to teach. You can tell he knows stuff though. He is prone to making mistakes including writing code in the wrong language and making an error that causes the demonstration to error. The class is a lot of work but fun.

Absolutely brutal projects, but open book/open note tests make up for it.

Projects are hard and time consuming, which worth half of your grade. So if you start early and get full credits on them, you just need around 60% on the tests to get an A.

I took 61B with Hilfinger in Fall 2018. If you get most of the points for each project and just average grades on all of the tests, then you'll get an A- for sure, if not an A. I did this plus most of the EC and got an A+. The projects are tough, but only because most people don't start early. Just start the projects early and you'll get the A.

Projects are worth 50% and they are difficult and time consuming. I had to work with my friends to finish them since queues for offices hours and labs are long. You need to do well on the projects in order to do well in the class. His tests are not too difficult, and he lets you bring unlimited notes to them, so do take good lecture notes.

The projects will determine your grade. He offers a lot of extra credit and is really nice, despite what many other people say. The only programming experience I had coming into this class was 61A but I was able to do well on the projects, even on the notorious Gitlet. I failed both midterms and got an A. If you put in the work, you'll do well.

Taking this class has been incredibly memorable; I have spent so much time doing work for this class that I can't remember when my life didn't revolve around it. I've been so inspired by this professor to avoid CS at all costs now. I'd have never figured it out without him, so hats off to you, Paul!

Unpopular opinion I guess, but I actually really like Hilfinger. He is eccentric and slightly rambly, but he has some funny dry humor thrown into his lectures. Gives off big brain intellectual energy. I'm pretty bad at the tests, but I spent 2-3 hours scouring piazza for the projects and finished most in 10-15 hours. They were fun!

With Prof. Hilfinger, only one thing matters: projects. I bombed the midterms but I am already assured of an A without even taking the final. The first project was pretty meh, but all the other ones have been fun, well-thought out, and we have had none of the drama and issues that people experienced in prior semesters. Overall, would take again.

Not a terribly interesting lecturer (Hug is both clearer and more interesting IMO), but Prof Hilfinger is very generous on grading and from a logistical standpoint, ran the semester damn near flawlessly. Prof. almost raised the grade bins early in the semester before dropping them back (expect for the A+ bin), but I still got A+. You can do it!

Hilfinger is one of the best professors at UC Berkeley. I find this semester is pretty interesting as the coronavirus pandemic prohibit us to work optimally as usual, but with Professor Hilfinger, I can tackle this class without a problem. The test is hard (we all know his exams are hard), but it is still bearable!

His projects are hard, but with the help of al TAs and dedicated time to finish the hw, you will finish it on time. Exams are hard, but you can receive points from ec (in the project from checkpoints and extra questions). Exams are also open book and all other sources that you can print it out. He is always reachable! He really wants u to succeed.

He is not the greatest lecturer, but he know his stuff and conveys them well. The class itself has long projects, but they are not conceptually hard. Course staff and Hilfinger do everything they can to help you. There are also lots of extra credit opportunities and the exams are fair, not too hard and not too easy. One of my favorite classes.

Hilfinger is the best professor I've had. His 61b course structure is very organized and is very helpful in the industry. I also found his sense of humor hilarious and I enjoyed every second of my time in his class. In fact, I love prof Hilfinger so much that I ended up being course staff for 61b and am going to take upper divs that he teaches.

One of the best teaching professors in the department. Careful and meticulous in how he lectures; dry sense of humor; real love for computer science. His class is project-based, but the projects are pretty fair especially if you have Java experience. His exams are tough, there is enough extra credit to readily compensate. Take 61B with him!

Hilfinger is very, very knowledgeable. But at times, his lectures can be boring and difficult to comprehend. This is an intro CS class, so I had trouble understanding that stuff. However, beyond that, he was pretty funny and clearly knew what he was talking about.

Lectures are difficult to understand with no background, and I didn't get a lot out of them most of the time. Assignments are lengthy but very good for learning. Overall, a fun class with the projects. Start early and get help when you need it.

The notorious Paul Hilfinger, also known as the Severus Snape of the Computer Science department. I did not take CS61B with him, only CS61A, but I'm sure his Comic Sans text is present in both courses. His slides are quite complicated, and were only useful after learning the material myself. He and Professor Fox made a good team.

Took both 61AB with Professor Hilfinger. While its true his lectures are difficult to understand, his projects and assignments are truly the best. The textbook he wrote was also very helpful.

Lectures were boring so i skipped out on most of them. The course was very project heavy. Completing all projects and scoring slightly above 50% on each exam gets an A. I found homeworks, labs, and projects to correlate really well with exams.

He's a great professor. You would probably learn more in homework and projects than his lecture, but his lectures are quite fun to listen to as well!

Amazing professor!

Hilfinger is the GOAT. Lectures are sometimes a little tough to follow but he's really great at clarifying the material. Loved the project based style of the class.

He's the goat. Never before have I met a professor be so fair with their grading scheme. I learnt an A LOT from this class, although it was mostly from the GSIs. His lectures are kinda confusing (I'm guessing it's bc he's getting old and hasn't updated his slides in the last 20 years or so). Nevertheless, he is now retiring and he's legit. 100/100.

LEGEND! The best Data Structures Professor there ever was. We will miss you Professor! You learn a lot. Projects are hell especially gitlet!! You learn so much though. The personal / CS skills related growth that happened during this class is unreal.

This guy was a good professor, his structuring of the class made it easy to get an A if you put the work in.

Awesome grading system: put the work into the projects, get the grade. I know people who could have skipped the final and still gotten an A. The projects will put you through hell but you learn so much. Hilfinger's a decent lecturer too with some moments of comedy (also he uses comic sans). Wishing him a happy retirement!