Suri is a decent lecturer, though for 130B try to go with Vigoda he is better. The tests are similar to the homework besides the last one. The unit was NP complete and approximation, however there was no approximation questions so I am very annoyed at that. He says there is a curve but there really isnt. Hard class.

He switched up the grading criteria for W26. 3 exams worth 20% each, no midterm no final which made it less stressful. The topics (dc, dp, np-completeness) were tricky, but the questions on the exam were far easier than the homework. It's a lot like 130a where there's an emphasis on algo design (+ proofs), so if that was easy 130b should be fine

This class is pretty difficult but Suri is a good lecturer and curves the class at the end. If you complete all the assignments, go to section, and put in a moderate amount of effort you should be fine. I did horribly on the midterm, average on the final, and still finished with a B.

Overall pretty good lecturer and goes over the concepts well. The homework was just multiple choice questions and were pretty easy but didn't prepare you well for the exams. Both midterms and finals were pretty difficult and conceptual. Mostly had yes/no true/false questions with justifications which I did not like because you could get a 0.

Programming assignment 1 was the worst experience I've had my entire time at UCSB. Don't pass a test case on kattis and you're stuck for days trying to find what went wrong and why. Sometimes TAs respond on Piazza and give you hints on why your algorithm isn't working but don't count on it. One mistake and you don't get past test case 2. Good luck.

Professor Suri is one of the best professors in the cs department. His lecture slides are concise and to the point. If you attend lectures and understand every algorithm/concept in it you'll do really well on the exams. There are 2 programming assignments 2 midterms and 1 final that count for your grade.