Functional Programming in Scala Specialization

In this course you will learn how to apply the functional programming style in the design of larger applications. You'll get to know important new functional programming concepts, from lazy evaluation to structuring your libraries using monads. We'll work on larger and more involved examples, from state space exploration to random testing to discrete circuit simulators. You’ll also learn some best practices on how to write good Scala code in the real world. Several parts of this course deal with the question how functional programming interacts with mutable state. We will explore the consequences of combining functions and state. We will also look at purely functional alternatives to mutable state, using infinite data structures or functional reactive programming. Learning Outcomes. By the end of this course you will be able to: - recognize and apply design principles of functional programs, - design functional libraries and their APIs, - competently combine functions and state in one program, - understand reasoning techniques for programs that combine functions and state, - write simple functional reactive applications. Recommended background: You should have at least one year programming experience. Proficiency with Java or C# is ideal, but experience with other languages such as C/C++, Python, Javascript or Ruby is also sufficient. You should have some familiarity using the command line. This course is intended to be taken after Functional Programming Principles in Scala: https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1.

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

Approx. 12 hours to complete

Suggested: 5 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English

Skills you will gain

Functional ProgrammingData StructureSoftware TestingR Programming

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

Approx. 12 hours to complete

Suggested: 5 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

1

Section

8 hours to complete

For Expressions and Monads

We'll start by revisiting some concepts that we have learned from Principles of Functional Programming in Scala; collections, pattern matching, and functions. We'll then touch on for-comprehensions, a powerful way in Scala to traverse a list, process it, and return a new list. We'll see how to do queries with for-comprehensions as well as how the for-comprehension is "desugared" into calls to higher-order functions by the Scala compiler. Finally, we'll discuss what monads are, and how to verify that the monad laws are satisfied for a number of examples....

10 videos (Total 164 min), 11 readings, 1 quiz

10 videos

Tools Setup for Linux22m

Tools Setup for Mac OS X21m

Tools for Setup for Windows18m

Tutorial: Working on the Programming Assignments8m

Recap: Functions and Pattern Matching19m

Recap: Collections12m

Lecture 1.1 - Queries with For7m

Lecture 1.2 - Translation of For11m

Lecture 1.3 - Functional Random Generators19m

Lecture 1.4 - Monads20m

11 readings

Troubleshooting10m

Grading Policy10m

Tools Setup10m

Sbt Tutorial10m

Eclipse Tutorial10m

Intellij IDEA Tutorial10m

Scala Tutorial10m

Cheat Sheet10m

Reactive Cheat Sheet10m

Scala Style Guide10m

Learning Resources10m

2

Section

7 hours to complete

Lazy Evaluation

This week we'll revisit performance issues caused by combinatorial search, and we'll discover an important concept in functional programming that can these issues: laziness. We'll also learn a little bit about proofs on trees; in particular, we'll see how to extend structural induction to trees....

5 videos (Total 80 min), 2 quizzes

5 videos

Lecture 2.1 - Structural Induction on Trees15m

Lecture 2.2 - Streams12m

Lecture 2.3 - Lazy Evaluation11m

Lecture 2.4 - Computing with Infinite Sequences9m

Lecture 2.5 - Case Study: the Water Pouring Problem31m

3

Section

7 hours to complete

Functions and State

This week, we'll learn about state and side-effects. Through a rich example, we'll learn programming patterns for managing state in larger programs. We'll also learn about for-loops and while-loops in Scala....

6 videos (Total 72 min), 2 quizzes

6 videos

Lecture 3.1 - Functions and State15m

Lecture 3.2 - Identity and Change8m

Lecture 3.3 - Loops8m

Lecture 3.4 - Extended Example: Discrete Event Simulation10m

Lecture 3.5 - Discrete Event Simulation: API and Usage10m

Lecture 3.6 - Discrete Event Simulation: Implementation and Test18m

4

Section

8 hours to complete

Timely Effects

This week we'll learn a number of important programming patterns via examples, starting with the observer pattern, and then going on to functional reactive programming. We'll learn how latency can be modeled as an effect, and how latency can be handled with Scala's monadic futures. We'll learn the important combinators on futures as well as how they can be composed to build up rich and responsive services....

11 videos (Total 109 min), 2 quizzes

11 videos

Lecture 4.1 - Imperative Event Handling: The Observer Pattern12m

Lecture 4.2 - Functional Reactive Programming20m

Lecture 4.3 - A Simple FRP Implementation19m

Lecture 4.4 - Latency as an Effect 17m

Lecture 4.5 - Latency as an Effect 212m

Lecture 4.6 - Combinators on Futures 19m

Lecture 4.7 - Combinators on Futures 27m

Lecture 4.8 - Composing Futures 14m

Lecture 4.9 - Implementation of flatMap on Future3m

Lecture 4.10 - Composing Futures 28m

Conclusion4m

Instructor

Martin Odersky

Professor

About École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
What will I get if I pay for this course?
If you pay for this course, you will have access to all of the features and content you need to earn a Course Certificate. If you complete the course successfully, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. Note that the Course Certificate does not represent official academic credit from the partner institution offering the course.
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Functional Programming in Scala Specialization