Functional Program Design in Scala

This course is part of Functional Programming in Scala Specialization

Instructor: Martin Odersky

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5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

3,137 reviews

Intermediate level

Some related experience required

Flexible schedule

4 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

89%

Most learners liked this course

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

3,137 reviews

Intermediate level

Some related experience required

Flexible schedule

4 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

89%

Most learners liked this course

What you'll learn

Recognize and apply design principles of functional programs
Design functional libraries and their APIs
Write simple functional reactive applications
Understand reasoning techniques for programs that combine functions and state

Skills you'll gain

Tools you'll learn

Scala Programming

Details to know

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Assessments

3 assignments

Taught in English

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This course is part of the Functional Programming in Scala Specialization

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There are 5 modules in this course

In this course you will learn how to apply the functional programming style in the design of larger Scala applications. You'll get to know important new functional programming concepts, from lazy evaluation to structuring your libraries using monads. We'll work on larger and more involved examples, from state space exploration to random testing to discrete circuit simulators. You’ll also learn some best practices on how to write good Scala code in the real world. Finally, you will learn how to leverage the ability of the compiler to infer values from types.

Several parts of this course deal with the question how functional programming interacts with mutable state. We will explore the consequences of combining functions and state. We will also look at purely functional alternatives to mutable state, using infinite data structures or functional reactive programming. Recommended background: You should have at least one year programming experience. Proficiency with Java or C# is ideal, but experience with other languages such as C/C++, Python, Javascript or Ruby is also sufficient. You should have some familiarity with using the command line. This course is intended to be taken after Functional Programming Principles in Scala: https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1.

We'll start by revisiting some concepts that we have learned from Principles of Functional Programming in Scala; collections, pattern matching, and functions. We'll then touch on for-comprehensions, a powerful way in Scala to traverse a list, process it, and return a new list. We'll see how to do queries with for-comprehensions as well as how the for-comprehension is "desugared" into calls to higher-order functions by the Scala compiler. Finally, we'll discuss what monads are, and how to verify that the monad laws are satisfied for a number of examples.

What's included

8 videos8 readings3 programming assignments

8 videosTotal 76 minutes

Introduction2 minutes
Week 1 Introduction1 minute
Recap: Functions and Pattern Matching12 minutes
Lecture 1.1 - Queries with For6 minutes
Lecture 1.2 - Translation of For7 minutes
Lecture 1.3 - Functional Random Generators24 minutes
Lecture 1.4 - Monads11 minutes
Lecture 1.5 - Exceptional Monads13 minutes

8 readingsTotal 75 minutes

Working on Assignments5 minutes
Tools Setup (Please read)10 minutes
Grading Policy10 minutes
SBT tutorial and Submission of Assignments (Please read)10 minutes
Cheat Sheet10 minutes
Scala Style Guide10 minutes
Learning Resources10 minutes
Reactive Cheat Sheet10 minutes

3 programming assignmentsTotal 540 minutes

Quickcheck180 minutes
Example Assignment180 minutes
Quickcheck180 minutes

This week we'll revisit performance issues caused by combinatorial search, and we'll discover an important concept in functional programming that can address these issues: laziness. We'll also learn a little bit about proofs on trees; in particular, we'll see how to extend structural induction to trees.

What's included

6 videos2 programming assignments

6 videosTotal 69 minutes

Week 2 Intrduction1 minute
Lecture 2.1 - Structural Induction on Trees14 minutes
Lecture 2.2 - Lazy Lists12 minutes
Lecture 2.3 - Lazy Evaluation10 minutes
Lecture 2.4 - Computing with Infinite Sequences12 minutes
Lecture 2.5 - Case Study: the Water Pouring Problem20 minutes

2 programming assignmentsTotal 360 minutes

Bloxorz180 minutes
Bloxorz180 minutes

This week, we’ll learn how to make the compiler write programs for us! We’ll see how the compiler can summon program fragments based on their type and how this mechanism can be used to implement a new form of polymorphism (type classes).

What's included

7 videos5 readings3 assignments2 programming assignments

7 videosTotal 89 minutes

Week 3 Introduction1 minute
Lecture 3.1 - Contextual abstractions11 minutes
Lecture 3.2 - Using clauses and given instances18 minutes
Lecture 3.3 - Type classes14 minutes
Lecture 3.4 - Abstract algebra and type classes9 minutes
Lecture 3.5 - Context passing26 minutes
Lecture 3.6 - Implicit function types10 minutes

5 readingsTotal 50 minutes

Motivating Example10 minutes
Type-Directed Programming10 minutes
Type Classes10 minutes
Conditional Implicit Definitions10 minutes
Implicit Conversions10 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 30 minutes

Type-Directed Programming0 minutes
Conditional Implicit Definitions30 minutes
Implicit Conversions0 minutes

2 programming assignmentsTotal 360 minutes

JSON Codecs180 minutes
JSON Codecs180 minutes

This week, we'll learn about state and side-effects. Through a rich example, we'll learn programming patterns for managing state in larger programs. We'll also learn about for-loops and while-loops in Scala.

What's included

5 videos

This week we'll learn a number of important programming patterns via examples, starting with the observer pattern, and then going on to functional reactive programming.

What's included

6 videos2 programming assignments

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Instructor

Instructor ratings

(109 ratings)

Martin Odersky

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

6 Courses236,694 learners

Offered by

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

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Showing 3 of 3137

Reviewed on Jul 23, 2016

Really enjoyed doing the course. Learned a ton of Stuff. Functional programming design is amazing. It's like learning Object Oriented programming (with design patterns) for the first time.

Reviewed on Sep 2, 2021

This course is quite difficult to me, especially the last section. I have to re-watch it so many time to fully understand. At the end of the day, it is worth the effort.

Reviewed on Mar 17, 2018

Thank you for this exciting course! I did the FP in Scala course a few years ago and decided to do the full certification now. I am looking forward to the next courses in the specialisation.

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