In this Best Courses Guide (BCG), I’ve compiled the best free online courses to learn programming. Most courses are from renowned universities including Michigan, Georgia Tech, Princeton, Rice, UC Davis and more.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• What is Programming?
• Why You Should Trust Us
• Courses Overview
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Here are our top picks

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What is Programming?

In essence, programming is the art of effectively telling a computer what to do. It is writing instructions for a computer to execute in order to accomplish a specific task. The simplest of things must be spelled out for the computer. Thanks to some clever mathematics and engineering, humans were able to make chips of sand understand the laws of logic.

Unfortunately, computers only understand the language of 0s and 1s, so us humans must communicate with them in a different way. People have invented many different languages that allow us to talk to the computer to get a result. These human-readable languages can be converted into the 0s and 1s that computers understand.

But different programmers try to achieve different tasks with computers. Some programmers want the computer to build websites (web developers), while others want to create useful tools (software engineers) or develop fun interactive media (game developers).

Since programming is so wide and diverse, there are many different industries and fields that one can specialize in, and some fields may pay more than others. Nonetheless, programmers are widely sought after as they keep the digital blood flowing.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, software development employment is expected to rise by 25% through 2030. And according to Glassdoor, the national average salary for a programmer is $91K in the United States.

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.

Courses Overview

• In total, the course enrollment sums up to 5.3 million enrollments, with the largest having over 3 million enrollments
• All courses are free or free-to-audit
• All the courses are beginner friendly, except for Programming Languages, Part A.
• Coursera is the most popular provider in this BCG
• Around 431K people are following Programming Courses on Class Central.

Best Programming Course for Beginners (Michigan)

The first course I recommend to anyone new to programming is Programming for Everybody, offered by the University of Michigan on Coursera. With over 3 million enrollments on Coursera, this free-to-audit course is the most popular Python course out there and one of the most popular online courses ever.

The course introduces you to the Python programming language. Python is easy to learn due to its elegant simplicity. It is the most popular language according to the TIOBE index, and is incredibly versatile — capable of handling with ease tasks ranging from web development to machine learning.

This course is designed for complete beginners. It will teach you the foundations of programming which will transfer over to many other programming languages. All you need to know prior to taking this course is some basic arithmetic.

This course has been featured in the most popular courses of all time and best courses of all time.

What you’ll learn:

• Understand fundamental computing concepts and program execution
• Install Python and choose a code editor (Atom recommended)
• Master basic Python syntax, including “Hello World” program
• Learn variables, expressions, and value storage/computation
• Control program flow with conditionals (if/else) and loops (while/for)
• Implement functions and pass arguments for code reuse
• Develop programs that accept user input, compute results, and provide output
• Grasp the two core programming skills: language proficiency and logical “storytelling”.

Best Rigorous and Well-Rounded Python Course for the Dedicated (Georgia Tech)

Computing in Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming is a free to audit course by the Georgia Institute of Technology on edX.

Although the course uses Python as the instructional programming language, it also exposes you to several fundamental concepts in programming and computer science. Concepts that carry over to every other programming language out there. By the end of this course, you’ll understand how to write programs that carry out complex mathematical operations, like calculating the interest rate necessary to reach a savings goal.

The course is taught by Dr. David Joyner. My colleague, Manoel, has taken four of his courses in his online master’s degree (and he has even met the guy!). He has only good things to say about David Joyner and his courses, which are always carefully thought out, in particular in terms of instructional design and teaching methods.

The only thing you need prior to taking this course is basic arithmetic.

The course also comes with an online book. Each week is dedicated to a specific area of computer science and programming, so you may skip to areas you already know to make the best use of your time.

What you’ll learn:

• Understand computer basics and code processing
• Set up a programming environment
• Master the write-run-debug cycle and code analysis
• Learn procedural programming in Python
• Explore variables, data types, and operators
• Implement complex mathematical operations in code
• Grasp fundamental programming concepts applicable to all languages.

Excellent Intermediate Functional Programming Course (Washington)

Why functional programming? Well, functional programming encourages you to write robust, reusable, composable, and elegant programs. Indeed, many of the most important ideas in modern languages have their roots in functional programming. Get ready to learn a fresh and beautiful way to look at software and how to have fun building it.

Offered by the University of Washington on Coursera, this free-to-audit course introduces you to the basic concepts of programming languages, with a focus on functional programming.

The course is designed to teach students the core ideas around which every programming language is built upon. It aims to show you the fundamental concepts that can be found and expressed in almost all programming languages, using these three different languages as an example. This allows you to think more deeply about the underlying ideas, and about how these ideas fit together instead of being distracted by surface-level syntax.

This course is one of the most challenging MOOCs out there, but it is immensely rewarding. Not only will you learn new languages faster, but you will also become a better programmer even in languages you don’t use!

Programming Languages, Part A assumes you have some programming background or have taken one or two introductory programming courses. If you’re a complete beginner, you should check out the other courses on this guide before tackling this course.

What you’ll learn:

• Master SML basics: variables, functions, conditionals, and data structures
• Explore recursion, pattern-matching, and tail recursion
• Understand compound data types and user-defined types
• Learn about first-class functions, closures, and lexical scope
• Study type inference and polymorphic types
• Grasp SML’s module system for encapsulation and abstraction
• Explore function equivalence in functional programming
• Set up and use Emacs and SML/NJ development environment.

Note that, Part A is the first of the Programming Languages series, followed by Part B and Part C. You are recommended to complete the entire series to fully experience the elegance of functional programming.

Awesome All-Around Introduction to Java Programming (Princeton)

Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose by Princeton University on Coursera is a comprehensive introduction to programming in Java.

The intent of this course is to teach programming in a scientific context. It teaches basic skills for computational problem solving applicable in many modern computing environments. After taking this course not only will you be proficient in Java, but you will also understand several fundamental concepts found in other programming languages.

This course is suitable for first-year college students and even motivated high schoolers. It doesn’t require prior programming experience.

What You’ll Learn:

• Understand the purpose and historical context of programming
• Develop your first Java program and learn basic programming concepts
• Master conditional statements, loops, and arrays
• Implement input/output operations for user interaction
• Create fractal drawings and animations using Java
• Explore modular programming with functions and libraries
• Learn recursion through classic examples like the Tower of Hanoi
• Analyze program performance and running time
• Dive into object-oriented programming and create custom data types
• Apply complex numbers to visualize the Mandelbrot set
• Compare different programming languages and paradigms
• Explore advanced concepts like garbage collection, type checking, and functional programming.

Note that, Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose covers the first half of the book Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach. The other half is covered by the next course, Computer Science: Algorithms, Theory, and Machines.

Project-Based Course for Hands-On Learners (Rice)

 An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) by Rice University on Coursera aims to help students with very little to no programming background learn the basics of building simple interactive applications in Python. It is heavily project-based, encouraging you to build and research things from scratch, an invaluable skill for developers in the real world.

While it’s a beginner course, it isn’t meant to be easy. The philosophy of the instructors is that the harder you work, the faster you learn. So, you’ll have to dedicate a significant amount of effort to complete the course.

As a prerequisite, you’ll only need some background in high school mathematics (like the Pythagorean theorem). This course uses Python 2 (older version) but is nonetheless still a good introduction to programming.

What you’ll learn:

• Basic Python arithmetic and variable assignment
• Function implementation and debugging techniques
• Logical operators and conditional statements
• Event-driven programming and GUI creation
• String processing and canvas drawing
• List manipulation and keyboard input handling
• Game development, including a Pong clone
• Local vs. global variables
• Simple animation and game state tracking.

Introduction to Programming — Algorithm Focused (Duke)

 Programming is fundamentally about figuring out how to solve various classes of problems and write algorithms, a clear set of steps to solve any problem in its class.

Duke University’s Programming Fundamentals will introduce you to a powerful problem-solving process — the Seven Steps — which you can use to solve any programming problem. In this course, you will learn how to develop an algorithm, then move on to reading and understanding code, as well as comprehending how programming concepts relate to algorithms.

This free-to-audit course uses the C programming language. You don’t need any programming experience to take this course.

What you’ll learn:

• Master the Seven Steps process for solving programming problems
• Develop and formulate precise algorithms
• Read and understand code with various programming constructs
• Execute code by hand to track program state
• Explore different data types and their binary representations
• Understand type-related programming concepts and avoid common mistakes
• Develop and test a custom sorting algorithm.

Introductory Programming Course for Engineers and Scientists with MATLAB (Vanderbilt)

Are you an engineer or a scientist with little to no coding experience who wants to learn programming to boost your marketable skills? Introduction to Programming with MATLAB is the perfect course for you.

You’ve most likely heard of MATLAB before, as it is heavily used in industry and academia, from the natural sciences, through all disciplines of engineering, finance and beyond. This is because MATLAB is easy to learn, versatile and very useful for scientific computing. The design of the language makes it possible to write powerful programs that solve complex tasks in just a few lines, compared to other programming languages like C++ or Java.

Hence, a solid background in MATLAB is an excellent skill if you’re interested in scientific computing.

Nevertheless, this course is not a MATLAB tutorial. It is an introductory programming course that uses MATLAB to illustrate general concepts in computer science and programming. Upon completion, you’ll understand the general concepts of computer science and programming, and gain a solid foundation in the use of MATLAB.

Students taking the course will get a MATLAB Online license free of charge for the duration of the course.

What you’ll learn:

• Navigate MATLAB environment and user interface
• Use MATLAB as an advanced calculator and create plots
• Work with matrices: define, manipulate, and perform operations
• Create and use functions for modular programming
• Utilize MATLAB’s built-in functions and debugging tools
• Implement basic programming constructs: if-statements, for-loops, while-loops
• Explore MATLAB’s 15 fundamental data types, including numbers and strings
• Handle file I/O operations with various file formats
• Navigate folders using MATLAB commands.

Best Responsive Web Design Course for Newbies (freeCodeCamp)

If you’re a complete newbie with no programming experience who wants to learn how to build websites, you should start with this course.

Responsive Web Design teaches you the languages that developers use to build webpages: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) for content, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for design. The course with free certificate guides you through the basics of HTML and CSS by building many different bite-sized projects and a 5 big ones!

What You’ll Learn:

• HTML basics: structure, tags, and forms
• CSS fundamentals: colors, fonts, and box model
• Responsive design using CSS flexbox and grid
• Web accessibility and typography
• CSS advanced techniques: pseudo-selectors, variables, and animations
• Building interactive elements and animations.

Projects:

1. Survey form
2. Tribute page
3. Technical documentation page
4. Product landing page
5. Personal portfolio webpage

Best JavaScript Course for Beginners (UC Davis)

If you have done the previous course, or you have tried building a nice-looking website with HTML/CSS but don’t know where to go from there, pick this course from the University of California, Davis.

JavaScript is the programming language used by over 97% of websites. It is used to manipulate the HTML and CSS of a webpage, after it has loaded from the server. In a way, it brings life to a static HTML/CSS website.

JavaScript Basics — well, introduces you to the basics of JavaScript. You’ll learn the reason JavaScript was developed in the first place, and how this impacts the way JavaScript is currently written and in future releases. By the end of the course, you’ll have the necessary skills needed to build a simple vacation destination list web application.

You’ll need some background in HTML and CSS to take this course. Other than that, no programming experience is required.

What you’ll learn:

• JavaScript basics: syntax, variables, and arrays
• Control structures: sequence, selection, and loops
• Function creation and implementation
• DOM manipulation and event handling
• Variable scoping and best practices
• Building interactive web elements (e.g., slideshows).

Projects:

• Simple slideshow
• Vacation destination list application
• Advanced distance converter.

Key skills developed:

• Writing and troubleshooting JavaScript code
• Creating interactive websites
• Manipulating webpage content dynamically
• Designing and building basic web applications.

Friendliest Scratch Programming Course for Beginners (Edinburgh)

If you have looked through all the courses in this list and felt intimidated by their difficulty and strangeness, this last course is for you.

A collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Universidad ORT Uruguay, Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming will teach you how to program in Scratch. More importantly, it will introduce you to the fundamental principles of computing, helping you think like a software engineer.

Scratch is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop visual programming language. It is an educational tool for programming, so many of the programming concepts in other languages are represented easily here.

What You’ll Learn:

• Basic programming concepts: algorithms, sequences, and loops
• Control structures: if-then statements, if-then-else selections
• Variables and complex conditions
• Events, visual and sound effects in Scratch
• Computational thinking: abstraction and decomposition
• Software engineering practices: testing and documentation
• Procedures, cloning, and code reusability
• Software development approaches and game creation.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

I built this guide following the now tried-and-tested methodology I used in my previous BCGs. It involves a three-step process:

First, let me introduce myself. I’m a content writer for Class Central, the leading search engine for online courses.

I (@elham) built this article in collaboration with my friend and colleague @manoel.

To build this guide, we scoured through Class Central’s database of close to 60K online courses for the best courses by looking at things like ratings, reviews, and bookmarks. This data-driven process helped us come up with a bunch of the best courses out there.

Good courses get noticed by word of mouth — and the very best tend to gather a lot of attention. That said, reviews don’t always tell the whole story. In fact, some courses are so good at hugging the spotlight that other excellent resources can go unnoticed. So the next step was to bring our own knowledge of online education into the mix.

Second, we used our experience as online learners to evaluate each preliminary pick.

We both come from computer science backgrounds and are prolific online learners, having completed about 45 MOOCs between us. Additionally, Manoel has an online bachelor’s in computer science, while I am currently completing my foundation in computer science. So programming is a subject that we were both very familiar with.

We analyzed and sifted through the courses, picking them one by one. We bounced ideas off each other and made iterative improvements to the guide, until we were both satisfied with the end result: the BCG you’re reading right now.

Third, during our research, we came across courses that we felt were well-made but unfortunately weren’t well-known. If we adopted a purely data-centric approach, we would have to leave those courses out of the guide, if only because they had fewer enrollments.

Instead, we favored a holistic approach. To spice up this BCG, we’ve added a wide range of courses of various programming languages to hopefully appeal to our reader’s preference.

After going through this process — combining Class Central data, our experience as lifelong learners, and a lot of editing — we arrived at our final selection. So far, we’ve spent more than 10 hours building this article, and we intend to continue updating it in the future.

Fabio revised the research and the latest version of this article.