If you're just here to learn then take the class, the material is very interesting. But man the grading was rough I swear the people in this class are smarter than the average cs class the median was always so high in the quizzes...

Fun class, interesting concepts, and he is one of my faves.

Professor El Abbadi is a joy to have a class with. He genuinely cares about the material and is great at answering questions. His lectures are quite interesting, and the class is mainly project based which helps you learn. TAKE HIM IF YOU ARE ABLE!!!

please please please take this class with Professor El Abbadi before he stops teaching it. It is incredibly clear how much he cares for his students and his material - the class is interesting, and you can expect fair (not too hard) items on his quizzes. He is passionate when teaching and responds very quickly on piazza. Great guy, great class!!!

One of the top CS classes at UCSB. Assignments are fun, lectures are enjoyable, and midterm/final are replaced by quizzes.

This class was extremely enjoyable, although it was a decent amount of work I still found the material and lectures digestable. Abbadi is super enthusiastic and makes lecutures interactive. The projects were the best CS assignments I have ever had and you write everything on your own and can choose the language to do it in. AMAZING, must take.

I have never felt as passionate about a class as much as this. I hate learning a bunch of abstract concepts that I feel like I'll never use again, but the structure of the class forces you to put the concepts you use into practice, which makes you understand them on a much deeper level. Straight up sparked the joy in learning in me that I lost.

Great class that actually made me care about distributed systems. The projects were genuinely difficult for the first time in college I enjoyed every single obstacle that I encountered while doing them. 4 quizzes in total instead of a final/midterm allowed me to stay on top of the material periodically rather than cramming and helped for retention.

A pretty solid prof who is excited about the material, gives good examples, and is very responsive to questions during lecture. Attending lecture is very important though, and I made the final much harder for myself by missing the last few.

Took 171 with Amr last Spring. As an alum, I can easily say he was my favorite professor. I often struggled to connect with the material in my cs classes, but Amr made the topic of distributed systems engaging and just fun. Even projects seemed more like solving riddles than actual homework. Undisputed GOAT.

Loved this professor. Programming assignments are challenging but very interesting. Tests are tough but completely fair. You learn how to use a lot of data structures and it can get a bit confusing. Take good notes (especially on time complexity), do the homework, and start the projects early and you'll do fine.

Amr is such a great guy, and he is super passionate about the subject. The programming assignments and tests were pretty difficult, but I feel like I learned a lot from this class. Overall, I would highly recommend.