Current instructor
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Rishab is a great professor, knowledgeable and organized. HWs are hard but you have 2 weeks to write them, and will give out useful hint during lecture. Office hour is a MUST to do well in homework, TAs for this course are also knowledgeable and helpful throughout the semester. Cryptography is a hard topic, don't blame the professor for it lolRate My Professors ↗
I will state first that I will not give a low grade for a course being too difficult; Rishab knows what he is talking about in class and his summaries and course organization are very clear. Therefore, I think this course is a good course for those who are willing to spend a little time thinking, you think, instead of mindlessly writing code.Rate My Professors ↗
He knows the material very well but is not good at explaining them in an undergraduate level. The homework takes way too long (15+ hours) and I really grinded hard to get an A in this class.Rate My Professors ↗
Crypto is one of the hardest classes Ive taken at UW, but Prof. Goyal did a good job breaking the content down into small pieces in lecture and encouraged participation. That being said The class was at a level far beyond what I &others were expecting, but I think that is more the fault of the CS department to give us an adequate math foundation.Rate My Professors ↗
While Professor Goyal is very smart and gets better through the semester, he has trouble explaining topics at an undergrad level but would be great for a grad course. The class is astronomically hard with the problem sets taking >20 hours to do and impossible without help from the TAs. Goyal isn't a bad lecturer, but the class is extremely hard.Rate My Professors ↗
He isn't super organized, but he is an entertaining lecturer and he is super passionate about cryptography.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
COMPSCI 790 is a Master's Thesis course for graduate students, focusing on independent research and thesis completion.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
COMPSCI 880 covers advanced topics in algorithms, complexity, and cryptography.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.66 GPA, 84.2% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Fall 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026COMPSCI 899 is a pre-dissertator research course for master's graduates preparing for doctoral dissertation work under faculty supervision.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 790 | Master's Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 799 | Master's Research |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 880 | Topics in Theoretical Computer Science |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 899 | Pre-dissertator Research |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
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