About this course: Building on the course Programming Fundamentals, this course will teach you how to write code by first planning what your program should do—an important approach for novice and professional programmers. You will learn how to compile and run your program, and then how to test and debug it. This course builds on the Seven Steps you have already learned and provides a framework for systematically testing for problems and fixing them, so you can find and fix problems efficiently.
Who is this class for: This course is for learners who have an interest in learning how to program, for people with no programming experience or for people with some experience who would like to gain solid fundamentals and a deeper understanding of how to program effectively.
Created by: Duke University
Taught by: Andrew D. Hilton, Assistant Professor of the Practice
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Taught by: Genevieve M. Lipp, Adjunct Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering/Mechanical Engineering
Taught by: Anne Bracy, Senior Lecturer
Computer Science, Cornell University
| Basic Info | Course 2 of 4 in the Introduction to Programming in C Specialization |
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 6–8 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Writing Code
In this module, you will learn to write code and do your first assignment in the Practice Programming Environment. You have practiced the first four steps of the Seven Steps in the previous course, and you will review them here before learning Step 5: Translating Your Algorithm to Code. Expert programmers spend most of their time planning before they begin writing code, and you will learn to do the same!
7 videos, 23 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Reading: Planning
- Reading: Revisiting Step 1
- Reading: Revisiting Step 2
- Reading: Step 3: Generalizing Values
- Reading: Step 3: Repetitions
- Reading: Step 3: Conditional Behavior
- Reading: Revisiting Step 4
- Video: Intersection of Two Rectangles
- Practice Quiz: Steps 1–4 Review
- Reading: Translation to Code
- Reading: Translating Algorithm Components
- Video: Translating the Intersection Algorithm to Code
- Reading: Completed Rectangle Intersection Code
- Reading: Top-down Design and Composability
- Reading: Stars Example
- Practice Quiz: Step 5 Concepts
- Reading: Introduction to the Programming Environment
- Video: Introduction to the Programming Environment
- Reading: Using the Practice Programming Environment
- Reading: Solutions to a Few Common Problems
- Reading: UNIX basics
- Reading: More UNIX Commands
- Video: Editing Files with Emacs
- Reading: Emacs
- Reading: Assignment 01_apple
- Reading: Git
- Video: More about Git
- Video: GitHub
- Reading: How Assignments Work in This Course
- Reading: Assignments 02_code1 and 03_code2
- Reading: Next Steps
WEEK 2
Compiling and Running
Now that you know how to plan an algorithm and translate it to code, you need to learn how to compile and run it! You will learn about the compiler, which takes the code you wrote and translates it into instructions a machine can execute, which you can then run. You will also learn about different options you can give the compiler, as well as different ways to run your program that give you debugging information.
8 videos, 17 readings, 3 practice quizzes
- Reading: Compiling Overview
- Reading: Compilation Process
- Reading: Preprocessing
- Practice Quiz: Compiling
- Video: "Hello World"
- Reading: Assignment 04_compile
- Video: Planning isPrime
- Video: Generalizing isPrime
- Video: Translating isPrime to Code
- Reading: Getting Help: man Pages
- Video: Comparing Output with diff
- Reading: Assignment 05_squares
- Reading: More about Macros and Header Files
- Reading: The Actual Compiler
- Reading: Compiler Errors
- Reading: Assembling
- Reading: Linking
- Practice Quiz: Compilation Process
- Video: Build Tool: make
- Reading: Make
- Video: Compiling with a Makefile
- Reading: Fancier make Options
- Reading: Running Your Program
- Reading: valgrind
- Reading: Compiler Options
- Practice Quiz: Make and Valgrind
- Reading: Assignments 06_rect and 07_retirement
WEEK 3
Testing and debugging
Two skills that are crucial to good programming are testing—finding problems with your code, and debugging—fixing them. In this module you will learn systematic ways to identify problems in your code, as well as how to apply the scientific method to fix your program when you do find a bug.
5 videos, 17 readings, 3 practice quizzes
- Reading: Black Box Testing
- Video: Test-driven Development
- Reading: Practical Tips for Designing Test Cases
- Reading: White Box Testing
- Reading: Generating Test Cases
- Reading: Asserts
- Reading: Code Review
- Video: Code Review
- Practice Quiz: Testing
- Reading: Assignments 08_testing and 09_testing
- Reading: Step 7: Debugging
- Reading: The Scientific Method
- Reading: Accept or Reject Your Hypothesis?
- Practice Quiz: Debugging
- Video: Finding Problems with Valgrind
- Reading: Intro to gdb
- Reading: Getting Started with gdb
- Reading: Investigating the State of Your Program
- Reading: Controlling Execution
- Video: Gathering Information with gdb
- Reading: Watchpoints
- Reading: Signals
- Practice Quiz: gdb
- Reading: Assignment 10_gdb
WEEK 4
Project
In this module you will begin the project you will complete over the course of the rest of the specialization. At the end of each course, you will write a piece of a program that will calculate the odds of different poker hands winning with a Monte Carlo simulation—a way to calculate complicated probabilities by generating random data.
2 videos, 3 readings
- Video: Poker Project Roadmap
- Reading: Assignment c2prj_cards
- Reading: Rules of Poker
- Reading: Assignment c3prj_testing
Practice Programming Environment
Graded: Practice Programming Environment
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from Your Peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
Creators
Duke University
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
Pricing
| Purchase Course | |
|---|---|
| Access to course materials | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Available |
Ratings and Reviews
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The course description says that it's aimed at beginners and that has proven to be true. Most quizzes and assignments can be answered directly from the material presented in the course. Basic troubleshooting strategies are presented and the student is introduced to gnu gdb. The course forum is active with a very high instructor participation rate.
The only mark against taking this course would be the Coursera platform itself. The forums are full of messages of people completing assignments and not being given credit for it. Then the instructors have to work behind the scenes with Coursera to get them to correct their error.