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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose by Princeton University

4.7
stars
1,116 ratings

About the Course

The basis for education in the last millennium was “reading, writing, and arithmetic;” now it is reading, writing, and computing. Learning to program is an essential part of the education of every student, not just in the sciences and engineering, but in the arts, social sciences, and humanities, as well. Beyond direct applications, it is the first step in understanding the nature of computer science’s undeniable impact on the modern world. This course covers the first half of our book Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach (the second half is covered in our Coursera course Computer Science: Algorithms, Theory, and Machines). Our intent is to teach programming to those who need or want to learn it, in a scientific context. We begin by introducing basic programming elements such as variables, conditionals, loops, arrays, and I/O. Next, we turn to functions, introducing key concepts such as recursion, modular programming, and code reuse. Then, we present a modern introduction to object-oriented programming. We use the Java programming language and teach basic skills for computational problem solving that are applicable in many modern computing environments. Proficiency in Java is a goal, but we focus on fundamental concepts in programming, not Java per se. All the features of this course are available for free. It does not offer a certificate upon completion....

Top reviews

VS

May 13, 2019

Beautiful course. I am a software developer with 10+ years of experience in programming and have never realized depth of actual MATH behind all that I do. Thank you Robert Sedgewick, you are the BEST.

PK

Aug 6, 2023

This was a very great course to learn a powerful programming language, techniques used. This has changed my life for better and am looking forward to a career change into the programming world.

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101 - 125 of 327 Reviews for Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose

By Alex K

Dec 14, 2020

The course was perfect for my needs, which were to get acquaintance with Java programing.

The course is built in a step-by-step manner, allowing people with no background at all to be able to learn and understand the course materials.

Great course!

Highly recommended.

By Aleksei V

May 6, 2020

The course itself is great - it is easy to comprehend and the amount of useful information is immense. Some typos are present in the materials, namely on slides. Overall, I can recommend the course to anyone interested in serious programming learning.

By Zhang Y

May 10, 2020

I am new to Java, and am glad to have chosen this course as my java introduction course. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed doing all the assignments! Now I think I can read and write simple Java code, and have a brief understanding about OOP.

By Stefan M

Jun 20, 2020

Very good introductory course to JAVA; completing this course will help with the more advanced course Algorithms I and II since it exposes the necessary JAVA language features and makes you familiar with the autograder functionality.

By Petar M

Dec 14, 2019

This was great course with very enjoyable delivery. The reference to the Book was very helpful if you want to learn more. I liked the heavy inclusion of intersting extercies. I want to see the more in debt next levels taking place.

By itamar G

Dec 10, 2020

excellent course. Really helpful in understanding the basics of programming. although the assignment in the recursion was a major step up in the difficulty level, causing a mild frustration. other than that - Great job!

By Haroldo J

Feb 14, 2023

Excelente curso. Apesar de saber e usar python no trabalho, muitos conceitos de programação eu nunca aprendi da forma como esse curso aborda. Muito legal como uma reintrodução à ciência da computação em linguagem Java.

By Mark P

May 1, 2022

The lectures are well organises and presented which give me a large motivation. I learn a lot in this course so that my problem solving skills are much better and programming concepts are much clearer to me as well.

By Michał Ł

Sep 5, 2021

Excellent course. I gained better understanding of java as well as more general programming skills that I can use in other programming languages. Great option for anyone who is starting his/her programming journey.

By Rusli U

May 6, 2023

Up-to-date case study

1. visually interactive an interesting lecture material

2. usefull tools so students can be more participate in every particular lecture

3. applicable and an "up-to-date" example yet simple

By Rudrajit B

Aug 24, 2023

I am really grateful to this course which have helped me get a whole new perspective to programming and computational thinking. It has brought a great change in me. Thank you for the wisdom and encouragement.

By Alex R

Jan 10, 2021

Very enjoyable class. Would definitely recommend to someone interested in Java programming. Also, for anyone like me who intends on majoring in Computer Science and would like a jump start before college.

By Mostafa H

Jun 25, 2020

What i most liked about this course. Is how the instructors showed us what those little programs we built. Can be used to build further programs and its application in different fields in Computer Science

By Lok T N

Oct 18, 2019

The course is awesome. It really teaches me the basics of Java programming. Now I know what an object is.

The programming assignments are very interesting and really make you think. I like them very much.

By Alinaswe C

Nov 13, 2021

The Course was fantastic and really fun! The lecturer was top-notch and He made the course really amazing. Thank you Cousera and Princeton university for this wonderful course, it really helped me a lot!

By Paul K

Aug 7, 2023

This was a very great course to learn a powerful programming language, techniques used. This has changed my life for better and am looking forward to a career change into the programming world.

By John W

Nov 27, 2022

Very useful and helpful course for beginner in Java. I learned Python before and this course is much more difficult, but it does help a lot for you to step further into CS world.

By HIEN G T

Nov 26, 2021

This is my first course in Coursera. If you are beginner, you should watch videos, read the booksite and the book that covering this course. It simply needs a lot of hard work !

By Ica H

Oct 23, 2021

It's easy to follow. And all the programming tasks help me to understand the content better. It's an friendly CS course with amazingly high quality. Thank you Professor!

By Praveen K

Oct 10, 2020

Very useful for programmers, especially beginners. Examples taken to explain the concepts are real-time application oriented which reinforce importance of the concepts!!

By Emmanuel O

Oct 9, 2022

Good introduction to programming and covers all basic aspects of programming with an object oriented language. Good knowledge to take to learn others like Python.

By Eddy P

Jan 28, 2021

Definitely a great course abound with lots of supporting materials including informative website, book, guidance and auto-graders for each programming assignment.

By Ply P

Nov 29, 2022

Programming tasks are difficult, some of them took me days to solve, I almost dropped out of the course. But it's a pleasure when you get the grade to pass.

By Amrit D

Aug 30, 2020

Fantastic course with a strong focus on assignments.Very helpful regardless of programming experience. The professor is very nice and provides key insights.

By Debasis B

Jul 24, 2020

Really fun and challenging exercises! Had a great time solving them. The book site a lot more interesting problems and students should check it out.