Akshar Varma is a Computer Science professor at Northeastern University rated 2.02/5 on Rate My Professors by 120 students, with 4.4/5 RMP difficulty and 25% who would take them again (RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated October 2026).
Akshar Varma professor reviews and ratings: 2.02/5 from 120 RMP ratings at Northeastern (25% would take again). RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
The reviews are really harsh. Very few people go to class, and after every topic he teaches, he asks for feedback on how well everyone understood and how to make it easier to understand. He really wants to make it easier for people to learn, but no one gives him feedback. He cares about his students and puts a lot of effort into his lectures.CS3000 2026-06-11 16:47:38 +0000 UTC
Professor Varma is great and very understanding, especially for his first time teaching this course. Put in the work and you will succeed. I really liked how even though I didn't go, he offered basically all day office hours the days before the final exam.DS3000 2026-04-29 21:36:56 +0000 UTC
Professor Varma may be knowledgeable, but his lectures are disorganized and unengaging. He discourages questions despite claiming otherwise and shows little regard for student feedback. There were unclear expectations and an assumption of knowledge most students don't have yet. Second half got a little better.CS3000 2026-04-17 22:27:54 +0000 UTC
At least for this class, Akshar seems to be a little bit overhated. He is very slow with grading, releases assignments/practice exams (if at all) late, and his grading isn't very forgiving. Lectures are not engaging and he never seems excited to be there. He does provide plenty of extra credit opportunity.DS3000 2026-04-28 19:40:24 +0000 UTC
Reviews are too harsh, chill guy and tried to make sure the class followed along but nobody participated.CS3000 2026-02-09 21:15:32 +0000 UTC
He is a really nice guy. The ratings are way too harsh. Keep in mind only 4 students showed up to my class. Ask a lot of questions since he cares a lot about his students learning. One time he checked in for 3 lectures making sure I understood DP since I had trouble with it. The course material is much more difficult than other classes skewing itCS3000 2026-01-24 05:01:32 +0000 UTC
This is a hard class. Prof Varma wasn't the best professor, but he curved grades a lot to make up for it and the final was pretty reasonable. His biggest issue was that he couldn't explain concepts simply enough to students who had never seen this content before. I thought I would barely pass the class but ended up with an A- so overall not bad.CS3000 2026-01-10 00:06:38 +0000 UTC
His grading was far more lenient than expected and exams far more fair than the practice made it seem. Overall not great at explaining but lenient grader and very caring.CS3000 2026-01-08 15:06:10 +0000 UTC
One of the previous reviews was my own, just a month into the semester. He hadn't graded anything for weeks and homeworks took very long. It was his first sem teaching the course alone though. Tests had 30% extra bonus points available and by the end, grading was incredibly lenient.CS3000 2026-01-07 03:46:28 +0000 UTC
This is a tough course and requires a lot of independent learning. There are weekly quizzes, and practice tests are posted close to exam dates. Exams are fair, but you should expect to teach yourself throughout. He is helpful sometimes and has knowledge of graph theory, though there is less emphasis on explaining pseudocode in detail.CS3000 2025-12-31 03:33:10 +0000 UTC
These reviews are way too harsh, and you can tell by the amount of posts by people who haven't even taken the class. Class averages on exams were a B, averages on all homework assignments were around 90. There were weekly quizzes that were free points. The class was time consuming yes, but entirely doable and he was a very lenient grader.CS3000 2025-12-17 07:14:53 +0000 UTC
He really is a nice guy at heart. He is just new to teaching and he needs to make improvements. Many will complain about the difficulty of the exams but the max scores possible were 138% and 130% on midterm/final with cures. The material is difficult in nature and people that out on him. He does try to adjust grades to not screw people.CS3000 2025-12-17 01:56:19 +0000 UTC
Not great in beginning - verbose, confusing lectures and couldn't explain. Second half was 10x better, topics better explained and lectures more structured. Incredibly forgiving/generous when it came to grading, and offered extra credit/remedial assignments where possible. Algorithms is a *very* tough class, but for his first time, he did well.CS3000 2025-12-17 00:10:25 +0000 UTC
It was his first year teaching, and some lectures may have been better taught. However, he really improved towards the end and was genuinely a very understanding professor. Algorithms is widely regarded as a challenging course, which unfairly caused some students to direct their frustrations toward him. Homework heavy but it prepares you for exams.CS3000 2025-12-15 20:41:00 +0000 UTC
Its his first semester teaching, so it was kind of unorganized in the beginning. But he improved a lot towards the end. Most of the negative reviews are from September-October, so i wouldnt take them into consideration. Class is hard tho(algos is just a hard class in general)CS3000 2025-12-15 18:44:09 +0000 UTC
Akshar Varma is rated 2.02/5 on Rate My Professors from 120 ratings. 25% of RMP reviewers said they would take them again.
Akshar Varma's classes have a difficulty rating of 4.4/5 on Rate My Professors.
Akshar Varma has taught CS1800, CS1802, CS3000, DS3000 at Northeastern.
Data updated October 2026.