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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Programming Fundamentals by Duke University

4.7
stars
6,733 ratings

About the Course

Programming is an increasingly important skill, whether you aspire to a career in software development, or in other fields. This course is the first in the specialization Introduction to Programming in C, but its lessons extend to any language you might want to learn. This is because programming is fundamentally about figuring out how to solve a class of problems and writing the algorithm, a clear set of steps to solve any problem in its class. This course will introduce you to a powerful problem-solving process—the Seven Steps—which you can use to solve any programming problem. In this course, you will learn how to develop an algorithm, then progress to reading code and understanding how programming concepts relate to algorithms....

Top reviews

ER

Aug 13, 2020

The instruction provided in this course are very clear and anyone who can learn coding by this course. But the course has more readable content for you to take notes and reading it may take more time.

MK

Jan 27, 2021

It's a very good as a beginning with programing language. It helped me to think like a compiler and how it exactly works. I've finally understood the saying "Everything in computer works in logic".♥

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1 - 25 of 1,730 Reviews for Programming Fundamentals

By Luie J

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May 3, 2018

It's like reading a book. There is a lot of written material, and in the videos the instructors just repeat the the things we just read. I didn't feel that the videos contributed much to the learning process. I guess that I expected something else.

By Matthew L

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Jun 26, 2019

The description says this course is for beginners to programming, but you are expected to know more than the instructors to pass some of the quizzes, and there is no help for your incorrect answers. Do not pay for this course unless you know you can pass the quizzes, especially the quizzes for week 3. They are extremely difficult and not designed for learning.

By Omar B

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Nov 3, 2018

So many readings. I need more videos

By Aliki D

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Jun 30, 2019

Simple stuff made complicated and no logic in a lot of questions.

Requiring to guess the logic (guess the algorithm) with which the results are created help neither to learn programming nor to be better at it. In a work environment, the client never requests from the developer to guess the logic with which the numbers are created.

As a beginner, I had a very hard time to understand the material and to deliver results. A lot of personal research in online material and videos was required in order to understand the Beginner material provided by this course.

I wouldn't recommend it for true beginners.

By Val G

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Apr 21, 2018

The quizzes for this course are grossly unfair. They take on the character of math tests. I've hit the wall and I'm dropping out after week one. At this point Im guessing answers and I am intelligent and trying hard. I assume the quizzes are intended to filter people out. Well, congrtulations, you filtered me out.

By Ravi K

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Jul 21, 2019

If you are new to C programming and know nothing about it then its amazing course to get started with C programming. It completely felt like being spoon-fed for the material taught in this course.

By Tamjid L

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Aug 31, 2020

I had no background in programming before attending this course and I had my own doubts on learning a new language online. But trust me, this course is very well-built and it was a cake walk for me.

By Samrat P

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Apr 24, 2020

Whether you are new to programming or an experienced guy, you should absolutely opt for this course because it helps to build a strong base with the basic but most important concepts in programming.

By Seth H

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Apr 21, 2019

I love the focus of this first course in the specialization is about problem solving and developing a mindset for programming. The course is well thought out and concepts are clearly explained!

By Mahmoud K

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Jan 28, 2021

It's a very good as a beginning with programing language. It helped me to think like a compiler and how it exactly works. I've finally understood the saying "Everything in computer works in logic".♥

By Felisa W

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Jan 17, 2018

Very difficult! Definitely not for beginners.

By Roman S

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Apr 5, 2018

Bad structure. Can't recommend. Price is to high for this poor quality of content.

By Hansani B

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May 9, 2020

I enrolled to this course with very high expectations as to the fact that I can learn the C language, but I was disappointed when I got know that the teacher(s) were in fact teaching things which were basically IQ tests. There were some parts in the teachings that were logically "broken" as well.

The teacher(s) seemed to "show off" by making very simple things extremely complex. Mind you, this course is for beginners, but you can't even pass certain assignments if you don't even have at least a slight bit of knowledge of the C language. If you were planning on learning everything from scratch, I think this course would be useless and you should look elsewhere.

Therefore, I have decided to not participate in this course due to those matters.

By Mariam S

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Apr 9, 2019

I would like to know more general things like how programming works, how frameworks, libraries work and so on.

By Douglas N

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May 7, 2018

This class is not for beginners. You need some concept of programming before starting this. Otherwise you will be seriously swamped by the jumps that are taken from week 1 to week 4. For some reason the course does not provide explanations for the quiz/practice quiz questions. This was puzzling since obviously they knew the right answers. It left a huge gap for learning and made further lectures more difficult since past issues were not completely explained. I have a background in computer science and am fluent in VBA. There are complexities that a day one programmer will struggle to overcome.

By Anil B

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Aug 4, 2019

This course helps to develop logical thinking & helps to understand how program would work before writing actual program. The basics of Programming are explained in detail with description & Videos

By Arthur M

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Apr 7, 2019

Really great course. Took this as a refresher. I feel that the content of this course was significantly higher quality than the programming tuition I received in first semester of university.

By Sebastian H L

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Jun 3, 2018

They tried to force me to pay for the course to hand in my exam, but i just wanted to learn for free. this was not made clear to me that i would not be able to learn with feedback without having to pay.

By Tim K

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May 10, 2018

Course requires you to upgrade to the paid version before you can complete week 1.

By DEEKSHANT G

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Apr 19, 2020

This was an online noncredible course on Programming Fundamentals authorized by Duke University and offered through Coursera. This was one of the most useful courses to enhance the knowledge and it did its work to improve my programming skills. I passed this course with 100% grade marks. That itself shows my interest in the field of programming. This module introduces a powerful process for solving any programming problem with the seven stepstools. This course taught me how to approach a programming problem methodically so that we get complete absolute correct algorithm in minimum time. By the end of this course, I was able to read and understand the code with functions, conditional statements, iteration, and other fundamental techniques. Here I learned about types beyond integers, both their conceptual representation and Hardware representation in binary. I learned basic data types, non-number types, and complex, custom types, as well as some important caveats to avoid type-related programming mistakes. This was the great opportunity to have for your future time.

By Tete M

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Jun 27, 2019

Great way to get the fundamentals of programming when you don't have formal training in a BA or similar, but are working in Data Science or related fields. The explanations are clear and deep enough to give you an idea of where you need to go in your own time.

By Evander R

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Aug 14, 2020

The instruction provided in this course are very clear and anyone who can learn coding by this course. But the course has more readable content for you to take notes and reading it may take more time.

By David D

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Aug 21, 2019

After perusing older books on program design and flow-charting, my takeaway was that I couldn't get a handle on the logic flow required to create an algorithm that involved branching and iteration. Then I thought that I should also devote some study to Discrete Mathematics to have the foundation that is inherent in a computer science curriculum. While this background information is useful, I lacked the ability to tie it all together while plodding along on my own. It was the same feeling of defeat that I have felt before at first blush. As I thought back along past learning experiences, I still stubbornly insisted that a good teacher could teach anyone a difficult subject with the right approach. First, I heard about Code Academy and Udemy and was drawn to a Unix course given my dabbling with Linux opensource. But then I stumbled across Programming Fundamentals and its claim that their method would work. At present I have abandoned the Unix course and feel awful about being a quitter. However, this course offers a systematic approach or essentially an algorithm or series of steps to create programming algorithms and then proceeds to address how to flesh it out in C code. Intuition suggests that the actual pedagogy might come from thinking inductively like you would in Discrete Math going from an instance and then generalizing, .i.e, if true for k then k+1 then you can reason by induction as you would a mathematical proof. Nevertheless, the framework upon which this approach is based is like the Wizard of Oz off in the wings while I just enjoy tapping my intellect and thinking there is no place better than the light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm glad my personal quest to realize the process of algorithm to code can finally manifest itself to some degree. Thank you so much for creating an instructional marvel. Kudos!

By satyajeet r

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Feb 5, 2020

This course is amazing and there are many things of the programming fundamental that I have learned through this course . This course proved to be good for those who want to learn c from zero .

By Aakash M

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Jul 3, 2020

This course teaches you all the stuff from the scratch, literally from scratch. Have some patience and do some hustle and a lot of logical thinking.

Its a great course for beginners! Loved it!