Historical instructor

SOMESH JHA

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.

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

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Somesh himself is a decent professor. However, there is no transparency whatsoever in this class. The curve by which the class is graded is unknown until the end of the semester after the grades are in, meaning you have no idea what your grade is. Makes everything easy until an impossible final exam (worth 30%) which only focused on like 4 concepts
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COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Somesh is extremely passionate about crypto. He does well at making lectures engaging and understandable. He is very helpful outside of class as well, and he usually does not move on until the class understands a topic. The exams/quizzes are difficult, but if you study and understand the materials, they're not too bad and the graders are generous.
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COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Somesh was one of the best professors I have had in the CS department. He is funny, engaging, and helps guide students to find solutions to the homework easily, without just doing the work himself. He introduced lots of tricks and ideas to help make difficult subject matter easy to understand, and made sure the class still had fun.
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COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
6 homework assignments, one 100% for turning in your name,lowest dropped so it was graded on 5 homeworks+free 100%, 2 midterms and a final. Low maintenance, so good to take with hard classes but the exams were kinda impossible unless you memorize every word of each topic. The final was a trick, it was weird math and didn't include half the topics.
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COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Somesh is one of the best professors I have had for a while. He is very engaging with the class, and makes very complex ideas around crypto easy to understand. He gives plenty of time for homework (with there only being 7*) and assigns them only when discussed in lecture, Overall, a very nice guy who loves the material and wants you to love it too.
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COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Easily the best professor I've ever had. He's engaging and attempts to learn all students' names even in classes with over 100 people. He's both funny and incredibly knowledgeable. Made CS 435 my favorite class I've ever taken and inspired me to go into the software security field.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with SOMESH JHA

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2026COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2026COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2026COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2026COMPSCI/ECE 763Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
Fall 2025COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2025COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2025COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2025COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2025COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2025COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2025COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2024COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2024COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2024COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2024COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2024COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2024COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2024COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2024COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2024COMPSCI/ECE 763Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
Fall 2023COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2023COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2023COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2023COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2023COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2023COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2023COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2023COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2022COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2022COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2022COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2022COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2022COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Spring 2022COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2022COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2021COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2021COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2021COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2021COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2021COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Fall 2020COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2020COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2020COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2020COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2020COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Spring 2020COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2020COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2020COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Fall 2019COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2019COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Fall 2019COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2019COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2019COMPSCI 639Undergraduate Elective Topics in Computing
Spring 2019COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2019COMPSCI 839Core Topics in Computing
Spring 2019COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2018COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2018COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2018COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2018COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2018COMPSCI 839Core Topics in Computing
Spring 2018COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2017COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2017COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2017COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2017COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2017COMPSCI 703Program Verification and Synthesis
Spring 2017COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2016COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2016COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2016COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2016COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2015COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2015COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2015COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2014COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2014COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2014COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2013COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2013COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2013COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2013COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2013COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2013COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2013COMPSCI 999Dissertator Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2012COMPSCI 999Dissertator Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI/ECE/MATH 435Introduction to Cryptography
Spring 2012COMPSCI 536Introduction to Programming Languages and Compilers
Spring 2012COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2012COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2011COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2011COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2011COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2011COMPSCI 838Topics in Computing
Spring 2011COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2010COMPSCI 642Introduction to Information Security

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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