Computer Science 101 Online from Stanford University By Nick Parlante — Review in 2023

On a lucky day, I found this interview video by WIRED, Stanford Computer Scientist Answers Coding Questions From Twitter. The Stanford teacher, Chris Piech, talked about computer science and he spoke about how if someone is interested in learning programming, Stanford has an intro to computer science 101 for free online. I have known about that course for at least a couple of years but never dared to take it because I assumed it would be too difficult, and also, around that time I was all over the place with my learning in general. Then I pulled the plug and signed up for it right after I finished watching the video!

Now that you know how I came about taking the course and how I ended up facing my fear and just pulled the plug and took it, let me talk about how I went about learning in this course.

First, I wanted the course to be as close as possible to an in-person class or at least a remote class online from Stanford, so after some search I found the official site for the actual class given at Stanford and taught by Ashley Taylor, now if you are living under a rock and do not know whom she is? Well, she is the senior software engineer at Walt Disney. After seeing that, I knew what I had to do. Then I started following along with the in-person class by solving the problems and doing the readings. Heck, at some point I thought I was an actual Stanford student. Nevertheless, I went through the class quickly and wanted that credential but I could not afford to pay $200 for it! So after some searching, I found a way to get the course only for $20, and that was by asking edX for financial assistance which I’m grateful for!

Now is the time for real learning. The course is ten weeks long, but I went through it within 4 or 5 days, yet I put around 12 hours a day into it to finish it quickly. I was doing all the homework from both the actual class and the online practice on edX, so that was some added time, but as I said, I wanted to LEARN and make it as close as it could be to the actual class at Stanford, which I did, yet the only thing I did not have access to was the exams. I wish they were available.

What did I learn?

I learned how computers work and how machine code works because this course was not teaching you how to code even though you will do a decent amount of basic coding in Python, but the goal is to make you understand how the computer works and how hardware and software interact with each other. The course will not be easy if you follow my path to get it done, because you’ll find so many things that need exploring on your own to understand. However, if you stick only to the edX version of the course, it will not be the craziest thing you ever did, and I think with 10 hours total you can get it done, yet I did not do that because I have a chance to learn from the best instructors and the best computer science university on the planet, so I’m not taking that for granted!

Back to what I did learn, I did learn about Data and Storage and Computer Hardware, as well as Artificial intelligence and why Python is used for AI and not any other language that is closer to machine code or at least communicates with the CPU quicker, like the programing language C for example. Then after that, we went into heavier topics like Privacy and Cryptocurrency, as well as Security and how that does play a role in human interaction with the computer and how the computer is stupid and not smart, which was brought up at the start of the course and around the end of it as well.

Now, I want to highlight that some topics, such as Cryptocurrency are outside the scope of the edX course version since the edX version is from 2012 to 2014. However, it is very relevant to today’s world of computing. What is impressive on the instructor’s part is that Nick Parlante the instructor of the course predicted some things to happen in the future, aka today, and they are now actually happening or becoming the norm in our world of computing, and that shows you how profound of a thinking went into the content of the course.

My thoughts on the course? The course is an excellent introduction to computer science, yet if you know a thing or two about programming or computers, I would take the course but do the homework from the actual class at Stanford. You can learn more than you ever thought about computer science. I have been reading about computers since I was 15 years old, and after taking that class, they made more sense for the first time in a long time, and that is saying a lot for the go-to tech guy among my group of geeks. Yet, only one topic I think is out of date and was not something I cared about, and it was the analog and digital input of audio, which I didn’t find interesting for me, but I’m sure some people will love it, also, it was nice to understand how audio works inside a computer machine, so it is a win nonetheless.

Conclusion: The course is excellent. I learned a lot about computers and machine code; it improved my computer lingo, and now I understand many of the things other software engineers talk about. I even took notes from the class, which I have on my computer, and reference them when needed. By the end of the day, you are learning from Nick Parlante, that alone is impressive, and edX is more than willing to give you a discount to take the class for a lower price if you can not pay the whole $200, which right now, I do not think the course is worth $200 but maybe $100, yet that is not relevant as if you want to take it, just ask edX for help, and you’ll get it.

Thank you Chris Piech, for encouraging me indirectly to take the class and thank you Nick Parlante for instructing the course. Also, thank you Ashley Taylor for having the slides available online so I can learn from your keynote slides. Lastly, thank you edX, for giving me the discount, and thank you dear reader for reading till the very end.

Note: Everything written is my own thoughts and ideas. I was not endorsed or encouraged to write or talk about the course in any shape or form.