Like others have mentioned, Sherstov is a masterful teacher who knows his stuff and keeps students' attention from the very first day of class to the very last. His philosophy, which I greatly admire, is that "class attendance is earned", meaning that the professor should be the one to motivate students to come to class and learn instead of making attendance mandatory. And boy, does he earn it. He makes the boring stuff come to life. He really explains concepts well. But you'd be fooling yourself if you thought the course was therefore a walk in the park. On the contrary, this was not one of my best courses at UCLA by a longshot, and the fact that the professor is this great of a help instead of a hindrance makes all the difference in the world. The material is hard, and I did find myself struggling on exams sometimes. Practicing with the practice exams he posts online is ESSENTIAL. But the office hours the TA's and Sherstov held were always extremely helpful. The course will start out easy, but you can easily fall behind if you don't keep up with his lecture material. There's so much material, the exams are scheduled on the discussion sections instead of the lectures. For that reason, having exams every 2 weeks did get a bit overwhelming after a while. But I'm incredibly thankful for Sherstov; he's a really great inspiration and I wish all professors in academia (not just from UCLA) were more like him.

Absolutely with no doubt the best professor in the CS department, if you are tired of the unclear and unorganized random lectures from other CS professors, (we all know who they are, no disrespect, but that is torture) welcome to prof. Sherstov's lecture where you will feel like you are still truly loved by the world.
This class is not easy but he made it clear and understandable. He is passionate about his class and he is patient to answer all the questions. There are 10 homeworks that takes 20% of the total grade, but they are grade by effort, so basically just participation points, although understand hw would definitely help with your exams so, try hard.
there are 4 exams which take 80% of total grades. 25 points available but 20 is full credit. So you have some room. The exam is doable if you know the material, and he provides lots of practice exams. Every time before an exam I just took some time to go through the practice exams and I got 21-ish (full credit) for all my exams.
In conclusion, BEST PROFESSOR to me!

first and foremost , a great professor doesnt need to be just an easy one, this class is not easy but not difficult either. However, Sherstov completely changed my opinion about this class , i thought this might be a boring class at the beginning, but now this is my favorite subject and favorite class at UCLA so far. Sherstov is an amazing person and a professor, he teaches both the course material and some life lessons in his lectures, he is such an inspiring person who always motivated me to think and learn more and more. I am also impressed by his diligence, patience and understanding, he and his TAs work extra hard to remove our stress and to make everything available to us. He is certainly the best professor I've seen so far, I hope I can take more classes with him.

He is fantastic. Plan your schedule accordingly because you need to take this guy. Fantastic professor and human being.

Before I took this class I read the reviews about Sherstov and I thought that there was no way this guy is as good as everyone says. After taking this class I can confidently say that this professor is truly the best professor I've ever had in any course at UCLA. The material for the class is truly difficult and abstract, and it would be easy for any professor to just dump proofs and theorems given how theory heavy this class is. Sherstov, however, painstakingly goes through the effort to articulately explain every aspect of each proof, and provide examples to illustrate exactly how the proof applies to the problems at hand. His passion is for the subject is tangible and he truly wants every student to leave the class with a deep appreciation for the subject, which I have. Honestly this class is one of those classes that I imagine could have been a nightmare to take. With the material being so difficult and abstract, I imagine taking this class with a different professor who didn't care as much could be hell on earth. Yet Sherstov managed to take the material and present it so lovingly and simply that it has no choice but to make sense. I found myself excited by the prospect of drawing automata and writing regular expressions. Even writing proofs became more fun and interesting, since for the first time at UCLA, I felt like I actually had all the tools and knowledge to write a decent proof, instead of writing some bullshit I didn't even believe. If you can take this class with Sherstov, you must do it, it isn't a class so much as an experience. If you can't take this class with Sherstov, good luck and I am truly sorry for you.

I literally signed up for bruinwalk to post this review. take sherstov. he's probably the best cs teacher i've had.

Sherstov has been one of my favorite professors at UCLA. He's super passionate about the topics that he covers and sincerely cares about his students being able to understand and learn the concepts. His exams are difficult but fair. His class is divided up into 4 sections, with each section covering a different topic (DFA's, NFA's, CFG's/ PDA's, and TM's). Each exam has 25 possible points you can earn, but it's graded out of 20. The highest score you can earn on each is 20, so you basically get 5 free points.

Hands down the best professor I have ever had and likely ever will have. Sherstov is not only incredibly smart and knowledgeable about finite automat theory, he is also super nice and very concerned about the students' success. I made a bruinwalk account just to review this amazing man. Take him if you can.

A little about the course: There are weekly homework assignments which are given 100% if you have a "good faith attempt on at least half of the problems". You really want to try on the homework though because it really is the best way to learn the material. For exams, there are 3 during the quarter, all during discussion (discussion is not mandatory except for exam days) and a final. Each exam is worth 20% of your grade and is out of 20 points. You can earn up to 25 points on each exam though (but you do not get extra credit) meaning that to get 100% in the class you just have to do the hw and get 80% correct on each exam.

Professor Sherstov is the best professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is very aware of his pedagogical style, which allows him to be a very effective lecturer. He demonstrates genuine enthusiasm in the course material at every turn, and does a wonderful job of linking each topic to the previous topics. He makes students feel very welcome asking questions, and when students answer the questions he asks, he is congratulatory when they are correct and encouraging when they are not. His homework is very reasonable, and in combination for the practice exams prepares you very well for the exams, of which there are four at regular intervals so as to smooth out the amount of anxiety associated with having one or two exams account for the entirety of one's grade.