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.

During my journey through UCSB's undergrad, I have had very few CS professors that have showed me the true joys of learning; Professor Abbadi is one of those few. If you see that he's teaching a course, take it. Go to lecture and start the PAs early. His tests are hard, but not unfair. Overall, one of the best in the CS department; top 5 easily.

Great professor. Projects involve a lot of moving parts in your code, so get started early to catch bugs (because there's going to be a lot)

He's a pretty good lecturer, makes the material interesting and gives good explanations. You can tell he's passionate about the subject. Wish he was a little clearer on his projects; some of them lacked detail and required some revisions/additional details by the TAs, but with the help of the TAs all of them were doable.

Better learn those useless proofs; be prepared to not be able to apply things you learned. If you are looking for a real distributed systems class that will prepare you for the workplace, you won't find it here. Lectures are boring. The professor expertly avoids useful distributed systems concepts to make sure the students get little out of it.

This entire class is 3 projects and 3 tests. The projects aren't terribly difficult, but the tests are. He expects you to know the details of proofs.

Excellent professor, explained data structures in a more succinct and elegant way than I had seen previously. Projects were a lot of fun. Tests were a bit more challenging than expected but that did not take away from the overall value of the course. 10/10 would take again

He explains clearly and goes at a slow enough pace so that if you space out for a little while you're not completely lost. He gives weekly quizzes that force you to keep up with the material but aren't bad if you come to lecture and do the (not graded) homework assignments.

Awesome class

Really good lectures

Prof. Amr El Abbadi was an AMAZING lecturer and very patient. (very rare in academia). I am a fairly slow learning and I appreciated that he took the time out to help me. Highly recommend.

One of the best professors I have ever had. Definitely recommended!

Confusing when he went over proofs, but otherwise very interesting and very well explained. A lot of material to cover and he does it fairly well. Overall pretty happy with this guy

Great professor, quizzes were challenging but overall Amr was very helpful and got me through the course :)

el abbadi's quizzes were often difficult but he explained things in a way I could understand. good if you are looking to get better at computer science

I took up Prof. Abbadi's graduate course on Distributed Systems during winter 2011. I had great enthusiasm for the c ourse initially, but it turned out to be a super bummer. The coursework was pathetic. Too much theory and horrible choice of abstract research papers assigned for reading. His teaching was too abstract and the projects were a joke.

Take thorough notes in class, especially about examples and proofs, as they often show up on tests. The tests are challenging, but not unfair or unreasonable. However, the TAs that graded the homework when I took his class were hopeless. I had to get every single assignment regraded because of mistakes, but it worked out fine in the end.

great prof, very clear, fair homework assignment and project. Fair grading. Very easy to understand, friendly, challenging, everything a professor should be.