<p>CS 61A is an extremely difficult class, and some people simply will not be able to keep up if they have no background. I took it with several years of programming background, and even I found a few challenges.</p>
<p>Coding and programming are two different things. It’s like language vs literature. You can teach yourself a lot of English words and grammar, but that does not mean you’ll be able to write a good essay. That said, to be able to write an essay, you must be competent in at least one language. So, a CS 3 series course is like the language course, while the CS 61A course is like the literature course. That said, they are still closely related!</p>
<p>Since you have some background in Visual Basic, you can probably do CS 61A with a bit of work. There are several EECS and CS majors who took 61A with little programming experience and did just fine; they worked really hard, though.</p>
<p>At the same time, let me warn you about a friend of mines with no programming experience who spent several hours per day studying CS 61A, utilizing all the office hours and tutoring he could, and collaborating with friends to learn the subject. After he put 10 units of effort into the 4-unit course, he ended up with a D-. He gave it his best, but it just wasn’t for him.</p>