An introductory computer science course from Udacity that teaches programming basics in Python, building toward a web crawler or search-style bot. It assumes no prior programming knowledge.

Commenters repeatedly point to it as a free, solid starting point for absolute beginners, with one saying it gives a solid foundation and teaches critical thinking about code.

On Reddit (14)

1. Recommendswolfhuntrar/learnprogramming2018in “How to start programming?”

   Udacity.com has a great CS101 course for free as well as Python, Java and Javascript: Also - this is a great read for new programmers https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-i-went-from-newbie-to-software-engineer-in-9-months-while-working-full-time-460bd8485847 ​

2. Recommendsmisplaced_my_pantsr/learnprogramming2015in “After the basics of python,What should i learn next?”

   Udacity has a ton of courses. You should definitely see if you've covered everything in their CS101 course and then check out the debugging and testing courses as well as anything Peter Norvig taught. CS programs tend to have you take a data structures course once you have the basics of a language…

3. RecommendsDrakajir/learnprogramming2014in “Is it worth it to pay the money to subscribe to CodeSchool.com?”▲ 2

   It depends on how far in you are. Code school seems to focus on very few subjects, but have a high production value per course. They move at a faster pace and assume you have a basic foundation of programming. Team Treehouse is more for beginner/intermediate and have a wide pool of subjects to…

4. RecommendsFromageballr/webdev2014in “Trying to get into Web Development but feeling overwhelmed by all the things to learn.”▲ 2

   A lot of these answers are general "work your ass off"/"pick a project"/etc, but it's hard to become obsessed with a project when you've overwhelmed by where to even start. I was in this position, I kept doing different tutorials on codecademy and others on different things but didn't feel like I…

5. RecommendsCinematicChiefr/programming2014in “Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years”▲ 4

   You're looking forward too far. I've been learning for the last couple years on an off which has helped me with general programming logic. Recently I've buckled down to start learning a language. Just learn something every day no matter how small it may seem. Start with Udacity's CS101 course or…

6. RecommendsIamTheFreshmakerr/programming2013in “PuzzleScript: a very simple and very clever rule-based HTML5 game engine”▲ 2

   This is fantastic for algos and Python and is a 101 course: https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101 And the problem with OO in Java is that the classes don't behave right... Fuck it. You're ahead of the curve the way you are talking already. Muddle through, get the grade. It's a great conversation…

7. Recommendsjesyspar/learnprogramming2013in “I Need to Know”▲ 1

   It, at the very least, takes considerable effort. You can try following some Udacity courses -- CS101 assumes no prior knowledge. However, expecting this to come easily would be a mistake.

8. Recommendsobfuscater/learnprogramming2013in “I want to create a social network like Facebook, except simpler. Where do I begin?”▲ 1

   As a beginner I think you need a highly-structed learning method, so I would recommend You check out Udacity's Web Development class. As a prerequisite you should take Udacity's CS101 class.

9. Recommendsminorminerr/Python2012in “Ask r/python: Making a web bot, where do I start?”▲ 9

   Check out udacity.com, the CS101 course is to build a web scraping bot.

10. RecommendsSmartAssUsernamer/learnprogramming2012in “Going into programming”▲ 5

    Go for Python as a first language. It's...it's oh so easy, it's unbelievable. I'd recommend http://www.udacity.com CS101 As for learning, it's simple, practice, practice, practice. There's no shortcuts or workarounds.

11. Recommendsleftplusrightr/learnprogramming2012in “What are the best resources to learn web development?”▲ 3

    Trading Website Community Project - 1 - Introduction This is a walkthru series so it will help you learn how to build websites. If you want to use PHP/Mysql then there are other videos on his channel which can help you. Also, Udacity has a great Web Application Engineering course going on right…

12. Mentionsthatkidcalhounr/learnprogramming2018in “Anybody wanna learn python with me?”▲ 1

    I am interested but have just started the CS101 course on Udacity .. will check out this one too down for the discord

13. Mentionsjacktherustlerr/learnprogramming2015in “What is the consensus with programmers about Udacity?”▲ 1

    So it's a little late, but I thought I could help you out because I've taken quite a few course there now. So first, the courses I've taken. Thus far, I've taken CS101, HTML/CSS, Responsive Web Design, JS Basics, jQuery, Git, Canvas, and OOJS. I've also taken part of the algorithms and programming…

14. MentionsAdarkeideir/learnprogramming2012in “I am in need of some extreme guidance...”▲ 1

    I would really like that, if I had the time. Unfortunately, I am in the class now. I was looking for guidance now. I was hoping Reddit would have some websites to help me get a better foothold than what I currently know. I will definitely look into the CS101 course, at Udacity, and I appreciate…

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