Akshar Varma is a Computer Science professor at Northeastern University rated 2.72/5 by 321 students, with 4.29/5 difficulty and 23.0% who would take them again (TRACE + RateMyProfessors + Reddit, updated July 2026).
Akshar Varma professor reviews and ratings: 2.72/5 from 321 student reviews at Northeastern (23.0% would take again). TRACE + RateMyProfessor + Reddit.
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
He is a great person, very kind and caring. But his lectures might not be the best. Honestly, i found them useless so I had to self teach myself most of the material. He gives lots of extra credit (drops 3 quizzes, drops 1 homework, late days, 18 points curve, tons of extra points on final and midterm) If you put time in this class, you ll succeedCS3000 2025-12-15 18:39:34 +0000 UTC
Don't get me wrong he's a hard teacher esp at the beginning of the year, but kept putting in effort to get better based on the student's reviews/thoughts. Listened to feedback. Even tho midterm was hard, he took that into account for final and bonus points. Homework and quizzes are consistent with the schedule as well so nothing was surprising yk.CS3000 2025-12-15 18:19:32 +0000 UTC
I know we were all stressed about the midterm, but honestly Algo is just a hard class. Akshar is not bad and definitely cares about his students. He's very flexible too. Was willing to look over my final to get me a couple extra points.CS3000 2025-12-15 16:08:28 +0000 UTC
This was Akshar's first time teaching full-sem algo and he was stuck with all in-person sections (4), so I'm gonna give credit where credit is due. Algo in general is a pain, and the sem got off on a rocky start (why there are so many negative rmps), but prof adjusted things & made it easier. Also if you go to his OH and annoy him, it's pretty fun.CS3000 2025-12-14 22:41:13 +0000 UTC
Akshar Varma has an average rating of 2.72/5 from 321 student reviews. 23.0% of students said they would take them again.
Akshar Varma's classes have a difficulty rating of 4.29/5 based on student reviews.
Akshar Varma has taught CS3000, CS3001 at Northeastern.
Data updated July 2026.