CS 4102

This course was co-taught online with Floryan and Horton.
Algorithms this semester was valuable in many ways- we covered a lot of interesting problems and approaches and got a good mix of proofs and applied programming problems. However, the curriculum was butchered by poor structuring and grading, which made this way more stressful and time-intensive than necessary.
The course was divided into four modules, which neatly segmented the material and in theory makes it easier to process. Each module had a "hard deadline" to turn in all of our work as well as an earlier "soft" deadline where we could get feedback on our submission and resubmit. The issue with having just four deadlines in the semester is that it created enormous bottlenecks. TAs were rushing to get all the submissions after the soft deadline graded while at the same time students would pile into office hours before the hard deadlines. Many of the problems were almost impossible to start without TA help, but office hours were severely understaffed to the point that you could join at 5:50, wait for 5 hours, and not get seen. On top of all this, the last module was compressed to the point you could not get feedback at all.
Grading was also extremely confusing (check the website) and extremely punishing, for example, if you didn't get every assignment nearly perfect you were capped at a B-. They kept on changing the grading to make it easier which was helpful but still very hard to follow.
With all of that being said, I still learned a lot, and both professors are pretty good lecturers. If we had had smaller assignments and more deadlines it would have been much easier, though.
#tCFspring2021

I thought that Floryan was a good professor and tried to explain concepts in a way that made more sense such as drawing out diagrams. The grading for the class was interesting because it was based on a point system where each hw and quiz was either graded satisfactory or mastery and a certain number of each assignment completed determined your grade. There were 4 modules which had a quiz each and 4 HWs (2 basic and 2 mastered) to choose from. 12 mastered HWs and 5 mastered quizzes was the threshold for an A in the class. The quizzes weren’t too bad but the wording was sometimes confusing. I found the HWs to be extremely difficult and often struggled therefore i went to OH a lot. OH went kind of bad this semester because it didn’t feel like there were enough TAs. Once I joined at 5:50 for OH queue which was the earliest you could join, yet I didn’t get help at all that night because of the demand. #tCFspring2021

You have to take this class if you're a CS major, and no matter who you take it with, it will be painful. Floryan's the most acceptable I suppose. He's a fairly entertaining lecturer and is easy to reach out to for help. There's a lot of work for the class--- The written homework assignments were really tough and require you to go to office hours and put in probably 3 to 10 hours outside of office hours depending on your skill level. The programming homeworks were a little better but are really formatting specific. Exams were tough and Floryan is unclear about what to expect on them. Curve this semester was not generous. Maybe it's because this class complained a lot, maybe it's because the grades for the finals were good. Overall, not a fun class to take, but you do learn a lot, and the material will help greatly in interviews and jobs.

Floryan is one of my favorite professors--he explains most things well and he's a really funny guy. Homeworks were released a week before they were due and I usually had to spend a few hours on them every day until I finished and sometimes had to go to office hours multiple times for an assignment. You should give yourself plenty of time to think about the problems and you should try to get a homework partner/group (you had to do your own write up, but were allowed to discuss the problems with others, which was very helpful). The programming assignments tended to be much easier than the written homeworks, though two of them were about as difficult as the typical written homework. The programming assignments also offered a higher potentiality to lose a huge amount of points over small things. If your implementation was too slow for the time limit or you misinterpreted the format of the input, you could easily get a 0-2/10, so be careful.

This class was pretty hard. I have done well in the upper level CS courses, but algorithms with Floryan was mind bogglingly difficult. The tests averages were pretty low. The homework questions were cool, but sometimes too hard that you did not really care about truly understanding the concepts, but more so with getting the right answers. Floryan was a cool professor though, very fun and engaging, but the course definitely needs some tweaking.

Professor Floryan is an incredible, fun Professor, who is very approachable as a student. While Algorithms is a difficult course, Floryan does an excellent job explaining the various theorems, and how to solve different problems on homeworks and exams.

Every CS major has to take algo... so take it with Floryan! He's a very personable guy who somehow makes topics such as graph theory exciting. I would highly recommend any student in his class to attend his office hours, since he gives helpful hints on the written assignments. Apparently he has made the class harder than it was before, but I believe I have learned many skills invaluable to my future endeavors. The programming assignments were fairly manageable, but the written assignments were a huge time commitment; some of them took me over 10 hours to complete. I found the exams to be straightforward but difficult. This was an excellent course, but I would not recommend taking it with a heavy courseload.

Not gonna lie, this isn't an easy class. It's challenging material, and it's more theory-focused than earlier CS classes. But Floryan does a fantastic job with the material, and makes it enjoyable. He is also one of the most accommodating and compassionate professors I've ever had the pleasure of working with. You have to take this class anyway, so just take it with Floryan if you can.

Algorithms is a tough class in general, but Professor Floryan did an incredible job with teaching it. He was interactive and funny, and he'd always listen to our class's feedback or questions. Office hours were almost a requirement though (for me at least), and typically there would be a group of ~20 students each time. While it was one of the hardest classes I've had to take, I think the skills it gives you are essential for a computing career (and they help with interviews).

Floryan did an awesome job of making one of the hardest CS classes actually pretty fun if you try to learn the material. The homework load was enormous (almost as bad as 2150 but I'd say less tears and hair-pulling since you code in a language of your choice), and it's a huge portion of your grade but most of the TA's were pretty helpful. Go to office hours every week, especially for the written assignments and proofs. They'll be kind of unhelpful towards the beginning of the week, because they want you to figure it out but they get better. The programming assignments weren't bad in the beginning but they get difficult fairly quickly so don't slack off on the last two. The exams are also not difficult if you study the slides, did the written assignments, and know the algorithms on those chapters well. Not only for the tests, but that material is extremely helpful for job interviews. There wasn't a Dutch Knockout for this semester (nor will there ever be probably) but I did well since I studied hard for the final and had a great homework average.

When I took the class, it was Professor Floryan's first time teaching the course. He took a lot of feedback from us, his students, and tried to make the course better. Homework assignments were not easy. They required time, and I often found myself in office hours for the written homeworks (proofs). Be careful on these - small little details that you don't think matter do actually matter. When I took it, Floryan did Dutch Knock Out, and it worked well for me (got an A when I would've otherwise gotten a B+), but according to him other people got screwed over (not sure how). Anyway, I don't think he'll be implementing that again, so make sure you work hard in all the homeworks & study for the exams (which are mostly reiterations of in-class proofs). Also, going to class is a good idea b/c the proofs in Cormen are quite dense, and Floryan makes things a LOT easier to get through. Plus, he's a funny guy so the lectures stay interesting.