10 Best Ada Courses for 2024: Write Never-Failing Software
Write robust and secure code fit for space travel and other safety-critical applications with these free and paid online Ada courses.
When organizations need robust, reliable, and secure software, they turn to Ada.
Originating from a high-stakes background in aerospace and defense, Ada’s design emphasizes safety, maintainability, and efficiency, making it highly sought after for critical systems where failure is not an option.
If you’re just stepping into the world of programming, or have had considerable experience developing software before, we’ve got you covered.
In this Best Courses Guide (BCG), we’ve picked the best free and paid courses and books to learn Ada. We’ve made sure to choose ones that use a recent version of Ada (Ada 2012 or 2022), and prioritized those with hands-on coding.
Click on the shortcuts for more details:
- Top Picks
- What is Ada?
- Is Ada a Dead Language?
- Is Ada Only Used in the Army?
- BCG Stats
- Why You Should Trust Us
- BCG Methodology
Here are my top picks. Click on one to skip to the course details:
What is Ada?
Ada is a high-level programming language designed with a strong emphasis on safety, reliability, and maintainability.
Named after Ada Lovelace, who is often regarded as the first computer programmer, Ada was developed in the late 1970s by a team led by Jean Ichbiah for the United States Department of Defense (DoD).
The language is structured, statically typed, and designed to support large-scale software engineering projects. Ada’s syntax and conventions opt for explicitness over ‘elegant’ terseness. This helps to ensure programs are readable, maintainable, and straightforward, with features that enforce good programming practices and reduce the likelihood of errors.
Organizations and industries where failure is not an option trust Ada on large-scale systems and embedded real-time systems for the following reasons:
- Contract-Based Programming: Since Ada 2012, Ada supports specifying preconditions, postconditions, and invariants for subprograms, enabling automatic checks that enhance reliability by catching errors early.
- Strong Type System: Ada had a strong and static type system that enforces type correctness at compile time decades before Rust became hip. In fact, many Rust developers are interested in Ada and vice-versa as a result; AdaCore is building a compiler for Rust and the Alire package manager is inspired by Rust’s cargo.
- Tasking and Real-Time Support: Ada offers high-level constructs for concurrency and real-time programming, ensuring predictable and safe execution of time-critical operations.
- Exception Handling: The language mandates explicit declaration and handling of exceptions, promoting proactive error management.
- Modularity and Encapsulation: Ada’s modular programming support and encapsulation help maintain large codebases and minimize impact of changes through clear separation of interfaces and implementations.
- Static Analysis and Formal Verification Tools: The Ada ecosystem includes tools for static analysis and formal verification, verifying code adherence to specifications and increasing software reliability. One of such tools is SPARK (not to be confused with Apache Spark), a formally analyzable subset of Ada that brings mathematics-based confidence to software verification.
Is Ada a Dead Language?
A common misconception is that Ada is a dead language.
Firstly, Ada has been constantly updated since Ada 98, with the latest major update being two years ago.
Secondly, statistics proves that Ada’s popularity isn’t falling — rather, it’s the opposite. As of February 2024, the TIOBE Index puts Ada as the 25th most popular language above Perl, Scala, and Lua. And the PYPL Index, which is methodologically opposed to TIOBE, ranks Ada ten places higher at 15th.
Is Ada only used in the Army?
Another common misconception is that Ada is only useful to learn if you have a security clearance, since only the Army uses it.
False. Ada has been used and will continue to be used in industries other than defense as long as there’s a need for never-failing software: automotive, avionics, air traffic management, space, medical, rail, and security are all great examples.
BCG Stats
- Seven of the courses are free, while three are paid, with one paid course offering a free trial.
- Two courses are suitable for absolute beginners to programming, while the rest assume programming knowledge
- All of the courses use Ada 2012, the version of Ada prior to Ada 2022, but two courses also use Ada 2022.
Best Free Comprehensive Hands-On Course for Programmers (AdaCore)
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If you’ve programmed before, the best place to start would be AdaCore’s Introduction to Ada — the software company behind many Ada development tools including the open-source GNAT Compiler.
This free text-based course does an excellent job at gently introducing beginners to the language for two reasons:
- Comprehensive: The course in book form is about 275 pages worth of content. From general programming concepts you’ve used before (such as conditionals, generics, and OOP) to Ada-specific features (such as strong typing, design by contracts, and in-built concurrency), you’ll learn everything you’ll need to think like an Ada programmer.
- Interactive code examples and labs: Not only is trying out Ada hassle-free, you’ll also practice using it. Every chapter comes with in-browser code examples to tinker around with, as well as labs at the end of each chapter where you’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned.
The online course can be downloaded as an EPUB or PDF.
| Provider | AdaCore |
| Authors | Raphaël Amiard and Gustavo A. Hoffmann |
| Prerequisites | Basic programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Labs and interactive code examples |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Introductory Course for Absolute Beginners (Patrick Kelly)
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No programming experience? No problem!
Perfect for those who prefer learning by watching, this free YouTube playlist, Ada Programming Course by Patrick Kelly, will cover everything you need to know to get started.
People without any programming experience can find relief in Patrick Kelly’s background: he’s a software developer with over a decade of experience with Ada yet had no formal education in Computer Science whatsoever.
Some of the topics Patrick discusses include:
- Programming Introduction: In just under one-and-a-half hours, you’ll learn the programming basics — variables, data types, conditionals, loops, and more.
- Type System: Ada’s remarkably sophisticated strong type system may seem daunting, but it’s the reason why many critical software rely on Ada. You’ll discover how to define your own basic types, as well as familiarize yourself with other essential data types and data structures such as enumerations, records, arrays, discriminants and variants, and sets.
- Coding Projects: It’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice. You’ll build a Reverse Polish Notation Calculator, which will test your ability to write complex logic, and a hi-lo Card Game, where you’ll use Object-Oriented Programming concepts to help write organized, modular code.
Though there are code demos, there aren’t any programming exercises. I recommend you go through AdaCore’s labs to hone your coding skills once you complete the course .
| Channel | Patrick Kelly |
| Provider | YouTube |
| Instructor | Patrick Kelly |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Workload | ≈6 hours |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Course for C++ and Java Developers (AdaCore)
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Another free course from AdaCore, Ada for the C++ or Java Developer, is aimed towards developers with knowledge of C++ or Java.
You’ll be given an overview of the Ada language, including OOP, concurrency, and low-level programming, through comparison with C++ / Java terminology and code examples.
Anyone familiar with these languages and currently working on an Ada project, interested in learning Ada, or evaluating Ada’s suitability in their tech stack will find this course useful — no knowledge of Ada assumed.
Do neither of these two courses from AdaCore seem fit for you? Check out their six other courses, some of which are:
- Advanced Journey With Ada: The sequel to Introduction to Ada. You’ll dive deeper into the advanced topics of Ada, such as the robust type system, modular programming, and resource management. Has interactive coding snippets.
- Introduction to SPARK: Mathematically prove your code executes as intended with the SPARK programming language, based on Ada. Its formal verification tools will help you ensure that your safety-critical systems are functionally correct.
- Ada for the Embedded C Developer: Write reliable, safe, and secure code for embedded systems with Ada. You’ll learn by comparing how Ada works to C. You’ll also be introduced to SPARK — a subset of Ada compatible with static analysis techniques.
Likewise, you can download these courses as an EPUB or PDF.
| Provider | AdaCore |
| Author | Quentin Ochem |
| Prerequisites | C++ or Java programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | None |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Short Introductory Course for Absolute Beginners and Programmers (Julio Toboso)
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Whether you’re starting from scratch or already have some coding experience, this free site is here to help.
Julio Toboso developed it for his students at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, but it’s open to anyone interested in learning more about the Ada programming language. The site delves into various aspects of the Ada language, including its history, how to install it, its libraries, and compilers.
However, what I want to bring your attention to are the two language guides, which are:
- Learn Ada At a Slow Path: Perfect for beginners, this guide takes you from having no programming knowledge to writing your first program. You’ll learn the core Ada programming concepts such as variables, controls, and classes through runnable code snippets.
- Ada for Programmers: Aimed towards C, C++, and Java programmers, this is a straightforward crash course to quickly get you up to speed with Ada. Covers the basics up to pointers, generics, and tasks.
If you just want a short walkthrough of the language to see if it piques your interest, this course is an excellent starting point.
| Provider | Independent |
| Author | Julio Toboso |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Interactive code examples |
| Certificate | None |
Best Paid Introductory Course for Programmers (Tod Gentille)
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Introduction to Ada 2012 will introduce you to the basics of the Ada language. While it won’t cover advanced topics like OOP, Concurrency, and Design by Contract, you’ll learn enough Ada to be able to write small useful programs and confidently tackle advanced Ada courses.
In this paid course, you’ll cover concepts that were present in the Ada 83 release but also include features from Ada 2012. Through video demonstrations, you’ll learn how to set up Ada on Windows and write your first Ada program. By the end, you’ll have a firm grasp of the basic concepts and syntax of the language including types/subtypes, expressions, procedures, functions, and packages.
| Provider | Pluralsight |
| Instructor | Tod Gentille |
| Prerequisites | Programming experience |
| Workload | ≈4 hours |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5.0 (42) |
| Cost | Paid |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Free Short Introductory Game Dev Course for Programmers (GetIntoGameDev)
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If you want a short, fun, and free way to learn Ada, this is your best bet.
In about one hour, Ada for Game Developers will cover enough of the language in order to build a simple tic-tac-toe game in the terminal. Having been produced just last year, Andrew Mengede will help you set up your Ada development environment using the modern package manager, Alire.
As for now, the course is on hiatus. Andrew might return to do 3D game programming somewhere this year. Keep an eye out by joining his Discord server.
| Channel | GetIntoGameDev |
| Provider | YouTube |
| Instructor | Andrew Mengede |
| Prerequisites | Programming experience |
| Workload | 1 hour |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | Code demos |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Comprehensive Game Dev Book for Absolute Beginners and Programmers (David Levy)
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If I had a nickel for every time an Ada course for game dev was made, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
If you find the previous course’s quantity of content to be lacking, then this free EBook will satisfy you.
Learning Ada 2012 by writing simple games is a project-based text where you’ll learn the core language by building a series of small terminal-based programs and games (included in this zip file), such as:
- Word Jumble
- Towers of Hanoi
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Critter Care
- BlackJack
- TRPG Battle
Not only will it be fun, but you’ll also learn a lot as writing games often require you to understand sophisticated concepts like object oriented programming and concurrency.
And the best part of all is that you don’t need any programming experience whatsoever, but you do need to be computer literate enough to follow a text tutorial.
This document was written by David C Levy, a research assistant at the University of Sydney, who was inspired by the book Beginning C++ Through Game Programming.
| Provider | Independent |
| Author | David C Levy |
| Prerequisites | Basic programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | None |
| Certificate | None |
Best Free Comprehensive Book for Programmers (Wikibooks)
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Ada Programming on Wikibooks is an excellent free online reference and tutorial for beginner and senior developers alike.
Featured by Wikibooks for its substantial content, ease of reading, and numerous code examples, it delves into the basics such as control structures and subprograms, to more sophisticated features like contract-based programming and interfacing with other languages.
There are six main sections in total, which you can either download as a PDF individually or all together:
- Getting Started: Read this section first. It’ll instruct you on how to install and set up your Ada development environment, how a basic Ada program is structured, and how to compile one.
- Language Features: You’ll explore the essential subset of language features here. You’ll also pick up best practices when programming in Ada and how to avoid common programming mistakes.
- Computer Programming: An adaptation of several chapters from the Computer programming book, it’ll teach you how to implement common algorithms and programming concepts in Ada, such as binary search and error-handling.
- Language Reference: As the name implies, you can find references to a particular keyword, delimiter, operator, and other specifications.
- Predefined Language Libraries: The Ada Standard Library is huge. This section acts as a reference to its four root packages.
- External Libraries: Similar to the above, but for popular third-party Ada libraries.
| Provider | Wikibooks |
| Prerequisites | Basic programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Free |
| Exercises | None |
| Certificate | None |
Best Paid Easy-to-Read Comprehensive Book for Programmers (Andrew T. Shvets)
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Write practical applications in Ada with Beginning Ada Programming: From Novice to Professional.
This paid book will teach anyone with coding experience Ada programming in the shortest amount of time possible by only focusing on the most important parts of the language — be the topics introductory or advanced.
Andrew T. Shvets (the author) uses simple English and conversational tone, making it an easy read. Each chapter comes with lots of code examples based on real-world problems for you to analyze. And at the end of each, you’ll find a lab question to apply your new-found knowledge, though unfortunately there’s no solution.
Here’s what you’ll gain from the book:
- Setting up your Ada development environment
- Master basic types, control structures, procedures, and functions in Ada
- Use Ada arrays, records, and access types
- Implement Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) using Ada, including inheritance, polymorphism, and overloading.
- Handle interruptions in code execution by catching exceptions
- Interact with the outside world by working with I/O and interfacing with the operating system
- Weigh the pros and cons of three data containers: queues, lists, and hashmaps.
- Write concurrent code through multiprocessing with tasks.
- Rigorously prove that your code does what it says with contracts.
- Form socket connections between client and server using TCP and UDP protocols
- Debugging your code.
You can read this Ebook for free by applying for a free trial of O’Reilly subscription. The code examples used can also be found freely on GitHub.
| Publisher | Apress |
| Instructor | Andrew T. Shvets |
| Prerequisites | Basic programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Paid |
| Exercises | Labs |
| Certificate | None |
Best Paid Most Comprehensive Book for Programmers (John Barnes)
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Barnes’s Programming in Ada 2012 with a Preview of Ada 2022 is the definitive text on Ada.
Spanning nearly a thousand pages, this paid book serves as both a great introduction and reference to the language. Not only is it ridiculously comprehensive, it also comes with over a hundred theory and practice questions to help you retain what you’ve read. But what’s even crazier is that Barne’s has given solutions to all of them.
The book also compares and contrasts additions to Ada 2022 versus the 2012 edition — useful as the 2012 standard has been widely used for a decade.
Thus, while the book fetches a hefty sum, its depth and breadth make it a worthwhile investment for anyone serious about mastering Ada.
This book is grouped into four parts:
- Overview of Ada Language:
- Introduces the scope of Ada language
- Aims to equip newcomers with the ability to run significant Ada programs
- Provides a general understanding of Ada for beginners.
- Small-Scale Aspects of Ada:
- Details lexical elements, scalar types, arrays, and simple record types
- Covers control structures and expressions
- Discusses subprograms and access types.
- Large-Scale Aspects of Ada:
- Explores packages, private types, and contracts
- Covers separate compilation and abstraction principles
- Discusses Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and tasking
- Includes exceptions and numerical details.
- Completing the Ada Story:
- Discusses the predefined Ada library and interfacing with external systems
- Covers specialized annexes
- Concludes with discussions on correctness and an introduction to SPARK.
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Author | John Barnes |
| Prerequisites | Programming experience |
| Workload | N/A |
| Cost | Paid |
| Exercises | Coding exercises |
| Certificate | None |
Why You Should Trust Us
Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000+ reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.
Best Courses Guide (BCG) Methodology
I built this ranking following the now tried-and-tested methodology used in previous BCGs (you can find them all here). It involves a three-step process:
- Research: I started by leveraging Class Central’s database and the internet. Then, I made a preliminary selection of Ada courses by rating, reviews, and bookmarks.
- Evaluate: I read through reviews on Class Central, Reddit, and course providers to understand what other learners thought about each course and combined it with my own experience as a learner.
Select: Well-made courses were picked if they presented valuable and engaging content, fit a set of criteria and be ranked according to comprehensive curriculum, affordability, release date, ratings and enrollments.
