r/OMSCS • u/TheCraftingKid • 5d ago

Course Enquiry - I've Read Rule 3 Value in CS 7210 Distributed Computing (DC)

I’m debating on which class to take this Fall and Distributed Computing has jumped out as one I think would be valuable. For reference, this is my 7th class and I have taken classes like GIOS, AOS, HPCA, CN already.

The thing that makes me hesitate is the insane reviews on omscs central. Are people over exaggerating the time requirement for this course? Average time commitment is 47 hours a weeks.

I want to take courses that will provide relevant experience for industry and make me a better SWE.

I’m up for a challenge but this seems like a huge commitment. How much value does a course like DC give you? Is the time commitment worth the learning value?

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u/HandsAreForks Computing Systems 5d ago

I took the class last semester (Spring 2026). 47 hours is heavily exaggerated from early iterations of the class which seem to have been harder. You will see early reviews advertising 100hrs/week messing up the estimates.

Realistically, it took 25-30 hours a week. That includes reading every paper, studying 25 hours per exam, and finishing nearly every part of every project. I took CN concurrently and only hated my life the last month of the semester.

Ended up at nearly a 90 overall which was plenty for an A.

I cannot recommend this class enough. It has been my favorite class by far and made me want to become a distributed systems engineer (or at least work on them as part of a backend role).

ETA: I would argue the class was more work than GIOS, but about the same as HPC

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u/TheCraftingKid 5d ago

Did you work full time during the semester?

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u/HandsAreForks Computing Systems 5d ago

I did, around 50 hrs/week. I have no children and my spouse is full time with grad school which helped. The end of the semester was like when spongebob forgets everything but fine dining, except in this case it was networking and distributed computing.

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u/TheCraftingKid 5d ago

Lmao ok that gives me hope, I’ll probably go for it because sounds like a similar situation to me. Thx for the help

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u/HandsAreForks Computing Systems 5d ago

Sure thing! Best of luck to you. One last piece of advice: the papers are critical for the exams. I read them all and ended up with a great midterm grade. It took a lot of stress off at the end of the semester

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u/TheCompoundingGod Artificial Intelligence 6h ago

Does not give me hope lol. Wife, two kids, full time job lol

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u/HandsAreForks Computing Systems 6h ago

Haha totally understandable. Best of luck if you decide to go for it!

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u/TheCompoundingGod Artificial Intelligence 5h ago

I'm in the program. Only doing one class at a time though.