Tough concepts that are valuable to future software engineers. You will know how to use pointers after this course

Ask for help, use tutors. Don't procrastinate.

Overall this is one of the hardest classes in CS, this class is very overwhelming but at the same time very interesting. This class outright demands as much time as you have if your cs skills are on the weaker side like me. I had no room to coast but i would imagine with better CS skills and a lightened courseload this class would level out in difficulty

This course mainly goes over how to gain performance improvements through C++ trickery with the end of the class being a double whammy of an involved final and an involved real-world project of optimizing a particle system, very useful stuff.

Ed is one of the most knowledgeable software engineers i know, his background was from the game industry but that only tells a fraction of his story. Ed acts very fair with the PAs as you can make back points later on. My only critique and it can be considered a nitpick due to my circumstances is the course load. But overall, Keenan is one of the few people I know who is top of his class in his respective field.

Use the tutors as much as you can as they are a life saver for this course, personally i was stuck on PA4 for too long and the tutor helped me work through my issues, mainly doubly linked list management. PAs are worth more so prioritize them over. also if you are like me, an idiot, and don't know doubly linked lists they will be beaten into your head by the time you are done so its best to make sure that you know them. Also make sure that you have as few classes as possible when you take this class as if you are not prepared prepare to spend a ton of time on coursework.

One of the most difficult CS courses at DePaul. Lots of programming but a very useful course nonetheless. You get to learn a lot about how computers work and how memory functions. With this knowledge, you are able to exploit these things and make really fast programs. There is a lot of work to be done but you learn a lot.

Every week you learn about new ways to exploit the c++ compiler and gain speed. Programming assignment every week with 1 extra basic assignment. For the final project, you optimize a particle system.

Really knowledgeable about c++ and is an interesting guy. From day one he lets you know that it's a difficult course and tries to scare you off. Stay with it though and you will learn a lot.

Be good at programming and comfortable in at least one language, does not have to be c++. Know how to make linked lists from scratch, and have a very good understanding of pointers. Not much prior knowledge of c++ is needed.