Last year, Harvard launched a new free online course: CS50P, Harvard’s Introduction to Programming with Python.

This course is taught by Prof. David Malan, who also instructs Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science, a course featured on Class Central‘s list of Best Online Courses of All Time.

The Python course shares many of the same strengths as its Computer Science counterpart: a comprehensive curriculum, numerous coding assignments, and even the opportunity to earn a free certificate of completion.

Now, let’s dive into an overview of Harvard’s Introduction to Programming with Python, and how you can earn a free certificate like the one above.

• Approach
• Curriculum
• Assignments
• Free Certificate: How to Earn One
• More Free Certificates

Approach

When I took CS50, I remember being impressed by how engaging it was. Most online courses simply involve an instructor talking into a camera or providing a voiceover for slides. While this can be an effective learning tool, it can be a bit dull…

CS50 was more like a show. Prof. Malan would pace the stage in front of a live audience, filmed from multiple angles, explaining concepts at a consistent yet easy-to-follow pace, live-coding his way through examples, and taking student questions.

This show-like approach led CS50, the most popular on-campus course at Harvard, to become one of the most popular online courses ever, with over 4.8 million learners. Fortunately, Harvard’s new Python course, CS50P, retains the same strengths.

Curriculum

One of the great aspects of this new course is that it doesn’t have any prerequisites: it truly serves as an introduction to programming and Python, designed specifically for complete beginners.

The course runs over a period of 9 weeks, with the typical week consisting of a single 90-minute lecture and a problem set. And it hits the ground running. Within 20 seconds of the start of the first lecture, Prof. Malan will be introducing the most fundamental programming tool: the code editor.

In terms of content, the course is a rather comprehensive survey of Python programming. It starts with the basics, such as variables and conditionals, and works its way up the ladder of abstraction to discuss more involved subjects, such as object-oriented programming.

Among others, the course covers the following topics:

• Variables and data structures for storing them, such as lists.
• Conditionals, to to do different things when different conditions are met.
• Functions, to package programming logic and make it reusable.
• Loops, to run lines of code repeatedly — notably, over each element of a list.
• Libraries, to extend Python functionality via ready-made software packages.

In the final lecture, the course also touches on concepts that give Python character, such as list comprehensions, generators, lambdas, and tuple unpacking, to name a few.

By the end of the course, you’ll be able to confidently say that you know how to program in Python.

Assignments

But knowing a language conceptually is one thing. Being able to put it into practice is another. That’s why coding assignments are essential. But in my experience, that’s an aspect that many online course don’t cover well.

Coding assignments are often behind a paywall. Sometimes, they’re available but require setting up a local environment. This can be tricky, especially if instructions are outdated, which isn’t rare, because software keeps evolving but many courses run on “autopilot”.

Harvard’s Python course cuts through that by letting learners access all the assignments for free and conveniently complete them through an in-browser code editor. The assignments take the form of weekly problem sets designed to contextualize and reinforce the concepts learned throughout the week.

Problem sets typically involve five or so problems, allowing you to put into practice different facets of Python. Among others, the course includes the following problems:

• Unit testing: Writing tests to preempt or eliminate bugs in your programs.
• Data processing: Creating a program for reading and formatting a text dataset.
• Form validation: Using regex to validate forms, like websites often do.
• PDF generation: Generating PDF files programmatically with images and text.
• Class definition: Fleshing out a class modeling a cookie jar and its interactions.

This last problem is a playful way of practicing OOP, a popular programming paradigm that you’ll likely want to further explore. I think that’s one of the main strengths of this Harvard course: it will prepare you to tackle more advanced courses, about Python and beyond.

Finally, in the last week of the course, you’ll tackle an open-ended Python project.

Free Certificate: How to Earn One

Years ago, upon finishing a course, you’d often receive a free certificate of completion. But in their quest for profitability, online course platforms stopped offering free certificates, favoring paid alternatives. In my experience, free course certificates are very rare nowadays.

Fortunately, Harvard’s Python course goes against the grain. Besides being entirely free in terms of learning content, it also offers a free certificate of completion. But figuring out how to earn the free certificate can be confusing, because the course is offered via two platforms:

• EdX: This is the platform many of you will be familiar with. But edX hasn’t offered free certificates in a while. Instead, when you enroll in the course on edX, you’ll be given the option to purchase a verified certificate for $199.
• Harvard OpenCourseWare (OCW): This is the platform set up by Prof. Malan and his team, where you’ll get a free certificate once you complete the course.

Note that the course on Harvard OCW and edX are exactly the same, including all the assignments. The only notable difference is that on Harvard OCW, the certificate is free and doesn’t require ID-verification.

To unlock the free certificate, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to the CS50P page on Harvard OCW.
2. Complete each week’s coursework — in particular:
   1. All problem sets with at least 70%.
   2. The final project with at least 70%.
3. Unlock your free certificate.

Note that on Harvard OCW, you won’t need to enroll in the course per se. Lectures are readily available. Instead, you’ll set up a CS50 account via GitHub to submit your assignments, see your grades, and unlock your certificate. Don’t worry, it’s a one-time setup, and it’s all explained in the first assignment, Problem Set 0.

More Free Certificates

If you don’t find what you need in the course list below, browse Class Central’s catalog of over 150K courses or visit our thematic collections:

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You can find all the Class Central free certificate articles here.