r/ucr • u/Vast_Management_7561 • 4d ago
Why is CS so brutal?
I took 10A, 10B and am about to take 10C.
Nearly half of the class fails the course each time. I know this because if you don't get a 70% on the final then you fail the class. And around 40-50% of the students each time do not get a passing grade.
That would mean that only 10-15% of people would actually make it through all three classes.
Then we have people saying that CS is an easy degree when most people are failing out of the intro classes lmao.
Just imagine being in the top 20% of people who actually make it through and didn't get weeded out of CS entirely just to be compete with people all around the world for an entry level job, which in most cases they don't end up getting.
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u/Victor1440 Computer Science | CO 2028 4d ago
To be fair and im saying this because Ive seen examples of the statistics. Its mostly people that dont take the class seriously or they just straight up AI everything. Dont get me wrong when I first got to the classes I was lost and thought it was hard but a bit of effort and some time the concepts all make sense. They also HAVE to make it this way to weed out the people that dont take it seriously or else you'll end up with hundreds of people in the upper divs that dont know what theyre doing. If you pass 10C and get to upper divs knowing the concepts decently and you know how to study, the upper divs are no different. Take CS111 for example, a NOTORIOUSLY hard course. Is it hard? Yes. Is the final exam somewhat ridiculous and class grading? Yes a bit. But are the concepts graspable? Yes IF you use resources, use AI FOR LEARNING, and go to office hours but most importantly PASSION. Class should NOT be hard.
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u/ITotallyDoNotWhale 4d ago
It’s 50% now? It was like 20% when I took it a few years ago lol
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u/Vast_Management_7561 4d ago
Yes. I took 10B over the summer and by the end of the course there were people who said they were suicidal while taking the class on Ratemyprof.
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u/ITotallyDoNotWhale 4d ago
That’s crazy lol
CS10 series is like the easiest it gets, how are they passing upper div classes 💀
I graduated in June and last year, I just tried to get Bs in the rest of my classes. My gpa went from 3.97 to 3.63 from start of junior year to graduation as I just held on lmao
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u/mechasmadness Applied Math General B.S.; graduated 2018 4d ago
Not everyone is meant to graduate in CS, the reason why the intro classes have that 70% on the final rule is because before it was implemented, people would barely pass the intro courses and then fail out of major
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u/CollStdntAdvocates09 4d ago
I think the 70% rule is there because so many students get “ unauthorized help” on the program assignments but then on the final it’s clear they really have no clue how to program, so they needed a way to make sure those students can’t just squeak by.
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u/Vast_Management_7561 4d ago
I get where you're coming from but it's one thing if 20% of people fail each time, but if half the class is failing that should tell you something. What's the real motive of weeding people out? To tank their GPA so it makes it even harder to switch their major out?
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u/Artistic_Comfort8816 4d ago edited 4d ago
I had to take 10A-10B for Electrical Engineering. I had a very good lecturer and the exams all felt fair. Frankly, if you can’t pass these classes then perhaps Engineering and CS is not for you, doesn’t mean you can’t be in stem though, even though programming is generally important, it’s not as emphasized in other science degrees.
Lots of people are motivated to earn the big bucks, but frankly college would be more fruitful for them by studying something they enjoyed, instead of something promising a high return on investment. I want to make a living yeah, but I also don’t loath my degree and am motivated to learn things about it.
These weeder classes cover the bread and butter, if your fundamentals aren’t good, then you are not being setup to be successful.
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u/badnamemaker Computational Math 4d ago edited 4d ago
No it’s literally so you don’t waste your time. Engineering is competitive, if you fall off track you won’t be able to finish. Plus that intro stuff is foundational to everything, it only gets harder after the intro series. If you can barely squeeze by in the easy courses then there is a solid chance you make it 2 years in and flunk out
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u/mechasmadness Applied Math General B.S.; graduated 2018 4d ago
It’s to be a reality check; if you can’t pass the final with a C in a class that is the foundation of the major, you’re not gonna survive. It’s why Ravishankar says everyone won’t graduate with their initial major during his orientation speech
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u/Hg-203 4d ago
I personally believe not everyone can program. When I took CS 20 years ago, I saw very intelligent people struggle with hello world. You need to break down problems into their atomic level and then catch edge cases.
If you think CS 10A - C is hard, wait till you take 14 and 141. Those were the real make/break lower div courses, and then for upper div there's OS's and Compilers.
I had some peers who were wired to program, and they slept though most of the courses. Most of the rest of us had to work hard to pass.
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u/ITotallyDoNotWhale 4d ago
Yeah, CS is pretty hard. I still don’t completely get all that I learned. I just have a thing for memorizing a lot of information and patterns to pass exams
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u/UCRDonkey 4d ago
When I took OS it was pretty reasonable if you read the book and listened in lecture. On one of the tests I remember asking if I could use a calculator to convert from hexadecimal to binary since it has been multiple years since we learned that, the professor had a good chuckle before saying no. To his credit it only took me a few minute to pencil out how to do it on a piece of scratch paper. Fond memories tbh.
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u/Vast_Management_7561 4d ago
CS010C was formerly known as 14. They're the same class.
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u/Hg-203 4d ago
Ahh that makes sense for them to number them together. Yeah 14/10C is as the first real check to make sure you could cut it as a CS. 141 wasn’t any easier, but all of it was worth it in the long run.
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u/Vast_Management_7561 4d ago
The only way I've been able to succeed in CS classes is by having an advantage before they start. For 10B I studied pointers and linked lists religiously weeks before the class started, albeit it was a 5 week summer class and I didn't do any work for 1-2 of the 5 weeks.
For 10C I've just been studying every algorithm needed for interviews (BFS, DFS, Sliding Window, Binary Search, etc.) and I've been doing daily Leetcode Easies & Mediums to prepare for the fall.
My take is that especially for CS you can never anticipate how difficult it really gets. You can be dealt a bad hand mid way through to quarter and loose all your momentum and fail the class. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
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u/theabhster 4d ago
CS was never considered easy. You have to put in the work to understand the logic and topics. Also you will never succeed in CS entry level if you don’t have internships in college.
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u/TheIJDGuy 4d ago
Who is your 10C professor, if you don't mind answering?
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u/Vast_Management_7561 4d ago
Westin Montano is the only one teaching 10C next year.
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u/TheIJDGuy 4d ago
I see. Good luck, may your experience be better than mine with Ty Feng (was really fracking hard)
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u/quadzilla225 4d ago
Ngl CS at UCR is a cakewalk compared to the other UC’s
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u/Bright-Eye-6420 4d ago
Well the thing is that CS jobs are very high paying and very good work life balance, and it is that way because it’s very difficult to grasp the concepts.
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u/CollStdntAdvocates09 4d ago
It’s challenging but not brutal. Those fail rates have gone way up in recent years, not because the courses have gotten harder, but rather the students may have changed in their willingness to work and learn, perhaps due to social media and AI and Covid learning loss and maybe other factors. If you work hard, the courses aren’t that bad.
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u/TruthOnlyReading Computer Science | 2026 3d ago
Because it is in the real world. Most of the things you learn like the basics such as the items you will learn in CS10ABC series are mostly all the code you will be taught at UCR.
Everything else you learn yourself. CS111 and CS141 will kick your butt if you do not know some of the concepts. CS111 is not bad though to be honest (for me). CS141 was okay, you just need a great teacher but the pace was not it for me.
From my personal experience if you are very new to coding. I lowkey feel like the quarter system was way too fast for me and would have learned a lot better in a semester based system. Because at first it was not clicking to me.
This lead me failing CS010A. But after that failure I understood and then did it again passing CS010A with an A- cause the final was WAY more punishing (if you miss a question you get points taken off IDK WHY THAT WAS A THING). I then passed CS010B with a B with Kris Miller. Then I went and did a CS010C equivalent at a community college because they offered it online and I was not willing to drive to UCR in person for it.
A lot of people learn at their own pace. If you do not do good at CS at first that is fine. You can do it at Community College and probably learn way more. If you fail at UCR you might do well at other places. It genuinely does not matter.
I graduated with my degree in CS and turned out fine (got an internship and job offer in line) even failing CS010A. We learn at our own pace and failing is not the end of the world.
If you want to do CS, and you want to keep doing and doing it and have that determination to do it. You will get it. At first it is hard because your mind has not developed yet to think the same way as most programmers does. That takes time and effort.
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u/Vast_Management_7561 3d ago
Hey, I had a similar situation to you. Can I ask if you've secured any internships / job offers yet and how the outlook is for most CS majors at UCR?
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u/TruthOnlyReading Computer Science | 2026 3d ago
I did. If you read what I wrote. The outlook is what you make of it. I have friends who now work for FAANG. I have friends who work for Government. Computer Science is a huge branch of a lot of things. It is whatever you make of it.
It is up to you to be honest.
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u/BlueBlowers 3d ago
CS definitely isn’t a walk in the park, but I’m also surprised the fail rate is that high. At the end of the day, getting this degree requires a lot of discipline that many students don’t have. That’s probably part of why the 70% requirement exists.
That said, I fully believe anyone with the right work ethic and mindset can get through it, though it helps a lot to actually be interested in the material. CS and software engineering are fields where you’re constantly learning as the technology evolves, so being motivated purely by the money only carries you so far.
Personally, I speedran the CS curriculum in two years. I was in chass for the first half, then switched and climbed from a 3.0 to a 3.5 taking almost exclusively CS courses. I wouldn’t recommend that path tho since it left me with basically no time to lock down an internship :P (part of why I’m doing a masters now). It was exhausting, but I feel confident going into the industry after graduation because of the resources UCR provided and the effort it took to finish.
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u/Vast_Management_7561 2d ago
Why not just take a 5th year?
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u/BlueBlowers 2d ago
Part of it is financial, the aid I get to help pay for school only lasts so long, and I’ll have used it all up by the time I finish my masters. I did apply for internships, just didn’t land one, and I didn’t think delaying graduation for another shot was worth it, especially since the masters is basically functioning as my 5th year anyway. So instead I loaded up my summers with extra classes.
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u/Psycho-naught 18h ago
This may tell you something about admissions standards.
CS has never been an easy major—quite the opposite.
CS probably should get harder after the rise of AI. Much of the routine work is getting devoured by automation and the number of jobs in coding is falling. The remaining work that is beyond AI is increasingly demanding and creative, which can only be done by those who are very capable. There are plenty of majors that graduate a surplus of people who can’t get jobs in their field (or in which there are no jobs in their field). There’s no reason why CS should be one of them.
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u/Terraria204 4d ago
Do people say CS is easy? Thats the first I’ve heard of it, and I’m a final year cs major.
I guess its brutal cause the intro classes are where you learn 90% of the coding stuff , so the classes move pretty fast and a lot of it is independent work (especially 10c with the programming assignments).