I would definitely say it’s one of the hardest CS classes. If you can make it past this one then you can make it past any. But Prof Abu-Ghazaleh is a pretty cool guy nonetheless and teaches the material very well. Just be prepared to put work in. 2 assignments that you work on during lab sessions through the quarter. Exams are very closely related to the homeworks and the sample exams he posts, so study those well.
Took it with Nael, thought it was easier than 141. It has a lot of details though, and the labs suck.
Operating Systems with Professor Song. Labs are tough, worth 40% of your grade, but just ask for help and you should be fine. 2 labs were split in half, for a total of 4 labs for the year. Midterm and Final were pretty much as you would expect, difficult. Homework is difficult as well. As for lecturing style, pretty dull. Nobody really pays attention. Puts notes on the class website. Probably the most difficult class I took so far as far as CS is concerned. Definitely can have a big workload. Beware this one, it's a doozy.
Worst class I've taken so far. Took it with Song. He's not a good lecturer. In my opinion his accent is extremely difficult to understand and he talks in a very boring fashion. Combine these two ways of speaking and you won't be able to pay attention in class. You will have to teach yourself everything. Do yourself a favor and read the book and slides carefully. The assignments are hard especially the memory reorganizing one. Expect a shitty quarter when taking this class lol
everyone is scared of this class an says its hard tbh its realy not bad, labs suck but just ask for help
Took with Song Spring 2019. Overall I thought this class was moderately difficult at least compared to what other people have said. BUT that's because Song reduced the difficulty of the tests, which he mentioned in the beginning. He gave us all the topics before the tests as well some previous exam questions that ended up on the tests. Homework questions also appeared on the tests. The average for the midterm was a around high 70 percent I think. Though, maybe this'll change so watch out. Also, and I'm not sure if the other people that reviewed the class had the same lab manual as us, the labs were fairly straightforward. The manuals tell you all the code changes you need to do in the sense that it tells you what functions to change and in what file. Though it can be hard to actually implement the changes you need to do. TLDR: Exams and homework fairly decent in terms of difficultly. Labs are the hardest part, but always ask for help from others or TA when you're stuck. If you want to get an in depth knowledge of OS then read the book, its actually a simple and interesting read IMO.
The labs are fairly easy and the textbook is easy too. However, I had it with Chengyu Song. DO NOT TAKE IT WITH SONG. He literally takes questions straight from the homeworks and previous exams to make each new one. Why is that bad you might ask? Well he curves overall grades by PERCENTILE. To illustrate my point, the class average was a 90% in the class. A 90%. However, because its by percentile, even if your raw grade was a 90+%, you will get curved DOWN unless you did better than 90+% of the class. It's a lazy grading scheme that allows him to put zero effort in his exams and still not have many A's in the class. I would not recommend taking ANY class with him.
The labs were supposed to be very difficult and be completed with two people but I was able to finish them all pretty easily.
I had Chengyu Song. The actual material can be moderately difficult to grasp, but exams were similar to previous ones and the homework, so it shouldn't be too bad. Our final was literally the previous quarter's final unless I overlooked something. Grades aren't out yet and I don't remember him saying anything about curves, so I'm not sure if that one comment about still being able to get screwed even if you had a 90%+ still holds true. Labs weren't that bad. First two were probably the hardest and longest but the last two more or less told you everything that you needed to do in the manual. Just start early and ask for help if you're stuck.
Take professor Song, he might not be the best professor. But he is definately the easiest. Lab is difficult. But once you understand how OS works, it's pretty easy. He will give you majority of the code. You just need to do some minor changes. And his exam are super easy. He will give you almost the same problems for you to study the day before the exam.
Took it with Song. It was ok. The labs were alright around 3-4 hours for each lab. You go over lots of super interesting stuff but there is a lot of it. Midterm was easy, final was harder.
Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh is a pretty good professor. Class has fair amount of work and the labs are difficult but exam content isn't too bad and practice exams do help a lot.
Please don't take with Heng Yin, I can't stress this enough lol. Labs are easier than tests if you ask the right TA.
Took it with Nael over the summer. Nearly everyone I spoke too averaged a B. Labs were maybe 3-4 hours of work at most, and both exams were open book.
Heng Yin is sort of an understanding Professor but also not the easiest Professor. Average on tests like 50-60% and labs and homeworks are brutal. No accommodation if you have covid, if you have mild symptoms he still expects you to come to class. No lecture recordings and every lecture you have to attend in person as there is a quiz at the end. Huge disconnect between lecture and labs.
Took it with Heng Yin. Horrendous professor with anger issues lol. That's all I got to say. Somehow passed the class with a B.
Took with Nael. Honestly, he is the GOAT, super sweet, and super understanding of his student's stress over the 60% rule to pass the class. Cannot believe i got an A in the class, but he is truly goated!
Took with Song, he gives the answer key to the homework the moment he assigned it. Quizzes every other week that you had to schedule at the testing center. Quizzes based mostly off homework. Reading the textbook and doing homework is usually good enough for the quizzes. 3 labs total. Labs had sooo many files so it was overwhelming at times. Not really much to actually do though, takes max 1 day. No midterm. Optional final. The 5 quizzes will be the majority of your grade. If you take the final, lowest quiz is dropped.
Took this in Fall 2023. Take it with Professor Song if you want an Easy A. The codes are automatically given in Labs, you just need to figure out what's going on. This class was on the backburner for me this quarter since my other classes were being a pain. You do need to study for the quizzes if you don't go to the lectures. Lecture attendance is taken but you could probably bs it by taking the attendance quiz anytime before 11:59 PM that day. The homeworks are easy, you can turn it in any point in the quarter and still get full credit. The final was optional, or you could've taken it and he drops your lowest quiz score. It's best to say that you'll be intimidated if you don't study as the content will stack on each other. If you took CS161 before, you will have an advantage later on in the class.
I took the class with Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh. He is very passionate and a very considerate professor. If you tell him you are struggling he will do his very best to help you and give you extensions. With that being said the topics were easy to get lost to. Don't fall behind or you will definitely get lost. I used the textbook to supplement the lectures since i barely paid attention. The labs are very very annoying if you do not have a competent partner. Choose your partner wisely!!! You can always switch your partner but it will be harder if later on in the quarter. There are 3 labs and they get increasingly difficult. The first one is baby stuff and the last is super confusing. Overall very do-able and not brain boggling but you still have to put in some effort.
I took this class in Winter 2025 with Heng Yin. If it weren't for the labs, this class would be a 6/10 difficulty. The labs were extremely complicated and difficult. We were provided with thousands of lines of code spread among about 50 different files. We were expected to understand the important parts of the code and modify it in a certain way which was difficult because of how all of the different files were connected to each other. Make sure to pay attention to lecture for the quizzes and attend office hours for help with the labs.