Fall 2025 FAQs

Last updated: August 28, 2025

Fall 2025 listing on classes.berkeley.edu

Enrollment

Q1: Will the course expand?

We don’t know, but it seems unlikely at this point. (And we still won’t know even if we know your waitlist position, so please don’t email us to ask.)

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

Based on the current enrollment (as of August 28th), we suspect all students on the waitlist will be able to enroll, but we cannot make any promises.

Q3: I’m not a declared L&S Computer Science or College of Engineering major. Can I enroll in the class?

Sorry, course staff is not in charge of enrollment. We have to follow the department’s enrollment policies, which restricts CS 161 enrollment to declared L&S Computer Science or College of Engineering majors only.

If you are not part of this group, you cannot enroll or waitlist in the class. We don’t have enrollment codes to hand out or any other way to circumvent this policy.

We expect the next summer offering of CS 161 will be open to all interested students.

Q4: I plan to declare CS this semester. Can I enroll in the class after I declare?

If your declaration is processed in time, and the enrollment system lets you enroll in the class, you can enroll. However, it is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll. We can give you access to all the assignments while you wait to enroll (see Q5 below).

Q5: I plan to declare and enroll later. Can I keep up with assignments before I officially enroll?

Yes, we can add you to the course Gradescope and Ed forum; see our course policies for a form you can fill out to request access.

Q6: I’m a concurrent enrollment student. When can I enroll in the class?

We do not expect to accept concurrent enrollment students this fall. Pre-approved GLOBE students will be admitted in accordance with department and college policies.

Q7: 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.

Q8: 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 cs161-staff@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.

Q9: How do I enroll late in the class?

It is your responsibility to keep up with the class before you enroll.

If you enroll late, you need to be fully caught up with the class within 3 days of enrolling. If any assignments are due before the date you enroll, you can submit a request through the extensions form (linked on the website) for up to 3 days after you enroll, so that your submission is not counted late.

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

If you’d like early access to the homeworks, you can use the ungraded copy on the auditors Gradescope class (link on the policies page), though you will need to re-fill out the homeworks when you are added to the official Gradescope.

Exams

Q10: When are the exams?

The midterm is on October 16, 2025, 7-9pm.

The final exam is on Thursday, December 18, 2025, 3–6pm PT.

Q11: Can I take this class remotely? Do you offer remote exams?

Apart from exams, we don’t have any parts of the class that require in-person attendance, so if you take the rest of the 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.

Exams are in-person, and require instructor approval to take remotely. 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. Specifically, if you are taking the midterm remotely, you must start your exam at the same time as the scheduled exam, at 7pm on Thursday, October 16, 2025. If you are taking the final exam remotely, you must start your exam at 3pm on Thursday, December 18, 2025.

In order to take the exams remotely, you will need instructor approval, and 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.

Q12: 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, on the same day as the normal exam time:

The alternate midterm time at TBA.

The alternate final exam time is Thursday, December 18, 2025, 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

Q13: 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, CS70, CS61C). We will not drop students who haven’t taken the prerequisites.

Q14: Should I take this class without CS61B or equivalent?

Please refer to our course policy on CS 61B.

Q15: Should I take this class without CS70 or equivalent?

Please refer to our course policy on CS 70.

Q16: Should I take this class without CS61C or equivalent?

We don’t recommend it. Unlike the other two prerequisites, the content of CS61C is used in the first unit of the class (memory safety). Please refer to our course policy on CS 61C.

Q17: Can I take this class concurrently with CS61C?

We don’t recommend it. CS61C takes 5 weeks to cover all the prerequisite content we use, and we use the prerequisite content heavily in the first 5 weeks of class.

Q18: How can I study for the class ahead of time?

If you must take this class without CS61C, or concurrently with CS61C, or you don’t feel confident in your CS61C prerequisite knowledge, then we recommend watching Lectures 1-13 from Fall 2020 CS61C beforehand.

CS161 course content doesn’t change substantially between semesters, so to study ahead, you can reference any past semester website for publicly-available resources. For example, here is the Fall 2024 website.

Fall 2025 FAQs

Enrollment

Exams

Prerequisites

Other questions