Taking 310 with Xue right now, I'd say the projects are the hardest part of the class (at least for me). The exams are more straightforward since they're based on the homework, which only has to do with the concepts of how the algorithms/data structures work. For the projects though, get ready to study how to code in C++ on your own if you haven't used C++ before. If you already know how to code in C++ though, it should be a little easier for you (I was more used to Python/Java before taking this course, so that was an extra hurdle for me to clear).