Ok this course is so insanely bland, if you're into databases then its fine I guess but the actual content is not engaging what-so-ever

You go over so much stuff about how databases implement queries, how to make them faster, and what they do behind the scenes. The problem is you never actually use databases other than like for 2 assignment questions. And at the end, the professor just drops OH BY THE WAY all DBMS already take care of this so you don't have to worry about it. Unless you want to do research in DBMS and or become a DBA I wouldn't recommend this course

Mostafa is a gem, the best part of this course. Really supportive and good guy. He is a bit boring but posts lectures online and seems to generously care about students

The course content is pretty easy. You will have learned a bit of the course in CS3319 or your other courses.

Course content is useful. You can better understand how a DBMS's work which makes you better at programming more efficient uses of the database. The topics include: disk storage, indexing, query evaluation/optimization (I found this a lot of memorization, because we had to memorize/fully understand a cost table for the midterm), transaction management, crash recovery and distributed systems.

The pros: he shows up to class and will answer easy conceptual questions in-class. About every 2-3 weeks, he'll say something useful for the mid term exams, but, you'll have to go to all his classes and write notes, otherwise you'll forget the blip he mentions. The cons: TL;DR: he comes off unforgiving, does not think for his students, and makes life harder for you than it needs to be for the benefit of his own convenience. Gives KAI ZHONG ZHANG vibes #ifykyk. Here are more specifics: -If the questions you have are related to the assignments, you'll get tossed between the TA and Milani until Milani realizes that he can't shake you off and that he'll actually have to read and understand the assignment he wrote to answer your question. By then it could be too late to benefit your grade,...read more

If you take this course, make sure to ask your upper-years for help, because this prof will be a pain to communicate with for the amount of effort you put in.