Current instructor

Jin-Yi Cai

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.19/5 from 31 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.

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

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

COMPSCI 520
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Very charismatic and funny lecturer who's clearly passionate about the material. The exams are good in difficulty: hard enough to require some on-site creative thinking and not just memorization, but nothing impossible to do. He also takes informal arguments and gives full points for answers even if they're lacking in rigor.
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COMPSCI 520
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
He's so difficult, and the average on the final exam was in the 40s, tells you all you need to know about this class and his way of teaching.
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COMPSCI 520
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Very unfair professor. Makes material impossible to understand. Gives an insane amount of homework, but the homework is not useful in preparing for the finals. And despite the final seeming to be not that difficult, he grades insanely strictly and will absolutely crash your grade for seemingly no reason. Avoid at all costs.
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COMPSCI 520
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Avoid at all costs—take 577 without him. He attempts to teach theoretical CS, but he's difficult to understand because his speech is muffled by a mask and he speaks too quickly. He explains concepts poorly and never goes over the examples you'll see on exams or in homework. Lectures are useless and you'll have to teach yourself the content.
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COMPSCI 520
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Absolutely nightmarish terrible. I would've put 'Participation matters' as a tag if it weren't for the fact that his lectures are nightmarishly hard to understand. Terrible handwriting, style, squeaky chalkboard, seating, oratory skills, grading difficulty, attendance is a mystery, etc. It's bad when you're FORCED to 3rd party sites just to learn.
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COMPSCI 520
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Has ability to make some of the most intuitive topics 10x harder during lecture with vague jargon, often not understanding a single word in lecture and going home to watch hours worth of videos to stay afloat. HWs are graded easily but tests are graded hard to the point HW feedback barely matters. Also, extends class 5 minutes after bell every day.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Jin-Yi Cai

Directed study projects for Computer Science juniors and seniors, arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sample

Topics in theoretical computer science covering advanced topics in algorithms, complexity, and cryptography; the exact topic varies.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2012: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Fall 2021: 3.94 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.78 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=9 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Spring 2026

Pre-dissertator independent research supervised by a faculty member for students who have completed a master's degree but have not reached dissertator status.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2027COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Spring 2027COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2027COMPSCI 880Topics in Theoretical Computer Science
Spring 2027COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2027COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2026COMPSCI 520Introduction to Theory of Computing
Fall 2026COMPSCI 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2026COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2026COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Fall 2026COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2026COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2026COMPSCI 990Dissertation

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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