Swift clearly knows what he's talking about and is passionate about the topic. It's a lot of work but well worth the time. Definitely recommend!

One of the most disorganized classes I've taken. Exams, course policies, and projects are all vague and unclear. Lectures were rushed and packed with too much content at once, making it hard to follow. His teaching was also very dry. Honestly, I got more laughs from Remzi's textbook jokes than from any attempt at engagement in this class.

I found this class to be poorly organized overall. Throughout the semester, key aspects like the terminology, project descriptions, and even the exam scope became super vague. If there's such confusion at the instructional level, it seems unfair to use those same unclear questions to assess students.

Extremely awful experience, I don't know what is the point of making every term this vague and ambiguous

Nice guy, clearly puts energy into teaching. The lectures and readings are fun if you want to learn about dist systems. However workload is significantly higher than other grad courses, and is certainly not for undergrads unless you know database, network and OS well. Grading is very meticulous.

This is said to be one of the hardest CS classes, so don't expect this to be a cakewalk by any means. Reading the textbook before class will introduce you to the topics and then the lectures will help cement the information. This was one of my favorite classes I have taken here. Keep up the good work Prof Swift!

A nice professor, but NOT a good lecturer. He displayed all details on textbook in 1 hour's lecture, it's hard to catch up if you don't work hard and learn the book before. If that, why lecture? Watched Remzi's amazing video in 2021 (only essence and easy for human being to learn new stuff) instead, read OSTEP after, that's wise and smooth way.

Very fast in lecture, so definitely do the readings before coming to class. Pretty much anyone who teaches CS537, i.e. systems people in general, will be a fine choice, and Swift is no exception. Definitely do not cheat/copy on the programs.

Like other people said, he is a friendly professor and willing to help for student. But to be honest, I sometimes found it's difficult to follow him in lecture. His wording for both the homework and exam is just terrible. It's so ambiguous and implicit to understand what his questions actually ask for.

Grading is pretty tough.

He tends to make you contrast various systems during exams... That's sort of his thing. This can be tough because it makes you transcend the lecture material and draw conclusions on your own. You'll also write lots of reviews on papers; on the upside class credit is a good chunk of your grade.

Great professor and great lectures. I learned a lot during his class and it never seemed overwhelming.

The biggest advantage of taking Operating Systems with Mike Swift is that he has 8 years of experience at Microsoft, and has a great deal of knowledge and stories to share. The assignments are difficult and your programs are tested very thoroughly. There is a decent amount of work, but you will learn a lot.

The class is average difficulty. Expect to spend time on the projects. The things tested for aren't covered explicitly, you have to use your brain and common sense to infer the answers, which isn't hard. His lectures go fast and can be hard to follow, but he's a friendly guy and jokes around.