Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python
About this Course
This course is the first of a two-course sequence: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, and Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science. Together, they are designed to help people with no prior exposure to computer science or programming learn to think computationally and write programs to tackle useful problems. Some of the people taking the two courses will use them as a stepping stone to more advanced computer science courses, but for many it will be their first and last computer science courses. This run features lecture videos, lecture exercises, and problem sets using Python 3.5. Even if you previously took the course with Python 2.7, you will be able to easily transition to Python 3.5 in future courses, or enroll now to refresh your learning. Since these courses may be the only formal computer science courses many of the students take, we have chosen to focus on breadth rather than depth. The goal is to provide students with a brief introduction to many topics so they will have an idea of what is possible when they need to think about how to use computation to accomplish some goal later in their career. That said, they are not "computation appreciation" courses. They are challenging and rigorous courses in which the students spend a lot of time and effort learning to bend the computer to their willCreated by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Level: Introductory
Related Online Courses
Introducing Natural Language Processing is part one of the Text Analytics with Python professional certificate (or you can study it as a stand-alone course). This first course introduces the core... more
Blockchain is a constantly evolving technology. Essentially, it is a decentralized, distributed, digital ledger consisting of records called blocks that are used to record transactions across many... more
Vulnerabilities can occur at any stage of software development, making it critical for developers to write secure code and maintain a secured development environment and the platform it runs on. In... more
A basic understanding of the assembly language with RISC-V is vital for hardware-related programming. Tasks like debugging and identifying performance-critical program sections are easier to... more
This quantum computing course explores the basic design principles of today's quantum computer systems. In this course, students will learn to work with the IBM Qiskit software tools to write... more