Summer 2025 FAQs

Last updated: February 4, 2025

Summer 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 Summer 2025.

We will not have any information about potential course expansion until the first full week of the summer semester (June 23, 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 Summer 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 declared L&S Computer Science or College of Engineering major. Can I enroll in the class?

Course staff is not in charge of enrollment. Our understanding is that the summer offering of CS 168 will be open to all interested students. If you have questions about enrollment, please email cs-enrollments@eecs.berkeley.edu.

Note: Per the course listing, high school students cannot enroll.

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 summer semester (June 23, 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.

Q6: I officially enrolled in the class, or filled out the form requesting to be enrolled, 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 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.

Exams

Q7: When are the exams?

The midterm date is Tuesday, July 22, 7–9pm PT.

The final exam is Wednesday, August 13, 3–6pm PT.

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: Tuesday, July 22, 9–11pm PT.

Alternate final exam time: Wednesday, August 13, 6–9pm PT (we’ll give you a few minutes to walk between exams).

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 (CS61B, CS61C). We will not drop students who haven’t taken the prerequisites.

Note: An older version of the course listed CS 162 as a prerequisite, but this is outdated. The correct prerequisites are CS 61B and CS 61C (not CS 162).

Q11: Should I take this class without the prerequisites?

CS 61B is a prerequisite for understanding of basic data structures (e.g. trees, hash maps) and programming competence. We try our best to re-introduce any specific CS 61B topics as they appear in class, so the actual content of CS 61B is not a hard prerequisite.

CS 61C is a prerequisite for understanding of basic operating systems principles (e.g. virtual memory, multi-threading). We try our best to re-introduce any specific CS 61C topics as they appear in class.

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.