
Ask HN: What is the best online course you've ever taken? - gymshoes
Doesn&#x27;t exactly have to be a MOOC.
YouTube playlists and any other way of learning is fine too. Paid ones are fine as well.
======
didgeoridoo
The sadly-discontinued Udacity CS 253 (Web Application Engineering) with Steve
Huffman. Partly because of the accessibility of the material and Steve’s
sometimes puckish delivery (learning sick MongoDB burns in 2012 put me way
ahead of the tech curve). Learning how to build and deploy a web app in Python
with the super-lightweight webapp2, rolling your own salted-and-hashed account
system... so many good tidbits that gave me a good intuition about how web
apps are put together.

The timing of the course also couldn’t have been better for me personally. It
was released about 2 weeks after I quit my job. I wanted to learn how to build
digital products, and after struggling with scattered tutorials, CS 253 was
like being thrown a life preserver.

Thanks, Steve.

~~~
Jugurtha
Are we sure it was discontinued? It is still listed on Udacity[0] and another
course titled "Intro to Backend"[1].

I enjoyed that course by the way.

[0]: [https://eu.udacity.com/course/web-development--
cs253](https://eu.udacity.com/course/web-development--cs253) [1]:
[https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-backend--
ud171](https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-backend--ud171)

~~~
didgeoridoo
There it is! Thanks for finding — somehow all my Googling ended up on Udacity
404 pages...

------
baalimago
[https://www.fast.ai/](https://www.fast.ai/)

The only online course I've undertaken, so of course it's the best one. But
it's exceptionally well made, it's up to date, teaches about a wide area of
machine learning and AI field. Not just the theory, but about Kaggle, how
professional AI designers work, what they do, "what it's all about", and so
forth. The community is helpful, the forums are active. All free btw. Very
good!

------
lkrych
I have spent a lot of time taking online courses. Here are my favorites.

CS50 ([https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-computer-
scien...](https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-computer-science-
harvardx-cs50x)) - Best Intro to Computer Science

Nand2Tetris I and II ([https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-
computer](https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer)) - Build a computer
from logic gates up to a compiler, this is the best class I've ever taken.

Agile Development Using Ruby on Rails ([https://www.edx.org/professional-
certificate/agile-developme...](https://www.edx.org/professional-
certificate/agile-development-using-ruby-rails)) - Great introduction to web
development and software engineering principles

I've also been reading some technical books. Would definitely recommend

Modern Operating Systems - Tanenbaum Designing Data-Intensive Applications -
Kleppmann

------
gangstead
Functional Programming Principles in Scala
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1](https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1)
on Coursera. It's taught by Martin Odersky, one of the language's creators.
Very well organized, highly automated assignment testing (you submit via CLI).
I went in wanting to learn Scala, but what I learned about FP has stayed with
me for years. Even though I've moved on from Scala I'm a much better
programmer for having taken that course.

------
otras
From a previous comment of mine:

Barbara Oakley's _Learning How To Learn_ class [0] was immensely helpful for
understanding how brains work and how I could learn efficiently.

I made it through college with a combination of cramming and bad sleep habits,
but focusing on spaced repetition, the diffuse/active modes, and sleep has
made classes I've taken since feel like easy mode.

[0]: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

~~~
platform
Dr. Oalkley's book

[https://barbaraoakley.com/books/a-mind-for-
numbers/](https://barbaraoakley.com/books/a-mind-for-numbers/)

Added a lot of clarity to my process of thinking. Highly recommend as well (I
did not take the course, though, just found the book by accident).

~~~
tmaly
What is the youngest age you think could handle this book?

~~~
platform
I am not an expert by any means. But asking child at, say, age 13 to read
portions of it and explain back to parents, what she/he picked up from there
-- will work well.

Probably a type of 'self-awareness' of own's thinking process does not start
before 11.

------
f0rgot
[cs50]([https://online-
learning.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction...](https://online-
learning.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science)) is the reason
I am a software engineer today.

~~~
madeuptempacct
I took this course with someone I was teaching webdev. It wasn't the best
course for me by any means because I already knew the material.

But it WAS the best introduction to software development I have ever seen, and
I have seen quite a few.

I did see a couple of people quit the course because it was "too complicated"
\- in reality, it's just complicated enough, and the progression is natural
and well-presented.

------
jmkd
RR Buildings How to Build a Garage
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVwUl4cm8fQ&list=PLvo-
lhQgsI...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVwUl4cm8fQ&list=PLvo-
lhQgsIOg7Yh3aaLwkUJviPv6s4Cv3)

This YouTube series (in fact his channel in general) makes construction look
simple, accessible and rewarding. He explains theory while demonstrating
practice, and the end result is not abstract knowledge but a real building
that can house all manner of other physical (and digital) projects.

------
deepakkarki
I've taken quite a few online courses, but none better than JS30 from WesBos.
Really good stuff - a set of 30 videos where you create 30 small JavaScript
projects. Great for people already familiar with JS and trying to get more
comfortable!

I've converted all 30 videos into blog format (with live code samples) here
[https://www.discoverdev.io/blog/series/js30/](https://www.discoverdev.io/blog/series/js30/)

------
kobiguru
Learning how to learn from coursera is my all time favourite. I have gone over
the course material a few times just to make sure I don't forget all the
things the professors talk about.

------
ArtWomb
Definitely Eric Lander's _Introduction to Biology - The Secret Of Life_ class
(MITx 7.00x)

Firm grounding in the Central Dogma. Covers the entire history of genetics.
From Gregor Mendel's peas. To Morgenstern's Fruit Fly Lab. And right up to the
present day Supreme Court BRCA case and CRISPR/Cas9. Essential background for
understanding the coming century of New Biotech.

[https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-biology-the-
secre...](https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-biology-the-secret-of-
life-2)

~~~
bigmit37
I took this course recently. I Iove how he took you back in time and let you
experience the importance of each discovery.

------
runjake
Every time someone asks this question -- and it gets asked here a lot, several
people mention Learning To Learn. I always rolled my eyes.

Then I decided to check it out.

While the production quality is out of the 1990s and it starts off pretty dry,
there is a lot of great content and applicable techniques here, if you stick
with it a little bit.

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

------
guitarbill
[https://learngitbranching.js.org/](https://learngitbranching.js.org/) \- this
was posted recently again. it's not perfect, and isn't going to completely de-
mystify git. but it's a great exercise and seems to clear up a thing or two.

if i worked in a team again, i would probably make this a required course for
new hires, no matter how much experience. it isn't hard, but i've seen the
occasional experienced engineer complain it's too easy and beneath them, and
then fail badly on the later stages - hmm, maybe they're lying about the
experience. come to think of it, it'd probably be great in an interview, too.

~~~
russdpale
I tried this a while back, and I am so confused by the rebasing part I figured
I'd find something else. As someone who knows some git, but only has to used
it every once in a while, this website does not help me..

------
blacksoil
I really enjoyed the famous Andrew Ng's machine learning course on Coursera.
That was my first exposure to MOOC and I was amazed that such great content
was available for free.

~~~
zachguo
Yes! 2013 was such a good year for mooc, andrew's ML course on Coursera,
Sebastian's AI course on Udacity. Dan's AI course on edx.

------
sputknick
Acloud.guru AWS cloud architect course, I did it through udemy, but they also
have it through their own website. Well maintained, well presented material.
Price can drop to $10 sometimes with free lifetime updates.

------
DanBC
Making Data Count, from NHS Improvement:

[https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/making-data-
count/](https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/making-data-count/)

[https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/2748/NHS_MAKING_DATA_CO...](https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/2748/NHS_MAKING_DATA_COUNT_FINAL.pdf)

This makes a statistical tool accessible and useful to people who have no
stats training. It explains why SPCs are usually better than the widely used
RAG charts.

------
ForHackernews
[https://work.caltech.edu/telecourse.html](https://work.caltech.edu/telecourse.html)

This is a real Caltech course, not a made-for-online offering. When I took it,
we shared the online forum with undergrads taking the class on campus, and
Professor Abu-Mostafa was incredibly responsive to all kinds of questions.

The course covers the theory and mathematics behind various machine learning
techniques. It's not a practical course that just teaches you to use some
particular library.

------
mcintyre1994
It’d be between fast.ai and javascript30.com

Fast.ai has an incredible library built on PyTorch and it’s amazing when he
talks about the latest research and already has it available for free there.
The teaching style is super nice too, very practical and without skipping the
bits that get you to world class results.

Javascript30 is 30 free short modern JavaScript lessons with no libraries or
builds or any of that stuff. Great way to get back on track and catch up with
what vanilla is can do, and Wes Bos is exceptional as a teacher.

------
krrishd
the Startup Engineering MOOC on Coursera taught by Balaji Srinivasan (CTO of
Coinbase now, Stanford prof back then) was extremely valuable to go through,
both from a technical and non-technical standpoint. It was kinda like the "How
To Start A Startup" course going on right now except slightly more preparatory
for the technical challenges involved

course page: [http://online.stanford.edu/course/startup-
engineering](http://online.stanford.edu/course/startup-engineering) and
[http://startup.stanford.edu/](http://startup.stanford.edu/)

course videos:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58C6Q25sEEFVyISrZc80...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58C6Q25sEEFVyISrZc80..).

------
atlasunshrugged
HBX CORe, Online course from Harvard (actually more like a few courses bundled
into one) that I expected to be high level managerial focused but was
pleasantly surprised to be very hands on with spreadsheets and whatnot
[https://hbx.hbs.edu/courses/core/](https://hbx.hbs.edu/courses/core/). Close
second is Living at the Nuclear Brink by Dr. Perry (Former US Secretary of
Defense) which was incredibly informative
[https://online.stanford.edu/courses/fsi-y0002-living-
nuclear...](https://online.stanford.edu/courses/fsi-y0002-living-nuclear-
brink-yesterday-and-today)

------
ctrlv
MIT's 6.00.1x on edX, it is a quality introduction to programming and python.
I took it almost 5 years ago and would highly recommend it for motivated
beginners. The most recent session seems to have just concluded so there may
be another one coming up soon.

------
Slasktratten
OSCP: [https://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-
cert...](https://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-
certifications/oscp-offensive-security-certified-professional/)

------
rasmus1610
Fast.ai probably. And MIT 18.06 linear Algebra with Gilbert Strang is also
pretty awesome

------
Tepix
"Science of the Solar System" by Michael Brown is a great introduction to the
topic. It has a 4.9 star rating :-)

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/solar-
system](https://www.coursera.org/learn/solar-system) \- i think it's still
free, right?

Unit 1: Water on Mars - 3 weeks

Unit 2: The insides of giant planets - 2 weeks

Unit 3: Big questions from small bodies - 2 weeks

Unit 4: Life in the solar system - 2 weeks

------
soared
Google analytics course from google
([https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/))

This opens the curtains to what happens behind a website and provides data for
every discussion in marketing/product/etc. Taking this when I was 18 years old
literally kickstarted my career.

------
jimpudar
Dan Boneh's (Stanford) Cryptography I on Coursera.

Excellent course; he is a fantastic teacher.

~~~
ecesena
+1 - Looking forward for Cryptography II

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I've been waiting five years for that, I suspect it isn't coming.

------
sotojuan
We had this question earlier this year, but for MOOCs only:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16745042)

------
psychobabble
A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/happiness](https://www.coursera.org/learn/happiness)

~~~
gkst
Thanks for this suggestion! I did The Science of Happiness
[https://www.edx.org/course/the-science-of-
happiness](https://www.edx.org/course/the-science-of-happiness). Not sure what
"the best" really means, but I think it had the biggest impact on my life.

------
joddystreet
Database lecture series by CMU DB group - taught/managed by -
twitter.com/andy_pavlo - just amazing.

------
harrisreynolds
I've been working on a course recently [1] on Building an App from Scratch
Using Ruby on Rails (not revolutionary I know, but needed to start somewhere).

Building a truly great course is pretty difficult.

[1] [https://www.nimblehq.com](https://www.nimblehq.com)

------
bocahrokok
I really love the new CS50 on twitch series, love the way they explore many
stack and tech as it is basically help me to understand the many

[https://m.twitch.tv/cs50/profile](https://m.twitch.tv/cs50/profile) Cs50 -
Twitch

~~~
jakamau
That link didn't work for me. Did you mean:

[https://www.twitch.tv/cs50tv](https://www.twitch.tv/cs50tv)

------
alacer
[https://course.elementsofai.com/](https://course.elementsofai.com/) Offered
by the University of Helsinki optionally for credit and to be followed with
another course using Python programming.

------
antaviana
I found very useful the "How to Start an Startup" series:
[https://startupclass.samaltman.com](https://startupclass.samaltman.com)

------
largespoon
Since we are on the topic of online classes, do you folks know any good
advanced music theory/counterpoint courses?

------
benoror
[https://egghead.io/](https://egghead.io/)

------
person_of_color
Does anyone know a MOOC on procedural generation, or generative art?

------
riteshk098
I have taken C programming course by Shibaji from udmey.

------
alltakendamned
OSCP

------
mruts
I’m currently taking udacity’s AI for trading class. It’s a little pricey
($999 for the first term), but damn, it’s so good. Best class I’ve ever taken,
online or otherwise.

