Todd Sproull
3 courses · 57 reviews
Courses
All Reviews
Just start all your assignments early and you should be chillin
12/17/2025
Class is entirely project-based so you'll learn a good amount. It is quite time consuming if you're not a seasoned developer already but grading is very fair (and you have a partner) Didn't love the way it was taught -- videos that have been recycled for years, zero lecture. Class needs to be updated on content and taught in person
12/5/2025
Cloud Computing w/ Sproull is a great class. Sproull is kind, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, helpful, and super fair. The class is a pretty easy A and teaches you lots of incredibly relevant skills for the tech industry that CSE330 doesn't touch on. Would recommend!
12/3/2025
todd sproull is awesome and so funny. made going to class fun and he has a lot of knowledge to share, you just have to put in the effort in this class and put in the effort to talk to him and then hes super down to help you. everyone wants u to succeed in this class. grading is very chill and straightforward.
4/24/2025
class is a couple of projects every few weeks. they give u a lot of time for each one and tbh it takes maybe a day to learn the framework and then another day to build out the project w that framework. a lot of them build off each other too so its not an overload of information. this class made me like ui stuff and feel confident w development
4/24/2025
I think ppl expect this class to be easy with minimal work like the other cs classes here, but u dont learn anything this way. this class is a spot of light in a sea of darkness of poorly structured classes where u can get away with learning and doing nothing. I loved this tho and it rlly pushed me to like cs more
4/24/2025
great class, I've never learned as much as I did in this class. class is basically office hours so help is always there. just try your hardest and you will be rewarded
4/24/2025
Only class this semester where I enjoyed doing the homework (only projects). And all the project rubrics/expectations are online so you can see them rn. Such an awesome class, reasonable amount of work but not too difficult—you just have to put effort. You learn so much in this class! Attendance isn't mandatory but way more fun if you show up!
4/24/2025
I loved coming to this class every day. I am not a cs nerd so don't think that either. it's just fun to have projects u can call your own and its fun to collaborate with other people. u gain so much experience working w in teams, debugging, and solving ur own problems which is super important in the real world. Todd is the goat.
4/24/2025
It's a semi-self taught class, so you get what you put into it. If you want to learn a lot and make projects that you can be proud of, definitely take this class. Any problems TAs or Sproull usually can 100% fix easily because they know a lot about the frameworks. Just don't larp your time away in this class and it's cake.
4/24/2025
This was such a fun class—some projects def take a lot of time, but if you enjoy learning by doing and talking to people you will love this class. Sproull and TAs are always willing to help and the class is very collaborative. No exams, it's def manageable as long as you don't start work late!! Easily one of my favorite classes i've taken.
4/23/2025
His rating is not entirely his fault. The class is structured where you have 6 large projects, and class time is used for work. The class is essentially run by TAs, most of which are useless. If you set aside time for this class and complete all the work, you should get an A. However, it is a lot of work. Todd is helpful if you reach out to him
1/8/2025
Sproull does not teach this course, his outdated lectures from 10 years ago do. If you have a good team this course is easy to succeed in and adds helpful projects to your portfolio. That said, Sproull does minimal work for this class, only take it for your personal development.
12/20/2024
8-10 hrs/week
This class is quite hard, you need to start on assignments early or you will suffer. The professor might as well not exist, the TAs (in my experience) are not very useful. Also, I feel like the first couple modules are not as useful and are talking about things that are quite outdated, but YMMV.
11/12/2024
YOU MUST start on assignments early. Don't leave it up to second week for you to start on the assignment, as you wont be able to finish it. A lot of the stuff in this class seems outdated, and is probably not as useful for a cs student to learn. This class is an insane workload compared to other cs courses, only take if you need cs credits
11/8/2024
The biggest reason why people struggle in this class is they don't start early. I completed the majority of projects early on so I barely need to attend class/pay attention to the work for a semester. This would've been a great class 10 years ago when companies were still using these technologies since his videos haven't been updated since 2016.
7/1/2024
2-4 hrs/week
5 projects make up your grade. Pace is calm. Sproull is a good lecturer
6/14/2024
Tough class because there isn't much downtime between labs: HW fatigue. My mental health did take a hit however the grading was a lot nicer than I realized. He's not really accessible--just go to TA office hours. I personally felt that he likes people who really get CS and not really those who struggle more, but idk. Biggest advice: start early!!!
5/31/2024
If you value your mental health, don't take this class. All the Wikipedia/assignments are available online with a google search, so if you want to learn the material, just self pace. The workload on top of 4 other classes is unreasonable.
5/30/2024
6-8 hrs/week
Lot of work but you learn a ton. Great option for CS elective. Get ahead and its a non-problem
5/21/2024
8-10 hrs/week
i needed to put a TON of work in, but i enjoyed the content sm and learned an insane amount. super helpful but u need to start assignments early
5/21/2024
6-8 hrs/week
Loved this class!! Just make sure that you have a good partner and start the projects early and you'll be fine. Its completely self paced, and the wiki we follow was easy to learn from, but also the class is just about learning by doing so thats how I learned the most. The projects are fun and engaging and I feel like I understand a lot of coding principals much better now. This class gets a bad rep and claims that its a bunch of work, but if you just find a good partner, get started early, and ask questions to the professor/TAs when confused you'll be good.
5/18/2024
As someone with prior swe internship experience the class was easy enough imo, but i've never seen a professor so disinterested in his class. A WashU cs prof who doesn't host office hours, reply to piazza posts, or answer students questions is surprising but reflective of the cs program here. If you have no prior experience you will likely struggle
1/9/2024
Incredibly unreasonable and inconsiderate of students' situations. Group projects were required, yet there was no way of grading individual effort and no accommodation if there were issues. And even if an incredible amount of extra work was completed he adhered to unreasonable policies. Basically has 0 respect for students.
12/22/2023
CSE438. 4 labs (2-3 weeks each) + Final project (5 weeks) for the grade. The resources provided for each project are about half of what you need and are reused videos. Lots of outside research is needed to do each project. Each project takes anywhere from 4 to 25 hours. Some are insanely tedious and difficult, so start atleast 4 days before due.
11/17/2023
Fantastic 48+ working hours per week makes your summer terribly fulfilled, one project per week without a second extension for any assignment with mind blowing new materials and lecture notes made decades ago.
9/25/2023
At most 50 hours of workload per week. Significant penalties for various minor points. No late submission is allowed even with the request before the deadline.
8/28/2023
Isn't accommodating, thinks of his students as robots and not humans. Unwilling to help out at all with anything happening outside of the classroom, I wouldn't be surprised if he has been the cause of multiple students' depression because I know he has certainly helped mine.
1/28/2023
Yes, 330 is a very hard and time-consuming class (esp. if you've only taken 131), but Dr. Sproull is super kind and always happy to help whenever you get stuck. He is extremely knowledgeable about web development and can solve pretty much any problem you encounter in under 5 mins. You will undoubtedly come out a better developer
1/26/2023
Insanely smart. Class is mostly just learning yourself and A LOT of work, but most useful class I've taken yet. Highly recommend, but take it with a friend.
1/18/2023
330S gets a bad wrap but it's the best class I've taken at WashU. There is a ton of work but it built my entire resume. You learn so much and the class isn't hard if you put the time in (the rubrics are very clear so it is easy to do well). Take the class during an easy semester to build up your CS skills. Sproull is way better than his 1.9 rating.
12/5/2022
330 has an intense workload, but the work is valuable and the class is built for success if you put the time in. 330 covers a wide range of languages in large, interesting projects with a partner. TA OH are available several hours daily on zoom. Sproull is helpful in class, which is work time for projects. Grading criteria is very clear in rubrics.
12/5/2022
Seems like a friendly guy. But he doesn't teach at all. He just assigns. Wants you to just read the wiki. Videos do nothing. Group projects are hard to do on your own so you better know a good partner! I got stuck with a dumb one on module 3.
11/16/2022
Seems like a friendly guy. But he doesn't teach at all. He just assigns. nnWants you to just read the wiki. Videos do nothing. Group projects are hard to do on your own so you better know a good partner! I got stuck with a dumb one on module 3.
11/16/2022
He'll give you 2 20-min videos every 2 weeks and expect you to complete huge 20 hr+ projects with no help. These videos are also many years old as well as the homemade wiki pages you get. How WashU prides themselves on being a top tier institute while employing professors that only teach via recycled videos and short wiki pages baffles me.
4/5/2022
worst professor that i have ever met in my life. do avoid him at all cost. this guy does not teach plus never help solve any questions posted on piazza at all and his TA are all very unhelpful.
12/7/2021
Dont take this class when youre taking other hard classes. There are too few TAs and sometimes you have to wait over 2 hours to get helped even if you get to TA hours early. Prerecorded lectures are also extremely unhelpful in completing projects.
8/9/2020
Dr. Sproull is very helpful when you ask for help. However, 330 is a large class and with so many questions being asked, it can be hard to get ahold of him.
11/27/2019
This guy is the worst. He tries so hard to act like the cool teacher but in reality hes the worst person and a genuinely terrible professor.
4/24/2019
Todd struggles to keep tabs on the logistics of his class. I can't speak for 330S, but for 240 He was unaware that the majority of the assignments had not been graded by week 6 of the semester. He did not remedy this problem, even when asked in class.
4/3/2019
This class takes up a TON of time but it is well spent and you learn a ton of new skills. Do not take this course during a hard term because it is a lot of work, but if you have time to fit it into a lighter term I highly recommend. Excellent recorded lectures. Very in depth wikipedia style wiki provided explaining everything. Fun projects
2/16/2019
I can't even say this professor is bad at teaching because it's pretty much non existent. I had him for both 240 and 330, and he makes everything seem like a joke. The class content is really interesting, but he is just so bad. Get ready to teach yourself EVERYTHING and spend like 15 hours a week on projects.
12/21/2018
Has no class but all the lectures / course wiki are online. Pretty much everything you could need to know is on the course wiki. Assignments aren't "hard" but they take an extremely long time to complete ,especially because many new languages are covered. Overall a very useful class in terms of learning new things
10/30/2018
Students should carefully review the official course evaluation in previous semesters, which reveals that Todd may have a problem enforcing consistent grading systems. As other posts mentioned, it is almost like online course though it is not. So don't expect him to spend too much time on teaching or taking caring of the TA team.
5/15/2018
Not too horrible, and the content of course itself is useful for the training of web development. But I doubt the instructor spends much time on this course like the others. The exam was graded three weeks after the submission and during that time there were no other assignments pending. Now after a month, we still havent received the grade of HW5
4/16/2018
The course is merely lumped with tutorials of different frameworks of web development, outdated. Todd cares much less about the lecture compared to instructors of other similar courses, and he wont even show up each class. Grade and regrade are significantly delayed.
4/12/2018
Todd is not always available and most of the help are from TAs. But most of TAs seem to be students who took this course before, and I highly doubt they can answer questions other than their assignments. In fact, the TA hours are messy. Rooms are not reserved like other lectures, TAs can be late, and not every one get equally amount of help.
4/12/2018
Youll wait weeks to get the result of grades. You are likely to receive the grade of after submitting two more assignments, and hence the grade provides almost no insight/feedback to correct mistakes in further homeworks but rather purnishment. Regrades will not be replied, so you dont whether it is not considered or not. This is insulting.
4/3/2018
Professor Sproull was not very helpful or knowledgeable, and pretty inaccessible. It is an entirely online class, and the best source of knowledge are the TA's. A lot of coding, but none of the material is deep or difficult. I personally will not take another class with this professor. The material is old and you can learn it by yourself.
3/29/2018
(1) Grading are extremely slow, even compared to courses that have more students and fewer graders. (2) Roughly 15% of the overall grade has no clear rubric and is admitted by TA that different TA might give diffeerent score. (3) You can get different explanations to certain rubrics from TA, head TA and Todd Sproull. A failure of management.
3/22/2018
The course demands a lot of work but you learn a lot. However, professor Sproull is extremely arrogant and does not help at all. Take it with someone else if possible.
3/11/2018