Tough class, of course. If you've had Theory of Computation with Abhi it will help you here, at least three of the lectures in Algorithms are identical with material from Theory.

Textbook is rarely helpful, wouldn't recommend.

Best professor @ UVA, pushes you to learn!! He kinda reminds me of Russell Peters.

Abhi is a great teacher that is really passionate about the course topic. However, the problem sets are quite difficult and take several hours to complete (sometimes as much as 10 hours). Working with a partner helps a lot as well as attending the TA's office hours for problem set reviews. While this is a tough class, Abhi's grading is quite fair and most people do well.

This class must be the most interesting I have ever taken. Abhi pushes you hard intellectually so that you can feel the true joy of accomplishment.

The worst professor I have ever dealt with at UVA. Homeworks are insanely hard, plus he gave us a tough midterm that he knew he was too hard, and nobody finished. [Yes, he admitted this publicly, too.] Stay away from at all costs.

Abhi is a fantastic professor, and despite being new to this, he puts forth a great effort to be interactive and engaging. He also works really hard to adjust due dates to help students out. He's definitely an expert on all of the material, but sometimes the concepts can be difficult to understand for students. The problem sets are usually very difficult, requiring several hours to formulate solutions. Insanely difficult midterm.

Ahbi Shelat is a good professor who really knows his stuff and is willing to try and help on problem sets but the TA office hours/discussion of the problem sets are the most helpful and pretty much are the only way I got through the problem sets