Fall 2025 FAQs

Last updated: March 23, 2025

Fall 2025 listing on classes.berkeley.edu

Enrollment

Q1: Will the course expand?

We don’t know. (And we still won’t know even if we know your waitlist position, so please don’t email us to ask.)

In recent semesters, we were able to expand the course to enroll all interested students, but we cannot promise that the same will happen in Fall 2025.

We will not have any information about potential course expansion until the first full week of the fall semester (August 27, 2025), at the earliest. Any updates will be posted on this page, so if you email us, you will just get redirected to this page.

Q2: What are my chances of getting off the waitlist?

We don’t know. You could check Berkeleytime for enrollment trends from past semesters, but there are no guarantees as to how past trends will extrapolate to Fall 2025.

Besides past trends, we have no way to estimate your odds of getting off the waitlist. If you’re on the waitlist, we strongly recommend having a backup plan in case you are unable to enroll.

Q3: I’m not a Computer Science or Data Science major. Can I enroll in the class?

We will try our best to enroll all interested students (including non-majors), but we cannot make any promises, and we have no way to estimate your chances of being enrolled. If you are a non-major, our suggestion is to stay on the waitlist, but have a backup plan ready.

For more details, see the message below from the CS enrollment team:

CS 168 is an open (non-restricted) class in Fall 2025:

Any full time UCB undergraduate or visiting/exchange undergraduate student can join the waitlist for CS 168.

All seats in CS 168 will be reserved for declared EECS/CS/DS/non-EECS COE majors. Reserved seating will end on the first day of class and at that time the waitlist will automatically fill any open seats based solely on the waitlist position.

What does this mean for declared EECS/CS/DS majors?

If you are a declared EECS/CS/DS major who intends to enroll in CS 168, you should use phase 1 units to give yourself the best chance of being enrolled.

As long as the reserve caps are in place, the system will skip waitlisted non-majors when filling any open seats. This means you are only competing against other waitlisted EECS/CS/DS/non-EECS majors for enrollment.

Although the reserve caps will remain in effect until the first day of classes, you will be competing with non-majors who have used phase 1 units to join the waitlist once the reserved seating ends.

What does this mean for CS minors?

While you will be given access to the waitlist for CS 168, you will not be given priority enrollment for these classes. CS minors are still encouraged to take classes during Summer Session when there are no enrollment restrictions.

Joining the waitlist during phase 1 will give you the best chance of enrollment when the reserve caps end on the first day of class but it does NOT guarantee you will be enrolled in the class. We will do our best, but we may not be able to enroll everyone from the waitlist due to budget constraints. Unfortunately, we will not be able to tell you what your chances are of being enrolled from the waitlist either.

If you have questions about the CS minor, you can visit this page.

Q4: I’m a concurrent enrollment student. When can I enroll in the class?

The department processes concurrent enrollment applications, not us. Concurrent enrollment applications are scheduled to be processed in the first full week of the fall semester (August 27, 2025), at the earliest. Please check this page later for updates; we have no additional information at this time, so please do not email us about concurrent enrollment until this page is updated.

In past semesters, we have been able to accept all concurrent enrollment applications, but we cannot make any promises for this semester, so we recommend having a backup plan. We have no way to estimate the odds of your application being approved, so please don’t ask us. (If you ask us, you will just be redirected to this page.)

If you have a pending concurrent enrollment application, please do not email us asking to be added to bCourses (or Gradescope or Ed). We will automatically add all students with pending applications to the course. It can take 3-4 days for us to add you after you submit an application, so please be patient. If your application is approved late, you can request extensions using the form on the website, so that the first few assignments are not counted late.

Being added to bCourses (and Gradescope and Ed) does not necessarily mean your application is approved; we are just adding you so that you can follow along while you wait.

Q5: Can I audit the class?

All course materials that we can share with auditors will be posted publicly on the course website. Also, on the policies page, there is a link to a public Gradescope class that you can join.

Q6: I enrolled or waitlisted in the class, but I don’t have access to Gradescope/Ed.

We sync the rosters once a day, so you may need to wait a bit before being automatically added to the class. If you’ve been officially enrolled or waitlisted for 48 hours and haven’t been added, send an email to cs168@berkeley.edu. Please don’t ask us about being added until 48 hours have passed; we don’t have time to manually add each student.

Waitlisted students will be automatically added, just like enrolled students. If you join the waitlist, please follow the instructions in the paragraph above.

Exams

Q7: When are the exams?

The midterm date is TBA (this page will be updated when the date is confirmed).

The final exam is TBA (this page will be updated when the date is confirmed).

Q8: Can I take this class remotely? Do you offer remote exams?

We don’t have any parts of the class that require in-person attendance, so if you take the entire class remotely, we won’t know.

However, this class is officially listed by the university as in-person, so not all aspects of the class will have remote support. For example, some resources like office hours may be in-person only. Also, we reserve the right to require in-person attendance at our discretion. For example, if you are found engaging in academic misconduct on an exam, we may require you to take all future exams in-person.

We are offering remote exams only at the same time as the scheduled exam. There will be no remote exams starting at any other time.

In order to take the exams remotely, you need to agree to our video proctoring policy, which involves sending us a recording of a continuous video feed of you taking the exam. If you are not comfortable being recorded, you can always take the exam in-person.

We’ll release a form closer to the exams for you to sign up for a remote exam.

Q9: Do you offer alternate time exams?

If you are unable to take the exam at the scheduled time, we will be offering only one alternate exam time, in-person only, either immediately before or after the scheduled exam.

Alternate midterm time: TBA (this page will be updated when the date is confirmed).

Alternate final exam time: TBA (this page will be updated when the date is confirmed).

There are no other alternate exam times. There are no remote exams at alternate times.

We are only offering the alternate exam time if you are unable to take the exam at the normal time. For example, if you have another exam at the same time, you can take the alternate-time exam. However, wanting a break between non-conflicting exams would not be a valid reason to take the alternate-time exam, because in this case you are able to take the exam at the normal time.

We’ll release a form closer to the exams for you to sign up for an alternate-time exam.

Prerequisites

Q10: Do you formally enforce prerequisites?

No. The enrollment system should not block you from enrolling or waitlisting if you haven’t taken the prerequisites (CS61A, CS61B, CS70). We will not drop students who haven’t taken the prerequisites.

Q11: Should I take this class without the prerequisites?

We have a diagnostic quiz that you can take to check your preparedness for this class.

You can use this join link to access the Gradescope class with the quiz: 4VK322

Joining Late

Q12: I need to miss the first few days of class. Is that okay?

We don’t take attendance, so it’s okay if you aren’t in-person for the first few weeks of class. You do not need to contact us about missing class. However, it is still your responsibility to keep up with the assignments.

Q13: Can I enroll in the class late?

If you plan on enrolling late, it is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll.

If you enroll late, we will give you a grace period of 3 days after the day you enroll. After the 3 days are over, you should be fully caught up with the class (all assignments due up to that point should be submitted).

You can request extensions using the form on the website so that assignments submitted during this grace period are not counted late.

If you need more than 3 days to catch up, you can request extensions through the form, but we cannot guarantee that they will be approved. Please don’t email us asking about extensions - use the form on the website.

You can attend lectures and discussion sections before you are officially enrolled. The course website will publicly post any recordings, videos, and resources.