Class is not difficult and the concepts are interesting but there is a lot of busy work that I personally don't think accomplishes much. Putting together your individual project & the microservice w/ your partner is the best part of the class and can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. The grading can finicky and they will sometimes ding you for the most ridiculous things. Luckily they give you the opportunity to revise most of the assignments so it's still easy to get an A, but it is annoying to have your time wasted with things that should have been more clear in the assignment descriptions.

Submitted Sat Apr 13 2024

This is a truly horrible class. An easy contender for worst in the program. I don't usually agree when people call non-coding assignments "busy work", but I think it's fair to say that most things you do for this class have little to no educational value. There are weeks where you literally don't learn anything, as there are no modules that week. That might sound nice, but you'll still be busy completing a bunch of patronizing written assignments that seem like they were designed for high schoolers. The "textbook" is a series of superficial articles written by the instructor that should have just been the course modules (which mostly do not exist). If you actually want to learn about software engineering practices, look elsewhere. I recommend checking out the book Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. My advice would be to pick a project that is easy to create but has enough moving parts that you have an easier time with the countless box-checking exercises. You will be asked to basically implement three features of a larger project that somehow meet 8 different user experience criteria. Even the professor ends up BSing the questions in her example video. Thankfully, there are no exams in this class. I strongly recommend NOT taking this alongside Operating Systems, as there's just too much frustrating frivolous work to waste your time. If you're looking for something to pair with OS, I think 362 is the better choice.

Submitted Sun Mar 31 2024

Make sure to find a partner as soon as possible and be prepared in case they drop the class without notice. For some reason students were confused about collaborating on the term project. You'll develop your individual project, and your partner is responsible for creating a separate microservice for you to integrate with your project. In turn, you'll implement a microservice for their individual project. Your project and their microservice don't need to use the same language. There's a diagram in the week 1 module explaining this. Ask questions on Discord if there's any confusion, as Ed posts tend to get slow responses.

Submitted Sat Mar 30 2024

This course is as easy as you want it to be. You can choose to do a very simple project and get full credit. Don't be discouraged if an assignment comes back asking you to revise. You can revise every assignment except the last couple for more points, and they are super easy to do. Honestly, even if you end up having to do each assignment twice (because they ask you to revise), it's still one of the easiest classes.

Submitted Sat Mar 16 2024

Try to pick a partner before the class starts who has the same vision for the amount of effort they want to put into the course.

Submitted Wed Jan 31 2024

It's a really weird course, so I recommend choosing something easy to implement that you know already. Graders are finicky and there's a ton of busywork.

Submitted Thu Nov 30 2023

Most of this course is working towards your final project and your microservice. There is a lot of busy work along the way which I didn't enjoy, but overall the course does teach some useful communication pipes and the concept of microservices. My partner didn't communicate well or work early, which was frustrating, but he was a good developer. His microservice worked perfectly for me. Anyone can get an A, but the course is more fun if you develop a project that is interesting to you.

Submitted Tue Aug 22 2023

The main idea is to just develop some application that meets certain requirements. This can be challenging for those of us that are not necessarily creative since it's up to you to figure out what you want your app to do. On top of that, you need to pick a project that is feasible, within your coding abilities, and the language you want to implement in. All of this can be a bit overwhelming but overall the class is doable. My biggest recommendations would be to start early, keep your code free of any code smells (refactoring later on stinks), and tame your ambitions. Developing both the front and back end is challenging enough in of itself already!

Submitted Sat Aug 19 2023

The first couple weeks in this class start out kind of fast, with a lot of busy-work due. However, the time requirements drop off dramatically towards the second half. Pair with a harder class or use this class to create a neat personal project.

Submitted Tue Jun 20 2023

If you've already worked in the tech industry, many of the concepts in this course will be familiar. Since you're working with a partner, try to get somebody in a time zone compatible with when you're able to meet. I thought the grading on the projects was fair; you won't be entirely sunk if your partner can't meet the project commitments.

Submitted Tue Jun 20 2023