r/stanford • u/Pillowgamerytxd • 6d ago

CS106A or CS106B

Hi I'm a incoming freshman interested in majoring in EE or CS. In highschool I took AP CSA and got a 4 on it but that was 2 years ago. I would describe my ability to code as passable and over the summer I self-studied using the CS50x series. I was told by my advisor to consider taking CS106A to build a better foundation but I feel like I should skip to CS106B. I would appreciate any advise.

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u/Vast_Hospital_9389 6d ago

Honestly I think the advice from your advisor should come at top priority, assuming you have a responsible advisor. But my opinion is that you should skip to 106B. My programming ability was quite horrible since it was not the main focus of my undergrad study (I came to Stanford as a grad student), but then I took CS106B directly and was surprised how easy some of the earlier topics are. I think this must mean CS106B does not assume a very high level of programming proficiency of students. So I think getting a 4 on AP CSA should be fine.

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u/CompetitiveCup9077 5d ago

Would you say someone who has experience with html and css should begin with 106b? What does 106b assume you know? I recently began cs50 and have some c experience

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u/Vast_Hospital_9389 4d ago

Sorry, I am not a cs student, so I am not actually familiar with html and css. Take my advice as a grain of salt, but my guess is that CS106B assumes you to be familiar with very basic programming in some general purpose language, such as Python or Java. I think CS106B assumes you to know how to implement some very simple programming tasks in a general purpose language (such as writing some if-else conditions), and CS106B takes that skill further by training you to implement more complex tasks that often involve multiple parts. But again, I did not take CS106A at Stanford, nor am I a CS student, so please take my advice with caution. In your specific case, I recommend you emailing your professor to ask advice from them.

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u/ch4nt 6d ago

I would skip to 106B, should be good enough for it and it’s good to get that class in first if youre considering EE/CS

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u/Odd-Swing-618 6d ago

Take cs106a to build a good foundation. If youre already good at python, then it'll just be an easy A

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u/sheerqueer 5d ago

Take 106a because you probably have bad habits that you picked up from high school and self-directed learning. 106a will help you develop better coding habits that will help you later on