Comment by awesomeMilou

> There’s a level of maturity, reasonableness, and respect that is expected of the students.

Given that the general teaching style of colleges isn't unique to the US, and based on my experience throughout my degree at a similar institution, I somehow doubt that statement.

> It’s clearly not too hard which is what you’re implying.

It sounded like the students received literally no guidance, in the way the course is described. These types of assignments usually result in those with previous programming experience showing off their skills, while the actual rookie students are left in the mud. I.e. an assignment that targets the top 20% of the class.

Regardless, to my knowledge I never cheated during my college degree, but I can't hold it against people that do. Criticism such as yours disregards the reality that students face, pressure to graduate with good marks and whatnot. Not cheating will put you at an disadvantage, because your competition is actively doing so and they are already skewing the marks that way. If the intention of the assignment was to identify honest work, it was certainly structured wrong (as a required submission would have eliminated the cheaters).