How good is Harvard’s CS50 actually?

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LeoCleo1100@reddit

For those that completed it, how long would you say it would take to complete it?

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Altruistic-Cattle761@reddit

You can just watch the lectures online. It is good for beginners, but you don't need to spend any money on it.

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Motor_Sky7106@reddit

90% of the learning in the courses is done through doing the problems. Watching the lectures won't teach someone to code.

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InternalRule8583@reddit

for real! psets take up the most of my time

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Jacomer2@reddit

It’s a great foundational course. It’s difficult but very well made and can get you a really great jump start on some difficult concepts.

I took the free version ~4 years ago with absolutely zero experience in programming. It inspired me to go back to school at 25 for my BS in CS and now at 28 I have a full time job as a developer.

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Diligent-Office-9819@reddit

sir i have zero knowledge of cs or programming can i start from cs50 direct

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hey, how did you go about starting on projects on your own? thats honeslty a question that looms over my head every single day, im planning on doing a cs degree, but alot of other people in my age itself have a vast knowledge in programming, and im not sure as to how to learn by doing projects (as recommended by people), any pointesr you would give?

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Jacomer2@reddit

I’d recommend thinking of something you’d like to make. It can be something that already exists like a calculator or some simple website. You can also look up ideas, it’s the process of building that is helpful, not the uniqueness of the idea.

Once you have the idea. Start trying to build it. You’ll immediately run into something you don’t know how to do, and you’ll look up how to do that.

It’s the process of having an end goal in mind, and then working through the confusion on how to implement it that will teach you the most.

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expertbigbang@reddit

thank you so much :)

definitley going to use your advice

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Trollcontrol@reddit

Same bro, still working on my degree !

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TheThinDewLine@reddit

I took the free version 4 years ago too but found it boring and gave up on life. :)

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simonbleu@reddit

The way you said "back to school" sounds odd, like you are considering that age old which is absolutely ridiculous. Of course I could be reading too much into it but still

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Jacomer2@reddit

That’s fair. The context I didn’t give is I already had a bachelor’s in another unrelated field

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Zestyclose_League_34@reddit

The most important thing to remember is that the lectures will not teach you anything you must look at the notes and review each part. You will basically have to teach yourself if you’re not willing to do this don’t take it. There are many problems with the course they did documents even with the 2026 you will have problems with VS code and no one to turn to. It’s all on you.

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Delicious_Big2827@reddit

Great course for anyone really. I remember seeing this when I was a freshman in college but never went through with actually watching the lectures and doing the problem sets. Fast forward 4 years later, I ended up coming across it and just giving it a go. Ended up being super useful not only in reviewing C, python, and programming in general, but also taught me new things and helped me gain new ideas. I definitely will be doing the cs50p and sql ones in the near future

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Prestigious-Eye-3690@reddit

CS50 is great for fundamentals but if you're already into web dev and enjoying it, just keep going. CS50 is broad (C, Python, algorithms) - useful but not required. Focus on building projects instead. You can always go back to it later.

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boquintana@reddit

Very good, the more time you spend thinking about it is time you could've spent doing it.

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FeistyFan5173@reddit

This exactly - I spent like 2 weeks debating whether to start it and could've been halfway through by then lol

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big_guyforyou@reddit

Why are y'all so fucking mean? Jesus.....when I started coding I was fucking clueless as well, and I woulda LOVED IT if people like you weren't so snarky

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Acceptable_Bottle@reddit

I think it was meant to come across as earnest advice, like "you'll never know until you try! :)"

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absolyst@reddit

Compared to how nasty redditors can get, that was a really tame comment imo. It didn't even come off as snark to me, it just came off as a statement of fact

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boquintana@reddit

I'd love a million dollars, welcome to the internet bud.

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isospeedrix@reddit

Welcome to Reddit:

“Thinking about doing it” - welll do it you lazy bum

“Yay wrote my first hello world” - holy shit grats you’re a god

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big_guyforyou@reddit

The weird thing is that on 4chan's /g/ board, they're a lot more helpful than people are on reddit because they can actually be honest without some power-tripping mod justifying their sad, pathetic existence by bringing down the people who are objectively better than them in every way

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IllustriousBottle645@reddit (OP)

Haha, yeah you’re right, but I just saw a post about this a few minutes ago and I was curious.

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boquintana@reddit

No worries, it's easy to get analysis paralaysis over which content to do, I was there for a long time and now I understand that even if it's not the MOST optimal, even if it teaches you the bare minimum it's absolutely better to get started on a mid course then to spend months sesrching for the best course. Good luck.

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Tao_Lyu@reddit

C courses in Cs50, especially those problemsets can be inspiring and encouraging for beginners with a little programming experience.

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JEY1337@reddit

Where do I find the course and should I just start at lection 1 and look to the end?

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Legal-Site1444@reddit

The non mooc one is good. The mooc one is crap

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chrono2310@reddit

What? Why is one better than the other?

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Legal-Site1444@reddit

one thing that is very underdiscussed when discussing online education options is the fact that university affiliated MOOCs are almost always much easier than the real version of the class offered in person. This has held true in every STEM course I've ever compared, much to my disappointment. It isn't even close, the difference is huge.

The reason is obvious of course - MOOCs (and the vast majority of online programs not for credit) are intended for an audience that is less prepared, has less time to invest, and isn't as willing to grind as hard on average. But of course the university affiliated courses still want to coast on the university name.

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PhoenixBlaze123@reddit

Honestly the best course I've ever taken, bear in mind my work has paid 4k+ for some courses I've been on. I think the lecturer is just really good at getting his point across, really enthusiastic and the problem sets really help solidify the knowledge gained from the lectures.

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PhoenixBlaze123@reddit

Honestly the best course I've ever taken, bear in mind my work has paid 4k+ for some courses I've been on. I think the lecturer is just really good at getting his point across, really enthusiastic and the problem sets really help solidify the knowledge gained from the lectures.

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BusyEntrepreneur3070@reddit

i find it convenient for me since it told me it would teach me flash, SQL, py, and i think C Sharp, which are the ones i need for the software im trying to develop

but heck its free also, so automatically its very good for me

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Important_Coach9717@reddit

Flash ????? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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BusyEntrepreneur3070@reddit

flask pala HAHHAHAHA

i was too sleep deprived lmao

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Important_Coach9717@reddit

You scared me sir 😄

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ReBL_Wavyy@reddit

In the process of doing their intro to programming with Python, I recommend it and I love it. It’s helping me understand concepts i vaguely knew in a more deeper understanding.

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johanneswelsch@reddit

As others have commeted it's too difficult for beginners imho. If you have absolutely no idea about variables, you'll fail and may lose interest in programming. I think reading the first couple of chapters in CSAPP book is way more rewarding. After that you won't really need CS50, so I kinda question why that course exists. It's a well done course though, I don't recommend it though.

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L_Arsene@reddit

I have finished it and it is quite good for a start. But what actually helped me to improve was that I took the final challenge really serious and delivered a working project.

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AlSweigart@reddit

It's not directly about web development, so there are plenty of other resources you could spend your time on. But CS50 is a decent, general, and shallow introduction to computer science topics with some basic programming in C, Python, and a little JavaScript.

I think it'd be good to have this background at some point, but you can always put it off while you study other things.

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p4n0ptin0mic0n@reddit

It’s challenging, and I’m so glad that I took it at the beginning of my self-taught journey. Highly recommend it as a foundation for beginners, and I found that it was a good use of time.

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darinja80@reddit

It's a great course, but if you care less about CS than you do learning about programming, then do the CS50P route and learn Python.

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coolhandleuke@reddit

Hard disagree. It’s barely scratching the surface of CS and It’s foundational knowledge every programmer should know. It gives a much better perspective to the why that makes learning things like iterative objects, lists, and algorithms much easier.

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darinja80@reddit

I don’t think that knowledge in CS50 shouldn’t be learned, but I think that a lot of people start CS50 and a lot of it is over their heads so they give up in the middle of it, so sometimes I recommend CS50P first. I still recommend CS50 but it can be done later once basic programming skills have been acquired.

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coolhandleuke@reddit

I think the exposure is good. People don’t necessarily need to grasp it fully but CS50 is easily the best overview of the first two weeks of each of my first-year CS courses and having exposure typically leads to oh, that’s what they were talking about when you actually get into learning the concepts in Python.

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Paxtian@reddit

I already knew how to program by the time it came out, so I can't really speak to it from the perspective of someone learning to program using it. But I've gone through the materials and they look excellent so I recommend using it to learn.

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1czanda15@reddit

It`s very good. It can be quite complex if you don`t have any CS background but definitely doable.
It also depends on what your learning methods are. I, for example, struggle with memorizing anything from videos/lectures and find a lot easier books and other written resources.
Give it a try and see if it works for you!

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mxldevs@reddit

I think CS50 is intended for people with no CS background.

I found my CS courses while working towards the degree challenging without a CS background for example.

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exploradorobservador@reddit

overrated, does not work for everyone

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Crypt0Nihilist@reddit

Holy perfect solution fallacy, Batman!

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crawlpatterns@reddit

i think any solid intro course can fill in gaps you might not realize you have. the big benefit is the structured pace and the way it forces you to think through problems in a different way. if you already enjoy web stuff, taking a general foundations class can make the rest feel easier. it doesn’t waste time unless you already feel completely confident with the basics.

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BroaxXx@reddit

I mean, if everyone is recommending it on this and other subs it kinda seems a bit redundant to make this post, no?

Regardless it's very very very good and definitely worth it.

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Fisty_Mcbeefstick@reddit

If you want an honest response, don't bother learning web development. Focus on something else. The profession is dead because of AI and SaaS (Wix etc ..). Focus more on LLM and ML development. Or just switch careers. I did. I'm a data analyst now, hired to automate things in the healthcare spectrum. Web development is dead.

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Happiest-Soul@reddit

Try it out, and if it's too tough, find other recourses to help or continue what you were learning before and come back to it later.

CS is more theory, while programming is more building applications. CS50x is a great intro to CS, albeit very hard, but it only briefly touches upon building an application.

Since you like web dev, The Odin Project would get you building stuff.

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DiscipleOfYeshua@reddit

Superb. 100% recommend. Do not be tempted to shortcut. Even if the 12 week course takes a year.

I did x, p, ai. Cannot over-recommend.

Uni, others are struggling (no time to really learn, need submit submit submit then exam, then new term/new subjects), and to me and those who’ve done code before, the lectures are interesting, were the ones asking questions, and enjoying studies and getting more knowledge. Those with no code background are struggling to memorize to pass exams, and using gpt to produce stuff they can’t explain or fix when they need to (which is exactly what my workplace requires from job interviewees...)

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