I don't understand the critical reviews. Matni is a clear lecturer, he answers questions and is somewhat active on Piazza. As long as you don't leave hw/labs to the last minute you should be OK. The first midterm average was about a 90, and he allowed a page of notes. He's approachable and knowledgeable about the subject material.

He's only taught one class at UCSB and I was in it. Some of the people in this class shocked me with the attitude they dished at him. Like welcome to college? It was gross and undeserved--this class was easy and Matni is a reasonable, kind and knowledgable teacher. SMFH. I barely did anything and got a B+. Just show up and do the FEW assignments...

Matni is a really nice man & genuinely cares about his students. His lectures are a little boring, but the information isn't too difficult at all. His tests were fair. I skimmed over the reading and did a minimal amount of studying for final/midterm. Also, he assigned 2 papers (both easy). Takes roll every lecture. I got an A-.

The people giving Matni a low rating for CS16 are some of the softest college students I have ever seen. He genuinly cares about teaching the material as best as possible. I think most of the low ratings came from freshmen who have no idea how hard CS is going to get down the line. IT IS A NATURALLY HARD SUBJECT AND IT WILL ONLY GET HARDER.

Matni is one of the few CS profs that seems to actually care about his students. His grading is tough and he knows it, but if you are having trouble in his class he will do everything he can to make sure you understand the material, and for that -- he's awesome. His lectures are also mildly entertaining and outside of class he's a chill guy.

The best professor I've had in my CS classes so far. Very clear lecturer and is always organized and prepared. Tests and assignments are fair and you will do well as long as you attend class and do the work. Very accessible outside of the classroom for additional help. Only negative is that lectures sometimes have typos, which can cause confusion.

Easy fun and interesting class if you go to lecture and pay attention you'll do well. Matni is a great professor one of my favorites at UCSB

The NICEST teacher at UCSB. Has a huge heart and wants his students to succeed. His lectures are clear and easy to follow plus he doesn't try to trick you on his tests. He wants to best for his students/wants them to take as much away from the class as possible. I would highly recommend taking a class taught by Matni!

He's a very sweet and caring professor. Always answers his emails and dedicates a portion of his day answering questions on Piazza. In fact, he genuinely wants you to do well. However, it doesn't mean that his class is easy. You have to put in the work if you want to do well!

Matni is one of the best CS professors at UCSB. The subject matter is pretty tough but he gives you the tools to succeed. Show up to lecture and actually do the labs and you will do fine in the class.

Go to lab and do the homework (easy 100% for both). In lecture, he has some good examples, but not quite necessary as long as you look over the lecture slides posted and actually do the homework. Lectures can get pretty boring. Pretty easy grader and he allows a sheet of notes for the tests.

Genuinely wants you to succeed, but also expects you to put in a considerable amount of effort. Their are two homework assignments every week and some lab assignments can be challenging and/or extensive.

Organized lecture slides with encouraged class participation. Weekly section exercises due at section, 1 research paper due towards the end of the quarter. Midterm and final sample questions released a week before the exam. Some review is done in class. Typical comm grade scale which is based on improvement. Extra credit opportunities available.

Matni is a great lecturer and is very entertaining. His homework is easy and so are the tests as long as you pay attention in the lecture. Reading the textbook is largely unnecessary as he covers all relevant material quite concisely in his lectures. Overall an excellent professor and one that I would gladly choose again.

He is very helpful when students need clarification. You should definitely read the book or at least skim it. Test questions are tricky. Gives a good amount of extra credit. The end grade is curved up so your percentage grade is the worst you are going to get in the class. Usually curves by 2-4 percentage points.

Matni's lectures were entertaining (for a CS lecture, at least) and his explanations of concepts were very clear. He would also post his lecture slides online afterward, which were very thorough and helpful to look through before a test. Overall, the class requires a decent amount of work, but is definitely doable.

Don't bother buying the textbook, everything are in his lecture slides which he posts online! Labs can be time consuming, but get a lab partner and it should be fine.

This class was great. He seemed to enjoy the material and liked to help students do well. He is very generous but also tough at the same time. If you do the work. Go to class. And study you will do fine. Great guy and great professor.

Professor Matni is good at making his lectures funny and easy to understand. His labs are a little hard but students can learn a lot from each labs. For this quarter, this class has NO homework, meaning the load of this course is relatively light! Exams are little challenging, but detailedly reviewing his slices is extremely useful!!!

Good teacher. Comes across as nice but can be mean. Just dont show up late. I am a beginner and nothing made sense to me. I just suck at it, it was awful. Most people seemed to do well though. Just put in effort & make friends who can help. 1hw/1lab due once a week. Two projects. Easy midterm, hard final. Knew absolutely nothing but got a B+

Matni is good as professors go but can get on my nerves. Wakes up sleeping students and embarrasses them during class(how does this accomplish anything?). CS16 has WAY more & WAY tougher homework and labs than CS8. My partner and I spent an average of 5 hours on the labs each week. Put in the work and you will pass easily, but it is time consuming.

I really liked Professor Matni. This class has a pretty heavy workload (two homeworks and one lab every week) but it's definitely not impossible, plus most of your grade is based on homework and labs so tests aren't too much pressure. He made the material interesting and easy to learn and was really nice and accessible outside of class.

Prof. Matni was an amazing CS professor who truly made the material easy to learn. The labs were definitely a time commitment, but otherwise the homework was pretty easy. I didn't really go to class, but it's usually a good idea to attend lecture because he goes over concepts and shows us how everything works with his code. def would take his class

Matni is the best!!! His lecture is very clear, and easy to understand. I wish he teaches more pre-comm classes

Love him! The class had great content, and unfortunately the comm department grades us against each other, so it puts him in a negative light. I'm planning on taking him again next quarter for social networks because I love his teaching style so much. Very direct, and answers everything clearly. Class is lecture based, so the book is optional.

The final exam was the hardest exam I've taken in my entire life. That being said, Matni is a really great prof. He is intelligent, clear, and knows how to teach. He's definitely on the harder side in terms of profs, but its a fair trade-off because you will learn SO MUCH from him. The only prof I had this quarter who actually cared about his job.

Matni was one of the best profs I've had here. He cares about the students and helping you understand the material and was very clear with his grading. He was always accessible outside of class and picked up the slack of having awful TA's. He wants you to do well if you're willing to put in the effort.

Take his class if you are CS major otherwise avoid since his hws and exams pays attention to the details which would be helpful for CS major students. For other majors, just take it from some other instructors that are being easier in grading.

Very nice person! Easy grader! He makes the lectures interesting and his slides are really clear! He kind of likes to have some multiple choice for definition or description on the exam so make sure to go over the slides for important terms. High average for two midterms. Final is a little bit hard but he curves. Office hour and open lab help.

Not super nice but he's awesome on his lectures as he explains CS basics very clearly. 2 midterms & 1 final are fair if u do study based on slides. Lots of hw & labs so the study load might be heavy, but TAs & tutors are very accessible & helpful in open lab times. There's an assigned teammate for 1 project & some labs though u can sometimes solo.

If you can, I would def choose him over Mullin. He is very nice and helpful when you go to his office hours. He keeps tracks on who comes to his OH. So go if you can!

Very thorough in his lectures. Grading was fair, definitely not difficult but also not a total pushover. Matni was pretty understanding and down to earth as a person. He seems passionate about his job. He had a few pop quizzes, but they weren't particularly difficult.

Ziad Matni is seriously one of the most thoughtful, kind and funny professors especially in pre-comm classes. He posts lectures online, but it is super important to go to class because his iclicker questions are extra credit and he supplements the lecture slides with important info for the tests. Midterm and final are hard, but he is helpful.

Great professor

One of my favorite professor in UCSB.

Ive had professor Matni for Comm 88 and 169. I can honestly say hes my favorite professor at UCSB. His lectures are engaging, hes funny, and super helpful. He might come off as tough but if you go to office hours and ask for help, he will go above and beyond. Amazing professor and person! He is a must take as a comm major

One of my favorite professors at UCSB! Since I took a summer class with Dr. Matni, I only had three weeks in his class however I learned more in those three weeks than I have in other 10 week classes. He is very accessible and lectures are engaging and entertaining. Would definitely take future classes with him!

Third class w/ Matni. Def my fav prof in CS dept. Good: -You learn the material for real if you pay attention, no need for youtube etc -Labs are set up well and clearly specify the requirements -Funny and helpful Bad: -Tough if you dont pay attention, but all his classes are required so you really should if you want your degree to mean anything

Great lecturer. The class may be tricky, but the materials were new and fun to me. Go to office hour to ask about hard problems; he'll go over with you.

This class is tough, and Dr. Matni's quizzes are very tricky and you will lose points if you're not paying enough attention to minute details. However, he is very energetic and gives extremely informative, fantastic lectures. I learned so much in this class that I can forgive the strict grading. His style won't work for everyone, but it did for me.

I've had him for both CS 16 and 64, and he is definitely one of my favorite professors at UCSB. His lectures are thorough. While he can be a tough grader, he was willing to provide extra time for the quizzes given the current circumstances. He offers very detailed explanations during office hours.

I liked Matni a lot! He was really lenient on students during the pandemic and he dropped the lowest quiz gradehe also gave us an extra credit opportunity on the labs. I thought the final was pretty easy but still a good review of the course material.

Very likeable guy. His lectures were interesting. However, be very prudent when doing quizzes or exams since he is a harsh grader. The material is easy to learn, but he does require you to be very detail oriented and logical. If you aren't careful, you will lose points and there is really no leniency given. Otherwise, a straightforward course.

Solid professor, clear and organized lectures. Homework, quiz and labs simple. (1 each per week) Gave extra credit for (basically) free. Don't worry about the final. If you've taken APCS, this class is probably no problem at all. (A bit too simple of a curriculum, perhaps; it's not a lot of content).

He is a good lecturer that genuinely wants students to do well. The quizzes can be tricky though and they are a difficult but fair. He is very clear in terms of what is due at what time each week & actively encourages students to come to office hours. Prof Matni is very enthusiastic & has a great sense of humor too!

Dr. Matni is an amazing professor. His lectures are very helpful and fun to watch, and they cover everything in the textbook. He answers questions clearly on piazza and during lecture. Homework, labs, and quizzes are sometimes a little bit too much, but they are pretty easy and are good exercises. Overall a really enjoyable class.

Really nice guy, although he can be a little blunt/sarcastic at times. He is a very fair professor, nothing unreasonable and decently accommodating. He seems passionate about the things he teaches and gives good examples in his lectures. Nothing much more to ask for in a professor.

Prof Matni is one of the best Comm professors I've had. He makes lecture material very clear, tests accurately reflect lecture and reading material, and he just makes class interesting all around. Would love to take another class with him in the future

Thought this class would be brutal based off the ratings but it was such a fun class. His lectures are so clear and he explains everything thoroughly

Had him over the summer and thought he was such an amazing professor. I enjoyed his lectures and his assignments are thorough and clear.

This is my 2nd course with Matni since I enjoy his lecture style (similar to D. Mullin). He was receptive to student requests about COVID and his office hours were great. Lectures (always recorded) and readings were engaging and interesting. Grading included attendance, various assignments (including a group project), and a midterm + final exam.

Professor Matni is the best comm professor I had at UCSB. He is funny, engaging, and cares about his students. His lectures are all easy to follow along and understand, and he is clearly very prepared and passionate about the material. Class participation is graded but Matni is great at encouraging it and creating a welcoming classroom environment

Prof Matni is my def favorite professor at UCSB. I loved coming to his class; his lectures were engaging in a refreshing way post-covid. Slides are easy to follow & he has this great energy that made class fun and interesting. Plus he is hilarious. Tests are ~fairly~ straightforward but sometimes tricky wording. A lovely man overall. Recommend!

Matni does a really good job at explaining lecture material/making class engaging, and it's clear that he cares about his students (he learned my name after I answered only 2 questions in class). Assignments are straightforward with consistent deadlines, HW answers come from the textbook, and ULAs/TAs were a great resource for me. 100% recommend.

Good stuff, good prof!

Very good lectures. All the labs and homework were related to the lectures, so they were usually not too bad, but you did feel like you were learning. Pretty fair difficulty midterm and final, only thing is that they're worth 30% and 35%, so make sure to study. I think the class was pretty good though, no real complaints.

One of those professors whose class you're gonna be looking forward to. Very accessible, he cares, he gives helpful feedback, his class is fair and so is his grading. If you have the option then you should definitely take his class.

Professor Matni was really nice, the lecture and the materials are pretty easy, but the final is so so so so so hard..........

Great lecturer for beginning computer science majors. Connects with students and has great insight.

very nice guy!! as someone who has struggled a lot with coding in the past and had no experience in python, I found this class very manageable and not unnecessarily difficult. there is definitely a lot of work but it actually helps a lot

I loved this course, it was taught using an online course that was very clear and made learning Python very easy. He essentially repeats what was in the textbook during his lectures. The quizzes are pretty easy and are open note. I would say the last lab and the final were the worst part just because they took very long to complete.

Honestly great professor. He was very caring and reachable. Learned a lot for it being an intro class. Lectures were also extremely helpful. Weekly lab assignments were pretty challenging and heavy. Final project was very difficult and was more difficult than an intro class should be. TAs and prof were very helpful during this time though.

The weekly assignments were on ZyBook and the workload was not too bad. Instead of having a midterm, we had weekly quizzes which were not too difficult as long as you kept up with the ZyBook. Additionally, he was very accessible outside of the class and the TAs were extremely helpful. My only complaint was the final project which was tedious.

Prof Matni was an extremely good professor! Rly helpful during office hours and weekly homework was never overwhelming (multiple attempts). Super engaging during lecture & went over concepts multiple times. Very beginner-friendly class, no midterm. Only difficult assignment was the final project (expected), but he offered help on broad topics etc.

The content of this class did exactly what it was supposed to. I walked in with little to no CS experience and walked out feeling fully introduced to CS. Matni's lectures were crystal clear and went over exactly what the homework/labs covered. Final project was a culmination of the quarter's lessons. Matni was kind, caring, and super helpful.

He is one of the great profs in this department. I honestly can say that he made me love CS again.

Professor Matni gives super clear lectures; he even records supplementary videos as further clarifications. He has a perfect balance between teaching and exercising in class, and is really willing to help you learn stuff. Grading consists of weekly quizzes, weekly assignments - worksheets or coding, some can be super long (13 pages) - and a final.

This class was one of the best organized classes I've taken at UCSB thus far. HW and weekly quizzes directly reflected what was taught in lecture, and they were pretty straightforward as long as you went to lecture. Weekly quizzes were pretty easy plus he drops the lowest one. Final was very fair and had very few (if any) curveballs. Great prof!

You either love him or hate him. He is a tough grader, with questions that are fairly doable. If you want to succeed in any of his classes my advice is to finish the HW and Labs early so you can relax as procrastinating on them can lead to a lot of pain and stress. His lectures are fun he has a dry sense of humor which can rub people the wrong way.

I liked him more for CS32. I got bored after week 3 since the topics felt a bit repetitive. He also didn't know how to answer some deeper questions, maybe due to it being in a field that he doesn't have as much expertise in (linear algebra/proofs). I really enjoyed his energy, but sometimes the way he answered questions felt a little condescending.

Best lower div cs professor

Really lenient on grading assignments and tests, doesn't curve tests or grade in general but easy to get an A as long as you know lecture material well. Great lecturer, class was always interesting with Matni.

This is my second class with him and Matni is great. His lectures are really helpful and likes to do in depth examples. He also has so many resources such as class notes, helpful sections, and actually great TAs/ULAs. The material is difficult, but he wants to help you. The homework can be long and difficult though. Really fair quizzes and final.

Matni is one of the best CS professors I've ever had at UCSB. His lectures are super informative, very easy to learn from, and his class is very easy to follow and his tests are straightforward from that. He remembered me a full quarter later because I asked dumb questions in lecture and I respect him immensely.

Matni rocks!! He is an incredible lecturer who is very clear about the material presented. He is very open to questions and is clear with his answers. Exams are moderately tough but definitely doable if you go to lecture and study the homework well. He's super funny during lecture and truly, truly cares about his students.

Matni is a great CS professor. My third class with him and he is still great. He gives great lectures with in depth examples. The class is really straightforward and really well organized. My only gripe is that the homework is really long and hard sometimes. The exams are usually much easier than the HW and he allows an entire cheat sheet.

Only gripe is you can tell if he thinks your question is stupid and that HW is graded harshly. Matni was really good at getting the content to go into our heads, and the HW helped in really cementing down that knowledge. Did not have to spend that much time on this class, but make sure to triple check your HWs

His exams were really reasonable- just make sure you go through all the lectures beforehand. The homework sometimes took a long time ~4-5 hours but they are good practice and it's easy to find help. His lectures were also good- overall a good professor to take 64 with.

His lectures are amazing, such a charismatic guy. Felt like homework and labs did not prepare me that well for the final, studying lecture slides and lecture code did though. Overall felt like I digested the contest of CS32 really well because of how good his lectures are. He is sytnax heavy on his tests so be aware of that.

Professor Matni's lectures are about as good as they get: thorough explanations and practical examples. The labs and homework assignments are simple, but I don't think the homework helped me understand the content as well as the lectures did. Exams were challenging, but within reason.

Professor Matni is an excellent professor. He drops the lowest quiz score, lab score, and homework grade. His lectures are easy to follow along with and he is very funny and engaging. He clearly wants his students to succeed—his quizzes/final were all really fair and not too difficult. I wish I could have him for all my CS courses.

Professor Matni is a wonderful teacher and provides a very well-rounded understanding of the basics of C++ and problem solving! His lectures are useful and interactive, and the provided worksheets are very helpful! He is also really easily accessible, and very understanding! As long as you do your best, listen, and respect his time, you're golden!

The best C.S. teacher for learning the fundamentals. He teaches at a good pace and has helpful code demos. iclicker participation is only 2% of your grade. The difficulty comes from the quizzes. You only get 15 minutes and some questions are hard.

Very engaging lecturer and made the class material easy to digest with jokes and lots of examples/demos. I read the textbook but it was definitely not necessary, as he covered the material well in class. The quizzes were pretty basic, I only significantly studied for the final, which was very reasonable.

Awesome prof. Definitely would recommend this course. Very engaging lectures that were very helpful for the quizzes/final. Only semi-difficult part were the short 15 minute quizzes, but if you prepare a small amount, you should be fine. He does drop lowest hw, quiz, and lab grade which is a plus. The final is pretty straightforward.

Matni's lectures are engaging, and the homework is challenging but helpful. Unstuckstudy is a great study tool alongside the free textbook. Attend class, stay organized, and you'll do well.

Very organized class structure, clear grading criteria, very informational and engaging lectures. Also dropped a quiz for us. Can't really say anything bad

great prof! Would 100% recommend taking his class as long as you put in the work

Took CS16 fall quarter as a CE major, he's the GOAT! Super engaging and helpful lecturer, really explains concepts well. Work diligently on the labs (that really aren't that hard!), because being fuzzy on these basic concepts will hurt you in the future. Definitely attend all the lectures that you can.

Overall not too bad of a course, biweekly quizzes are stressful as quizzes and final make up 70% of the grade, but as long as you do fine on the quizzes, the final is pretty straightforward and he lets you have a cheat sheet. just go to lectures and study a little before each quiz and it's not too bad

This class is for ERSP. This is my third class with Professor Matni, and he did NOT disappoint. Fun class and really caring guy. Go to his office hours; he loves giving students advice! Professor Matni is a key reason my experience in the CS department has been good so far (i am currently a second year).

Very approachable outside of class and you can tell he genuinely cares about students. You can go to his office hours just once and he will still probably remember you. Class itself can be tough, but ultimately grading is fair. Strongly encourages participation but if you want to pass on a cold call question, he is completely fine with it. Awesome.

Super good lecturer. Homeworks were hard, but prepared you well for quizzes/final. exams made up 70% of your grade. very fair grading on quizzes, exams, and hw. difficult class overall but that should be expected. highly recommend going to lectures and office hours