love this professor he is so passionate about teaching and the course is set up in a way that helps you actually learn rather than just memorize things for an exam (no exams only projects + extra credit assignments). good amount of work every week but not difficult if you try to learn it.

Decent professor teaching a very easy class. The course is well-structured and instructors are accessible nearly all the time. It is important to have cooperative teammates, since the course is fundamentally structured as a massive group assignment.

Great professor who inspires students. Understands the industry throughly and gives thought out advice for those looking for guidance.

Professor Conrad is genuinely one of the best professors at UCSB, he is a great instructor and teacher, demanding but fair, and above all he is understanding. The course is very well structured and taught by an excellent teaching staff accessible even during late nights. Cannot recommend taking CS156 enough with Professor Conrad.

Conrad operates less like a CS instructor and more like an off-brand theatre director, one with a flair for dramatics. He confuses authority with entitlement, treating minor classroom issues like personal vendettas. At one point, he even erupted at an entire team mid-class, presumably mistaking the situation for opening night.

Prof Conrad is nice, engaging, and makes lecture fun. In lecture you learn how to code and then apply that in weekly labs. There is also lots of extra credit. The labs also incorporate ChatGPT which is nice. You will probably have to meet with the ULAs because some questions are very tricky. Midterm and final are group project labs. Great course!

He's nice, but the class sucks, and he's not doing it any favors. The group projects are poorly organized and I learned very little despite putting in lots of effort. He micromanages and generally makes the class feel like something from high school. Avoid CS156 unless you miss feeling like a 15-year-old taking your first AP.

Conrad is a nice guy. I guess that's why he has a high rating. He and his teaching team sucks. He creates projects that require a high level of participation from he and his TAs (reviewing PRs, responding to many different group questions), and then does not attend to these responsibilities. Bad planner, bad at supporting students. Bad class.

Took his online course for CMPSC 8 and had a great time. He's funny and cares about students

One of the few professors I'd rate 5/5. Took CS16 and he was absolutely amazing at helping students get situated into complicated computer science concepts. Funny, lectures broken down to ELI5 language, class pace was definitely doable, and incredibly knowledgeable. The labs were easy and ZyBook was a phenomenal online textbook used for the class.

Cs156 taught me how to code. Loved this class and loved conrad!

Professor Conrad was great, especially online which is how I took this course. He is always open to any and all questions, and has a ton of easily accessible office hours. The class is a lot of work every week, with reading, quizzes, and labs, but if you stay on top if it early in the week, or even get ahead, it's not a problem.

Professor was passionate about what he taught and really knowledgeable. He became sick halfway through the quarter and the class basically became online. The class then became too easy to the point where you don't learn anything. I feel like I don't have a strong foundation for future CS courses because this class was so easy.

This was my most enjoyable class and professor yet. The class is structured online through zyBooks. Weekly quizzes, but no midterm/final exams. Final project was easy. TA's can be helpful (I think, but mine was pretty useless). Overall, worthwhile, and I would take again in the future.

Just a fantastic professor that is passionate about what he teaches. Class was structured in a way to mimic real world web development. Overall I felt that I received a lot of value from this class.

Very passionate about the subject and always willing to help you. Practice quizzes were always provided that were very similar to the actual ones. Final had infinite submissions that showed you your score each time to allow you to get the highest grade possible.

Conrad is a great professor objectively! Passionate and caring towards the subject and his students. However, he got sick in the middle of the quarter, canceling our midterm on such a short notice and starting to lose focus during lectures. Hopefully, this was just a one time thing, but I honestly have not learned much because of it.

Conrad is a passionate and knowledgeable teacher. He explains complicated concepts well through examples and works hard to make instructions for projects as clear as possible.

Conrad has a very good reputation in the CS department at UCSB. However, when I took his course he became very sick midway through. This caused him to cancel the midterm with two hours of notice and replace them with a series of 5 asynchronous quizzes with multiple attempts. Same deal with the final. This class is a joke.

This class was an emotional rollercoaster. Phil is a lovely lad with a respectable reputation, but health problems really impacted his ability to focus. Our midterm was canceled two hours before it took place, and was replaced with five asynchronous quizzes which we still have not taken days before the quarter has ended. I've learned nothing.

A PNP class where you define your own project and work on it. Short standup for every class & mandatory final presentation & voluntary presentations during the quarter. Reach out to Prof. Conrad if you face any problems in/out of this class - he's always willing and able to help you with all kinds of amazing resources! Super warm and knowledgeable.

Best CS teacher I've ever had. A must take class for students interesting in pursing software development professionally.

Great lecturer. Assigns zyBooks, which is a lot of reading if you're new to CS, and labs. Mostly an easy A if coming from a coding background, but Conrad's grading policy requires 93+% in all grade categories (zyBooks, labs, midterm, final) to get an A in the class, which screws over a ton of students. (Fall 2021)

Decent class. However, this professor fails to handle the class average wisely. He probably gets half the class w/ an avg > 95 by the end of the quarter and needs to give A- to a group of top-performance students. Beware of the final - mine was 25 multiple choice questions, in which, if you get 2 wrongs, you will end up with an A- by his rule.