If you’re interested in transitioning into a tech career, it’s important to start by learning the fundamentals of computer science. Here are some of the best university computer science courses that will help cover the basics, including programming with Python, data structures and algorithms, and essential tools for software engineering.
Stanford University’s Computer Science 101 course offers a beginner-friendly introduction into computer science and touches on what computers can and cannot do, how computer hardware and software work, loops and logic, abstraction, logic, bugs, internet operation, and computer security.
The University of Leeds’ course called An Introduction to Logic for Computer Science helps students understand propositional logic and modeling with logic which are fundamental to problem-solving, algorithm design, and more.
Harvard University’s CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science, taught by Prof. David J Malan and team, is a popular course among aspiring developers. The course covers programming concepts, algorithmic thinking, problem-solving, data structures in algorithms, Python, SQL, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
MIT’s Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python introduces programming fundamentals using Python. Subjects covered include the notion of computation, Python, testing, debugging, algorithmic complexity, and data structures.
Finally, The Missing Semester of Your CS Education is a free course from MIT that provides learning on tools often used by software engineers like bash scripting and other command-line utilities. Topics covered in this course include shell tools and scripting, the Vim editor, data wrangling, command-line environment, version control with Git, and debugging and profiling.
While this list of courses is not exhaustive, they provide a comprehensive introduction to various facets of computer science, particularly useful if you plan to study independently. These courses could help you gain the skills needed to secure a job in the tech sector.
