Spring 2025 FAQs

Last updated: October 29, 2024

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.”

We will not have any information about potential course expansion until the first full week of the spring semester (January 21, 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.

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.”

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

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 21, 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.

Please don’t email us asking to be added to the class before your application is processed. There won’t be any assignments due until the first batch of applications are processed. If you submit an application after the first batch is processed, see the later questions for getting added to the class (within 48 hours), and the policies for enrolling 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.

Q9: How do I enroll late in the class?

It is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll.

If you enroll late, you need to be fully caught up with the class within 3 days of enrolling. If any assignments are due before the date you enroll, you can submit a request through the extensions form (linked on the website) for up to 3 days after you enroll, so that your submission is not counted late.

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

Exams

Q10: When are the exams?

The midterm date is TBA (this page will be updated when we have a confirmation).

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

Q11: 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.

Q12: 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: TBA, immediately after the scheduled midterm time

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

Q13: 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).

Q14: Should I take this class without CS61B or equivalent?

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.

Q15: Should I take this class without CS61C or equivalent?

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.

Other questions

If you have a question that wasn’t answered above, you can email cs168@berkeley.edu. Please don’t email instructors or TAs directly; you will get a faster answer by emailing cs168@berkeley.edu.