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 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.

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.

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.

Best lower div cs professor

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.

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!

He is a nice lecturer. But he is very dogmatic and super strict in grading. Too many unnecessary trick questions in exams and quizzes, which contains a lot of things that is not covered or mentioned in lab, lecture or textbooks at all. Meanwhile, he hate curving or grade grabbing. Even if the final is graded wrong, he will not change your grade.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

His class is not for beginners.

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

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

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.

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.

Good stuff, good prof!

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.

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!