450 Free Online Programming & Computer Science Courses You Can Start
The world of online education has exploded over the past decade, and programming and computer science courses have been a key driver of this growth. What started with a few scattered college courses has ballooned into a massive industry, with millions of students learning from thousands of courses offered by universities, tech companies, and independent educators around the world.
As a professional full-stack developer who is passionate about continuous learning, I‘ve seen firsthand how transformative these online courses can be. They‘ve allowed me to expand my skillset, dive into new technologies, and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving field. I truly believe that there has never been a better time to learn programming online – and thanks to the growing number of free courses, it‘s never been more accessible either.
To understand just how much online programming education has grown, let‘s look at some statistics. According to Class Central, the leading search engine and review site for online courses, the number of students taking MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) grew from just 16-18 million in 2014 to over 110 million in 2019. That‘s a staggering 500%+ growth rate in just 5 years.
And enrollment is still growing, even accelerating due to the impact of COVID-19. In 2020 alone, MOOC providers like Coursera, edX, and Udacity saw 150%+ growth in registrations compared to the previous year. As lockdowns hit and people found themselves with more free time and a need to upskill for an uncertain job market, online learning became more important than ever.
Diving into computer science courses specifically, Class Central currently lists over 1,500 free online courses in programming and computer science from over 900 universities worldwide. That‘s a mind-boggling amount of free educational content!
To make it easier to digest, Class Central founder Dhawal Shah curated a more manageable list of just the 450 courses you can start in December 2020. This is the list we‘ll be exploring in more detail.
As an experienced programmer, what stands out to me about this list is not just the sheer number of courses, but also their quality and variety. Many of these free courses come from elite universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Princeton. You‘ll also find courses from leading tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM, giving you the opportunity to learn marketable skills directly from top employers.
Whether you‘re just starting to learn programming or you‘re an experienced coder looking to branch into new specializations, there are courses here for you. The 450 courses are broken down into Beginner (112 courses), Intermediate (252 courses), and Advanced (86 courses) levels.
Some of the most popular beginner courses include:
| Course Title | Provider | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| CS50‘s Introduction to Computer Science | Harvard / edX | 5.0 stars (4,950 ratings) |
| Python for Everybody | University of Michigan / Independent | 4.8 stars (3,520 ratings) |
| Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python | MIT / edX | 5.0 stars (112 ratings) |
| Intro to HTML and CSS | Udacity | 4.6 stars (5,110 ratings) |
| Java Programming: An Introduction to Software | Duke University / Coursera | 4.6 stars (6,290 ratings) |
For more experienced programmers, some of the most highly-rated intermediate and advanced courses cover "hot" topics like machine learning, data science, and cybersecurity:
| Course Title | Provider | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning | Stanford / Coursera | 4.9 stars (157,200 ratings) |
| Deep Learning Specialization | deeplearning.ai / Coursera | 4.9 stars (34,070 ratings) |
| IBM Data Science Professional Certificate | IBM / Coursera | 4.6 stars (15,655 ratings) |
| Cybersecurity Specialization | University of Maryland / Coursera | 4.8 stars (1,906 ratings) |
| Blockchain Specialization | University at Buffalo / Coursera | 4.6 stars (955 ratings) |
Speaking as someone who shifted from back-end to full-stack development a few years ago, I was very interested to see the growth of web and mobile app development courses on this list. A search for "web development" on Class Central returns 170 free courses, the majority of which are beginner or intermediate level.
Some courses focus narrowly on specific technologies, like React, Angular, Vue.js, or the MEAN stack. Others take a broader survey approach, like the University of London‘s excellent Responsive Website Development and Design series on Coursera.
For native mobile app development, Google has partnered with Udacity to release a whole Android Basics curriculum, while Apple maintains their own App Development with Swift course on iTunes U. Both are completely free and highly-rated by thousands of students.
Another buzzy area with a growing number of free courses is cloud computing. All the major cloud providers now have their own MOOCs: AWS has a Cloud Computing 101 course, Microsoft Azure offers a DevOps with Azure class, Google Cloud has a Cloud Architecture course, and IBM provides a Cloud Core overview.
For programmers looking to skill up quickly in these in-demand cloud technologies, it‘s amazing to have so many free, high-quality courses to choose from. Cloud skills are extremely marketable in today‘s job market. According to Indeed.com data, job postings requiring cloud computing skills rose 10.7% between 2018-2019 and had the 3rd highest growth rate of all tech skills listed.
But you don‘t need to limit yourself to just the "trendy" topics. Sometimes it‘s the bedrock computer science concepts that prove most valuable in the long run.
Courses like Harvard‘s CS50 Intro to Computer Science, Princeton‘s Algorithms series, and MIT‘s Introduction to Computational Thinking drill you in the fundamentals and teach you how to think like a computer scientist. These are the types of courses that transform you from a code monkey into an analytical, problem-solving software engineer.
If you really want to go deep into computer science foundations, you could spend months if not years working through a concentrated curriculum like the 15-course Open Source Society University program. Graduates have used this free program to prep for masters programs in computer science or launch directly into developer jobs.
No matter what direction you want to take your programming career in, you‘re bound to find courses that meet your needs within this list of 450. But with so many options, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are a few suggestions, based on my experience as a professional full-stack developer:
If you‘re a total beginner, start with an introductory programming course in a language like Python. I recommend Python for Everybody or Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python). Python has a gentle learning curve but is versatile enough to be useful for almost anything.
If you already know the basics and want to get into web development, you could take a crash course on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript like Web Development: A Crash Course from Udacity. From there you can branch out into frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, or Express.
Data science and machine learning are lucrative skills to develop right now. If that‘s your goal, you might start with the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate, then move on to Andrew Ng‘s famous Machine Learning course and the Deep Learning specialization.
Finally, no matter what area of programming you ultimately go into, make sure to work on your interviewing skills! Platforms like HackerRank, Leetcode, and AlgoExpert all have free courses and practice problems to help you ace the coding interview and land your dream programming job.
The most important thing is to just get started. Choose one or two courses that interest you, block off some time to study, and commit to working through the material. It won‘t always be easy – as a self-taught programmer myself, I know there are plenty of frustrating roadblocks along the way. But I promise that it‘s worth it.
The world of technology is only going to keep advancing, and programming skills are only going to become more valuable. By taking these free online courses, you‘re investing in your own future and giving yourself the tools to thrive in the digital economy. So what are you waiting for? Class is in session!