While CSO1 is definitely harder than the other two introductory CS courses (viz., DSA1 and DMT1), it is by no means unmanageable. Prof. Hott's knowledgeability in the course content was apparently thorough, and it made learning course concepts very easy. Many of the homeworks and labs could be solved fairly quickly with a deep enough conceptual understanding of content, so I'd definitely recommend focusing your studies accordingly. Although Prof. Hott's lectures are very tempting to skip, I believe that going to lecture every day was the foundation of my success in the course. Above all, if you use your resources and spend an appropriate amount of time with the course content, the course shouldn't be that much of a burden. #tCFspring26

If you know C beforehand don't use libraries not used in class or you will spend 1 week explaining why you didn't cheat on a hw.

go to class

As others have stated, CSO1 is a challenging course. Hott is a nice professor, but be prepared for how much exams are weighed. I recommend preparing to do well on the two midterms as a grade buffer for the final because Hott makes the final a lot harder. The midterms were a lot more reasonable and reflective of the midterms Hott has given in his previous semesters.
For the record, CSO1 is just plain hard. I spent hours on the homework and labs, many nights of crying over Toy ISA, and I still scored a little above a 70 on the midterms, got around a 50 on the final and ended with a 79% overall.

For CS 2130, Hott is the easily the way to go.

The thing about CS 2130 is that it's going to be a hard class no matter what. Its contents go into the entire foundations of a computer instead of just learning how to code, and it's best described as the closest thing to engineering. Though, I think the best thing about Hott is that he's always very clear about the subjects we will be learning, and is very accommodating regarding it through his office hours and through his resources. In fact, I would encourage y'all to read the publicly available site for this course as this is probably the single most important resource for your learning: https://uva-cs.github.io/cso1-s26/

If you scroll through the website, consider the sections Reading and Exam Review: 1. Reading allows you to go into more specific and elaborate detail of literally everything relevant that's up for fair game in the exams. 2. Exam Review literally lists all of the exams (that Hott had available to him) and just gives it to you for study. I wish the other classes had this level of transparency as I feel like these resources provided set me up for success in this class.

Even beyond just the resources, Hott's style of presentation was quite clear and easily understood. The entire lecture was so engaging that the 50 minutes honestly felt short in comparison. The only part where this slows down is when Hott explores the advanced parts of C ever so slightly right at the end, but even then, it was a minor slow down.

Somehow, he has made this headache inducing topic incredibly fun, and honestly, I do not think you'll have a bad time with this class if you take it with him.

I went into this class knowing I would not like the content, and I exited the class with an even stronger stance that I hated the content. The content for some students is very interesting, and that adds to their experience and ease in the course. The homework and labs are the most helpful parts of this class for the exams, so make sure you get as many 100s on the HWs (30%) and go to all the labs (20%). I felt that Hott's lectures were taught like a Grad class, where he would cover the content itself very briefly and then move on to the finer detail stuff about it for a much longer amount of time. If I were passionate about the material, then yeah, that's cool, but as someone who just needed the information to pass the class, the lectures were incredibly unhelpful in those regards. I ended up not going to lecture anymore after the first exam, and I started doing better in the class because I could spend more time learning the content on my own instead of through Hott's initial impression. Hott is a nice guy, and he is obviously very passionate about his job, but half of the students who take CSO1 don't care that much about the material; we just need to take it for our degrees (as a firm DSA1 and DSA2 lover). There isn't much to say about "this or that" professor, because you are still going to have the same exams at the end of the day.

Tips: Start studying for the exams VERY early. Midterm 1 (15%) is the hardest by far; make sure you know how to do Toy ISA well. If you are good at programming, Midterm 2 (15%) is incredibly easy. The final was long, the questions weren't horrible, but it was an intensive exam. Make sure to study in groups or with friends, as it helps the most with learning stuff.

I had an overall positive experience with this course. It was very challenging, but you truly learn SO much useful information through the blood, sweat, and tears. I really enjoyed listening to Prof. Hott's lectures--he's super engaging and made learning the difficult material so much more bearable. Both professors are accessible during office hours, so I highly recommend taking advantage of that and seeking them outside of class for questions + just to chat (they're super cool!).

The homework was very useful for applying the material we learned in lecture; the labs, although not always perfectly related to what we were covering in class, were also a great opportunity to ask the TAs questions and engage with other people in the class. For the most part, TA office hours were useful, and they happen every day, so there are plenty of opportunities to get help if you need it.

The exams were really tough. I highly recommend reviewing the content way in advance if you want to cover everything that could be potentially tested on the exam. One thing I regret not doing more is practicing the material itself--Toy ISA, assembly, C--if I had engaged more with that content by just doing more of it, I feel like I would've performed better on the exams.

Regardless, this class was really valuable, and the professors made the experience. I recommend!

CSO1 with Robbie Hott was a very engaging experience. The content in the class was incredibly interesting, and I loved how Hott was able to effectively connect concepts together in a way that made sense. The labs were very helpful too, as they connected concepts taught in class to actual application. Outside of class, the homework assigned was very fair and took genuine effort and creativity to complete, helping to cement content learned for exams. Overall, as cheesy as it sounds, this class was definitely the highlight of this semester, and I am very glad to have taken it with Professor Hott.

Robbie Hott is an amazing wonderful man. He is so sweet and I enjoyed going to his office hours. You can tell that he enjoys what he teaches. The class is very difficult, however. You need to show up to lecture, or else you'll probably get lost. The class is really interesting (my favorite course this semester), but you need to invest a significant amount of studying to stay afloat in this course, and the exam rubrics can be unforgiving at times. Homeworks also require a large amount of time to finish, but extension requests are immediately accepted upon form submission, giving 2 extra days to finish given a valid reason (high workload from other classes, illness, etc). All previous exams are available to view, which were the most helpful when it came to studying. I absolutely loved this class, but you need to be able to lock in for it--it is hard.

CS 2130 was my favorite class this semester. Everyone says this class is awful, but it's honestly really enjoyable if you apply yourself. I think the content is really interesting, which made me more motivated to do well in the class. The biggest issue with the content is that there's so much of it, which makes studying for the exams a bit difficult. I really enjoyed the lectures and think Professor Hott is a good lecturer. He explains things fairly well and is very approachable for questions. He's also just a cool guy outside of lecture. I think people who criticize him tend to be people who don't go to lecture.
The class is 30% homeworks, 20% lab, 30% midterms, and 20% final. There's also a lower bound for exam average, which a lot of people complain about; basically, if you do really bad on the exams, your grade will be curved down. This sounds terrible in theory, but in practice is (imo) rarely an issue. The exams are definitely difficult, but even if you get ~60 on all 3 exams you should still end with a B-, and the exam lower bound doesn't affect you at all in this case (lower bound is a B-, and if you get a 60 on all 3 exams you get a 80 if you get a 100 everywhere else). It basically just makes sure you don't pass the class if you fail every exam, which I think is fair.
That said, the exams are still quite difficult and are worth a large amount of your grade, which can be stressful. However, almost every single exam from past semesters is available to you to review, which I found immensely useful, especially as they tend to follow a similar format and have similar questions. If you need to review, definitely focus on doing those exams.
The homeworks are almost always a free 100, but you have to start early because they can get pretty hard. They also do a pretty good job at teaching you the content, which I really appreciated. I honestly thought some of them were pretty fun. Definitely don't try to do them on the last day, as it can get pretty stressful if you get stuck. AI isn't the greatest at doing the homeworks a lot of the time, so you really have to do it yourself (which is excellent, imo).
The labs can get pretty tricky too, and a lot depends on your lab group. If you get a good lab group that helps you understand the content better, the labs are good and help you learn. But if you get a bad group, it can get pretty bad. The TAs also go over exam questions every lab, and it does help a lot to have some of the trickier questions explained.
Overall, I'm definitely glad I took this class, and I'm happy I took it with Professor Hott. Just be prepared to lock in.

I heard nothing but bad things about this class before I took it, and while it did suck, it definitely wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It really only sucks if you're lazy and don't go to/watch the recorded lectures. The exams are hard, but the homework and the labs are genuinely free points.
Prof Hott is very passionate about the class, which can sometimes make it a bit overwhelming. Lectures occasionally felt like I was in a CS _501 course rather than a foundational course for the major. The lectures don't really make sense until a week or two afterward because everything keeps building on top of content you learned earlier, so I recommend reviewing past lectures before each exam. There are readings posted on the website, and I also recommend at least skimming those. You're expected to know everything that they teach (in lectures, in labs, and in the readings) for the exams, and they WILL test you on things that are only mentioned in the readings.
The homeworks took me forever, but they're doable. And you have to do them by yourself because AI genuinely can't do the homeworks correctly. If you go to TA office hours, they'll help you out. The labs are kind of annoying, and sometimes they felt barely related to lecture and I didn't really understand the point of them, but again, they will test you on things you only really do in lab, and you get points by just showing up and even attempting to do the work, so go. 100% on the labs really will help your grade in the end.
The exams are hard. The course website has published versions of over a dozen past exams, which are great practice. I think our midterms were harder than the past midterms that Prof Hott gave, but our final was definitely easier than Fall 2025. Hott also gave 5 points extra credit for completing the SET evaluation, which helped a lot.
Also, for everyone complaining about the grade boundary - it only comes into play if your grade is low enough. Basically, they don't want you to pass the class if you couldn't get a passing average on the exams, so it's really not that deep.
TLDR: Don't let the reviews intimidate you. The class isn't that bad if you're willing to put the work in. Go to lecture, go to lab, do the homework, try to survive the exams, and you'll be fine.