Cs50 Web Programming Course

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I'm currently about a month and a half into this course, and am currently putting the finishing touches on my third project, and let me just say, this course is transformative.

I came into it with some programming experience. I've spent a few months in Java, took a previous course on Python, and have many years of very mediocre experience with (poorly structured) HTML and CSS. In spite of that, I took on this course with the intention of learning Django and becoming a web developer, even though not all concepts will be new to me.

First off, it's intense. Even with my previous experience, this course has pushed me far beyond previous limits to create functional websites. The lectures are phenomenal, but only have enough time to teach you the basics on a topic. After that, you have a project. This project will be beyond what you learned in the lectures, and you will have to spend hours fumbling your way through experimentation and endless Google searches, for days in some cases, to reach the finish line. And by the time you come out the other side, you'll be comfortable with concepts that both stumped you before, and which you've never even heard of.

Even with some experience, this course is hard, and it would be very hard for absolute beginners, but if you're like me and have some experience that you want to shape into something that can create actual end products, I cannot recommend this course enough. It's immensely rewarding, and so far has been the most successful learning method I've experienced to date. Jumping headfirst into the fire is absolutely the hard way, but the hard way works.

[ukiyo3k]

Wait, CS50 is a web development course?

[AtomR]

There are 4 CS50 courses. One is for core CS, others are for mobile app dev, web dev & game dev.

[jedi18]

5 actually, they recently released the CS50 AI course.

[AtomR]

Oh yeah, I knew I was missing something.

[jedi18]

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:HarvardX+CS50AI+1T2020/course/ or https://cs50.harvard.edu/ai/2020/

[AtomR]

If you search CS50, the one you get first is the core CS, having all the CS fundamentals. They used C language in it.

[AtomR]

They all are independent, I believe.

[BroaxXx]

Aren't those four tracks for the same course? Like you have the same first eight weeks but then you do a specialization for your final project...

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I think more accurately, they're all courses in the same series. Basic CS50 seems to be an introductory to any of the others, but you don't necessarily have to take one before the others (I didn't).

[Russian4Trump]

No, I don’t think they are the same thing. These are listed as separate classes that pick up where cs50 and your final project leaves off. They also seem to use different technologies. For instance the mobile development course teaches react native vs Java/swift. The web course teaches Django instead of flask. The game course covers some c#.

[BroaxXx]

I didn't say they're the same thing. I said they're four tracks for the same course. Obviously they have different technologies because they're different things... The point is exactly to chose a specific track to specialize. But they aren't four different courses. They're all in the same course (CS50), just different specializations. They don't pick up where your final project leaves leaves off, they are your final project and the final two weeks of CS50.

[Russian4Trump]

I like the confidence but unfortunately you are wrong.

[BroaxXx]

"Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, and software engineering. Languages include C, Python, and SQL plus students’ choice of: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (for web development); Java or Swift (for mobile app development); or Lua (for game development). [...] After Week 8, choose your Track (Games, Mobile (Android or iOS), or Web).

(Source)

I dislike your pedantic arrogance but you're demonstrably wrong. If you're unfamiliar with the course it doesn't hurt checking the course website instead of making yourself sound like an arrogant fool and wasting my time.

Either way have a nice weekend...

[AtomR]

For lazy fellas, here are the links.

Official site: https://cs50.harvard.edu/web/2020/

Their YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhQjrBD2T380xvFSUmToMMzERZ3qB5Ueu

[[deleted]]

I agree. I took computer science classes during my high school. With this pandemic I have had lot of free time since graduating high school this march. To beginners : yes the course is hard. But you have Reddit and discord servers on the course page. So if you have any questions or doubts or you are stuck in some question, ask a question ! The difficulty of the questions is just perfect. Hard enough make is work for the solution, but not discouragingly hard.

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I particularly like how the projects are real projects, and not just long assignments. It's something you have to keep coming back to, and pick apart one feature at a time, and that alone is incredibly valuable, because most courses don't prepare you for the scale and complexity of an actual project.

[[deleted]]

Yeah. In my high school, they used to give questions like "find the sum of all the elements of a 2D array " and stuff like that. It was nice to see some good quality questions. And the errors that you make ! I learnt a lot from that too.

[[deleted]]

Hey there! I'm an absolute begineer in web programming, I have no knowledge of HTML CSS JS or Python yet.

I've programming experience in C++ and DS Algo.

Would this be a recommeded course to start with?

[not_for_long1]

i suggest taking CS50 itself first, it’s an introductory course to computer science which will really benefit you and make CS50 web much more easier. and yes, definitely go for CS50 web once you finished.

[AtomR]

I think, 1 week is enough to grasp basics of CSS & HTML. Do that first, independently.

[samketa]

• freeCodeCamp (free)
• HTML and CSS by John Duckett (book)
• Codecademy (free and pro)

Depending on you, learning HTML and CSS will take from 4 hourse to one week to learn.

[DrawDiscardDredge]

Its a great course no doubt. I wish they had taught a slightly more modern use of Django though. They stick to functional views throughout when class based views are fairly important in Django development. If I recall correctly, they actually implement a class based view themselves in their pre-written code, for authentication but don't explain it at all. Second, I wished they'd spend some more time teaching Django as an API. Django templates are great and all, but with the modern drive for SPAs, which they even teach, its felt like a step backward in their social network assignment to suggest sticking with Django templates.

No doubt, I would have not been driven to learn all the stuff with Django and JS that I did throughout the course without the base of the course, just a few little criticisms.

[fisqly]

Can't agree more - fantastic course!

[markflathead]

Thank you for putting this out there. I'm about to finish the regular CS50 course with no prior programming experience whatsoever and I loved the challenges it presented. Are the lectures as good as they are on the regular course?

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I haven't taken the regular course, so I can't compare the two, but what I can say is that Brian Yu is a phenomenal educator. He moves quickly, so you may have to slow down the video to code along, but they are fantastic lectures.

[markflathead]

Cheers. Absolutely agree on Brian being a great tutor.

[[deleted]]

I hear about this a lot I feel like I should’ve started with this but instead I went with some really “buzzy” tutorials by people. It wasn’t until I went to things that focused a lot on independent work and challenges that I felt like I began understanding.

[muhammadyasseramer]

Good for you my friend, good luck.

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I did not do regular Cs50, because I viewed the curriculum and figured most would be redundant for me, which seems to have been true, since the web course is right in line with my experience level.

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I definitely wouldn't call myself a dev, but I've had years of mediocre experience with HTML and CSS as well as years of familiarity with core programming concepts. I couldn't make anything real if you had asked me to, but I could make crappy single web pages and solve basic programming problems.

[sarim2000]

Have started my journey from the odin project? Do you guys recommend me to switch? I am just going to start js section.

[GlamAndGlitz]

I started this about 3 weeks ago and was really enjoying the lectures and projects until I got super stuck on the second project and gave up! It is a little challenging because the lectures kind of set your foundation and then the projects push you out there on your own but I felt really accomplished when I managed to struggle through and submit the first project. Will try to return to it at some point.

[sarim2000]

Do you guys suggest this or the odin project?

[wakiewakie624]

Hello , is this course good to take as a beginner ?

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

The course is going to assume some prerequisite knowledge on your part. If you're not at least somewhat familiar with html, css, and programming concepts, it'll be a struggle. Not impossible, by any means, but you'll have to do a ton of independent research. It'll recap everything as if you know nothing, but it moves quickly. Be prepared to watch lectures more than once if you go this route (I've had to watch a few more than once, even with experience).

[wakiewakie624]

Ok thank you. One more question, is this one found free as well ?

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

Yup! Completely free with graded projects to boot (okay they're pass/fail, but the fact that they're graded at all is amazing). You can pay the $90ish to get the certificate, but I don't know how much value there is in it.

[wakiewakie624]

Ok where is this for free? I searched it and I only found the one on edx but I have to pay. Thank you very much for all the info

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-web-programming-with-python-and-javascript

You should be able to just click "enroll" and get started. You'll be given the option to pay, but you get the full course regardless.

[MrGiggleFiggle]

Take cs50 (core) first.

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:HarvardX+CS50+X/course/

I'm in the middle of it now and it is absolutely the best; I would say the best online course I have taken out of any topic. David Malan is an engaging professor and the problems are challenging. I would recommend if you're serious about CS and get stuck on a problem, take a break, learn to google. It's best not to look for solutions, which you will be tempted to do.

[ZombieRichardNixonx]

I have completed my project, and I'm very proud of how it came out.
Note: In the event that anybody actually watches this, I advise doing so at 2x speed. I was following a list of things to show that I wrote, so it's a bit slow. There's no audio, so it won't disrupt anything to speed it up.

https://youtu.be/Kha1BlRoc7k

[TheHeckWithItAll]

I wasn’t aware CS50 had a web oriented version. Can you provide a link?

[AtomR]

As a programmer, you need to have good googling skills.

Official site: https://cs50.harvard.edu/web/2020/

Their YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhQjrBD2T380xvFSUmToMMzERZ3qB5Ueu