he really works you hard in 154, constantly working on weekly labs without very much room to breathe. you will probably need office hours because the labs are pretty difficult too. good lecturer, not the friendliest personality. he writes very fair quiz/test questions and the quizzes/final were take home and open note.

Prof. Balkind is a very nice guy, and he seems to be very passionate about the subject. However, it was his first time teaching this course, and his lectures were pretty lackluster. He basically just read through Matni's old slides, so the lectures weren't very engaging. The quizzes and labs were all very reasonable, but the final was difficult.

First time teaching the class. His lectures are good but rough around the corners. Mostly it was just Matni's slides but he's very helpful and relatable! Fair grader, though the quizzes could be tricky. Towards the end, the work got really hard especially with weekly quizzes, but he's very kind to answer questions on Piazza!

He gives word puzzles in the quiz and I could barely learn anything from his lecture. Definitely avoid him.