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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Anonymous 05/30/2025 |
The lectures were sufficient and you would do great on the exams if you supplemented with the Top-Down Book (NOT the Systems Book; it is really strange that the professor recommends the Systems book instead of the Top-Down Book even though the ROI for reading the former is small compared to the latter). However, the way the projects were designed is comically laughable. For the first project, they provided an outline and plenty of guidance, and even went to the trouble of having a "Socket Programming Workshop" in order to get people prepared. One would naturally assume that they are committed to proving guidance and resources to students that don't have much experience in network programming. Then suddenly, for the rest of the projects, there was no such guidance given. This is such a morally insensitive move as you cannot assume students are deficient in their preparations to the point where they need a Workshop and then suddenly they no longer need any guidance for implementing the Chord P2P protocol and a BitTorrent-client. And of course the TA and the instructor have an incredible ego. Discouraging when you ask for help. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2025 |
Easy tests and hard projects. I feel like most 400 classes don't let you get your hands dirty with the projects and hold your hand with many of the assignments. This class basically rips off that bandage and expects you to learn C/C++ and make you write all the code yourself. You get to write many practical and useful projects compared to the other 400 classes I've taken so far. Projects (a2 onward) are stressful, but I have only myself to blame as I would start 2-4 days before the due date. As long as you start early and am confident in your coding skills, you will most likely do fine in this class. I enjoyed the content and teachings of Roy albeit sometimes a little boring. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/20/2025 |
Professor Roy is really knowledgeable about networks and conveys the concepts well. Super interesting class, taught extremely well, and the lecture material is organized. On the other hand, I had a real issue with the projects. First off, the TAs are extremely unsympathetic to the workload you have while taking this class. It took an army to get hints on the test cases for each project. C programming and networking concepts related to programming are not taught in class at all, and you're forced to fend for yourself. At one point, the professor and TAs literally tell you to read a research article and implement it. The projects are designed well but need a serious overhaul in how test cases are run and how material is taught in class. If the professor didn’t feel like teaching the material for the projects, that’s fine—as long as there are decent guidelines and some starter code. This class had neither. The final project is very hard, but doable. It’s actually really cool to learn about, and you're given three other groupmates to complete it. Exams are fair. Lecturing is great. Projects are ass. (10–12 hours for the easy ones, and way more for the hard ones.) Two midterms, one final, five projects, and a final group project. I’m a senior now, and I don’t regret taking the class—but it was definitely the hardest class I've taken here. Godspeed. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 05/16/2024 |
Roy is a nice guy. His lectures are alright and the exams are fair. Course materials are ok and the lecture slides are all posted beforehand. 417 is a class with a very important curriculum, immediately applicable in the workplace. HOWEVER. at least for this semester of 417, it seems that TAs had a lot more to say about course policies and scheduling, because this was one of the most poorly scheduled classes i've ever taken. there is a total of 6 projects in this class. the first two are basic introductions, and everything else is a massive undertaking. the last 2 projects were SO POORLY SCHEDULED that THE SECOND MIDTERM and the FINAL EXAM both COINCIDED WITH THE DUE DATES FOR THE PROJECTS. now mind you, we had about 2 weeks for every project, but effectively only ONE WEEK for the BIGGEST PROJECTS IN THE CLASS because of the EXAM! oh, and get this: you just spent the previous week doing the project, and now you study for the exam. is anything about the project on the exam? NO!!!! FUCK YOU! well, a few of the projects got extended deadlines, but the extensions were done with cliff-penalties, which means instead of 20% penalty per day, if its been extended one day and youre late by a day, your penalty is actually 40%. the project specs for the last few projects were also extremely vague and frankly depended on your ability to learn and do things that were not covered in class. its just straight up unfair man. so, 1 star to Roy for being nice, and 1 star for lecturing nice. every other aspect of this course was poorly thought out and cynically planned with little to no sympathy. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2024 |
Review for Spring 2024 semester. Very kind professor but not the best lecturer. Exams are not too difficult but there was no extra credit that the previous review suggested. Projects (especially a2 onwards) can take a very long time (10-30 hours). I found the course to be a bit disorganized at times and a4's schedule was very rushed (many groups did poorly). Do not take this class with other difficult classes. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Anonymous 04/08/2024 |
Very heavy accent and mumbles had to drop the class because of it |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/20/2024 |
Incredible professor - very kind and I really enjoyed his class. Exams have plenty of extra credit, and the professor himself is very understanding. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC715 Anonymous 12/08/2023 |
Very fun and chilling class. Lectures are discussion based, and professor challenges students with interesting questions. His presentations are highest quality I've witnessed so far at UMD CS alongside with Bahar Asgari. He is willing to explain a concept again step by step for a confused student. Assignments are matlab and based on concepts learned during class. They were a bit challenging for me as the reviewer had no experience in matlab and LinAlg. The midterm is open book and was simpler than I imagined. There is a semester long project and a class presentation; make sure you attend all class presentations, he is strict on that. I learned a ton, and def recommend 715 WITH Roy. 10/10 |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/14/2023 |
Easy exams and very flexible with deadlines. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/29/2023 |
Lectures are useful, prof is understanding, exams are fair (requires extra studying outside of class but that's expected from a 4xx), projects take ton of time so start early. Textbook is really helpful. Roy knows networks content incredibly well so make use of if you want. Attendance isn't mandatory or frankly even required, you can learn everything from textbook, but lectures are a good resource to just sit and listen. 417 sucks up time and effort, especially towards the end of the semester. The actual course content isn't difficult (in my opinion I thought 351 content was more conceptually difficult), it's the projects that can easily take 10+ hours if you're not familiar with C or basic network programming, but you pick it up throughout the course. Overall, Roy is good prof and lectures well |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a W Anonymous 02/09/2021 |
I tried sitting in the back and boy I could not understand a word he said. Don't get me wrong he definitely tries to help but his accent gets in the way. Ended up having to withdraw (the only class I ever withdrew from in 4 years here) as the programming assignments were impossible to complete and were basically irrelevant to the stuff learned in class. The exams required you to memorize pretty much every single calculation and definition and write them out. It was also unclear what exactly you were supposed to know before an exam. Am I supposed to read and learn from the textbook, or from the slides, etc? Idk if it was just Roy or if this class would still be so poorly structured even with a different teacher. But for the sake of your GPA just forget about 417 and choose a different class. You'll thank me later. |
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Nirupam Roy
CMSC417 Expecting a P Anonymous 04/10/2020 |
Alright prof, but heavy Indian accent and mumbles sometimes so lectures aren't the easiest to listen to and moves through slides too fast without posting them, but not the worst. |