Fall 2026

Introduction to Cryptography

Introduction to the technical aspects of cryptography and secure digital information transmission.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Somesh Jha3.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

The course includes five graded homeworks, two midterms, and a final. While some find exams manageable with lecture notes, others report they are unexpectedly difficult or narrowly focused.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(MATH 320, 340, 341, 345, or 375), graduate/professional standing, or declared in Mathematics VISP (undergraduate or graduate)

COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Fall 2026
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.05/5 from 21 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 3.2/5 difficulty · 20 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Somesh Jha is praised for being laid-back, engaging, and clear, with students noting his generosity and responsiveness. Reviewers also mention confusing grading criteria and mandatory paired homework assignments.

Reviews highlight concerns regarding course structure, including last-minute topic coverage, lack of a syllabus, and opaque grading curves. Students report that exams can be unexpectedly difficult or focused on narrow topics, creating a frustrating experience despite the professor's personal likability.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.28 GPA, 51.0% A/AB (n=143 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.28 GPA, 54.6% A/AB (n=119 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.08 GPA, 45.5% A/AB (n=101 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Eric Bach, Gregory Shinault: Professor: Somesh Jha is the current instructor. Overview: The course covers engaging material but requires attendance since lectures are unrecorded. Homework is challenging yet interesting, while exams are generally easier. Student experience: Students note lectures are unrecorded, requiring attendance, but appreciate helpful office hours. History: Gregory Shinault focused on applications with flexible exams. Eric Bach's teaching clarity was polarizing, with some finding lectures confusing while others noted helpful office hours.

ANDREI CALDARARU is recorded teaching in Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ERIC BACH is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2011, Spring 2019, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GREGORY SHINAULT is recorded teaching in Spring 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NIGEL BOSTON is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SHAMGAR GUREVICH is recorded teaching in Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SOMESH JHA is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction29 / 500
LEC 001Classroom Instruction9 / 500
LEC 001Classroom Instruction10 / 501

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Somesh Jha is praised for clear explanations, approachability, and fair grading, though some students report confusing notation and opaque course policies.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.12 GPA, 47.3% A/AB (n=93 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.08 GPA, 45.5% A/AB (n=101 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.15 GPA, 36.9% A/AB (n=84 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

The course includes five graded homeworks, two midterms, and a final. While some find exams manageable with lecture notes, others report they are unexpectedly difficult or narrowly focused.

Students appreciate Jha's engaging lectures and helpfulness, but some find pair homeworks, last-minute schedule changes, and a lack of syllabus transparency frustrating.

Topics

  • Secure digital information transmission
  • Technical aspects of cryptography

Skills

  • Secure information transmission
  • Technical aspects of cryptography

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435 · Fall 2026

Introduction to Cryptography

Recorded 2026-09-07
COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435 · Fall 2026

Introduction to Cryptography

Recorded 2026-09-07
COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435 · Fall 2026

Introduction to Cryptography

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
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    "course_id": "COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435",
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    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "021229",
    "source_subject_id": "266",
    "title": "Introduction to Cryptography",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  },
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    "term_id": "1272",
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    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Introduction to Cryptography",
    "credits_min": 3,
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    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
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    "offering_id": "1272:600:021229",
    "course_id": "COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435",
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]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "d96de8dd6fe6f4fc6dd73d0988c6496d5033815303d537ac3e44389e5ee80544",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}