Spring 2025 FAQs

Last updated: January 19, 2025

Spring 2025 listing on classes.berkeley.edu

Enrollment

Q1: Will the course expand?

We don’t know. (And we still won’t know even if we know your waitlist position, so please don’t email us to ask.)

In Fall 2024, we were able to expand the course to 500 students, but we cannot promise that the same will happen in Spring 2025.

Note on expansion from the CS enrollment manager: “There’s a good chance that enrollment will expand in the future but we cannot say at this point when that expansion will happen.” (This note was from before the expansion to 481 seats.)

We will not have any information about potential course expansion until the first full week of the spring semester (January 27, 2025), at the earliest. Any updates will be posted on this page, so if you email us, you will just get redirected to this page.

Q2: What are my chances of getting off the waitlist?

We don’t know. You could check Berkeleytime for enrollment trends from past semesters, but there are no guarantees as to how past trends will extrapolate to Spring 2025.

Besides past trends, we have no way to estimate your odds of getting off the waitlist. If you’re on the waitlist, we strongly recommend having a backup plan in case you are unable to enroll.

Q3: I’m not a declared L&S Computer Science or College of Engineering major. Can I enroll in the class?

Sorry, course staff is not in charge of enrollment. We have to follow the department’s enrollment policies, which restricts CS 168 enrollment to declared L&S Computer Science or College of Engineering majors only.

If you are not part of this group, you cannot enroll or waitlist in the class. We don’t have enrollment codes to hand out or any other way to circumvent this policy.

If you have further questions, please reach out to the emails listed in the linked document.

Note on reserved seats from the CS enrollment manager:

We have created a reserve of seats for declared EECS/CS majors terms 8+ only. There are also seats for any declared EECS/CS major as well as a few for non-EECS COE majors too. The timing of the reserved seats will be through the end of phase 2 enrollment - just like any other upper division CS class.

Note on seats for Data Science majors (Jan 2025):

A limited number of seats are now available for declared Data Science majors to enroll.

Students who choose to enroll in a course without the prerequisite background should be prepared to do extra work to keep up and should not expect the course to cover prerequisite material.

You must be officially declared in the Data Science major on CalCentral in order to enroll in a reserved seat. If the available seats are full or the class is full, declared Data Science majors may add to the waitlist and may be admitted to the class if space permits.

This is not precedent-setting and students should not assume that seats in these classes will be available for Data Science majors in future terms.

Q4: I plan to declare CS this spring. Can I enroll in the class after I declare?

If your declaration is processed in time, and the enrollment system lets you enroll in the class, we can let you enroll. However, it is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll. We can give you access to all the assignments while you wait to enroll (see Q5 below).

Q5: I plan to declare and enroll later. Can I keep up with assignments before I officially enroll?

Yes, we can add you to the course Gradescope and Ed forum. There will be a form (will be linked on this page, closer to the start of the semester) that you can fill out to request access.

Q6: I’m a concurrent enrollment student. When can I enroll in the class?

The department processes concurrent enrollment applications, not us. Concurrent enrollment applications are scheduled to be processed in the first full week of the spring semester (January 27, 2025), at the earliest. Please check this page later for updates; we have no additional information at this time, so please do not email us about concurrent enrollment until this page is updated.

If you have a pending concurrent enrollment application, please do not email us asking to be added to bCourses (or Gradescope or Ed). We will automatically add all students with pending applications to the course. It can take 3-4 days for us to add you after you submit an application, so please be patient. If your application is approved late, you can request extensions using the form on the website, so that the first few assignments are not counted late.

Q7: Can I audit the class?

All course materials that we can share with auditors will be posted publicly on the course website.

Q8: I officially enrolled in the class, or filled out the form requesting to be enrolled, but I don’t have access to Gradescope/Ed.

We sync the rosters once a day, so you may need to wait a bit before being automatically added to the class. If you’ve been officially enrolled for 48 hours and haven’t been added, send an email to cs168@berkeley.edu. Please don’t ask us about being added until 48 hours have passed; we don’t have time to manually add each student.

Exams

Q9: When are the exams?

The midterm date is Tuesday, March 11, 7–9pm (confirmed as of January 2025).

The final exam is on Friday, May 16, 2025, 3–6pm PT. (Source: Registrar website.)

Q10: Can I take this class remotely? Do you offer remote exams?

At the moment, we don’t plan on offering remote exams, so you’ll need to be in-person for the midterm and the final exam.

There will be no attendance requirements for the rest of the course, so if you aren’t in-person for the rest of the course, we won’t know.

(Note: Unlike Fall 2024, we will not be giving any extra credit for attending lecture in Spring 2025.)

Q11: Do you offer alternate time exams?

If you are unable to take the exam at the scheduled time, we will be offering only one alternate exam time, in-person only, immediately after the scheduled exam.

Alternate midterm time: Tuesday, March 11, 9–11pm.

Alternate final exam time: Friday, May 16, 2025, 6–9pm PT (we’ll give you a few minutes to walk between exams).

There are no other alternate exam times. There are no remote exams at alternate times.

We are only offering the alternate exam time if you are unable to take the exam at the normal time. For example, if you have another exam at the same time, you can take the alternate-time exam. However, wanting a break between non-conflicting exams would not be a valid reason to take the alternate-time exam, because in this case you are able to take the exam at the normal time.

We’ll release a form closer to the exams for you to sign up for an alternate-time exam.

Prerequisites

Q12: Do you formally enforce prerequisites?

No. The enrollment system should not block you from enrolling or waitlisting if you haven’t taken the prerequisites (CS61B, CS61C). We will not drop students who haven’t taken the prerequisites.

Note: An older version of the course listed CS 162 as a prerequisite, but this is outdated. The correct prerequisites are CS 61B and CS 61C (not CS 162).

Q13: Should I take this class without the prerequisites?

CS 61B is a prerequisite for understanding of basic data structures (e.g. trees, hash maps) and programming competence. We try our best to re-introduce any specific CS 61B topics as they appear in class, so the actual content of CS 61B is not a hard prerequisite.

CS 61C is a prerequisite for understanding of basic operating systems principles (e.g. virtual memory, multi-threading). We try our best to re-introduce any specific CS 61C topics as they appear in class.

Joining Late

Q14: I need to miss the first few days of class. Is that okay?

We don’t take attendance, so it’s okay if you aren’t in-person for the first few weeks of class. You do not need to contact us about missing class. However, it is still your responsibility to keep up with the assignments.

Q15: Can I enroll in the class late?

If you plan on enrolling late, it is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll.

If you enroll late, we will give you a grace period of 3 days after the day you enroll. After the 3 days are over, you should be fully caught up with the class (all assignments due up to that point should be submitted).

You can request extensions using the form on the website so that assignments submitted during this grace period are not counted late.

If you need more than 3 days to catch up, you can request extensions through the form, but we cannot guarantee that they will be approved. Please don’t email us asking about extensions - use the form on the website.

You can attend lectures and discussion sections before you are officially enrolled. The course website will publicly post any recordings, videos, and resources.