Chevron Left
Back to Python Data Structures

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Python Data Structures by University of Michigan

4.9
stars
94,624 ratings

About the Course

This course will introduce the core data structures of the Python programming language. We will move past the basics of procedural programming and explore how we can use the Python built-in data structures such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples to perform increasingly complex data analysis. This course will cover Chapters 6-10 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. This course covers Python 3....
Highlights
Excellent instructor

(503 Reviews)

Helpful assignments

(254 Reviews)

Top reviews

HW

Jul 5, 2023

Excellent course. I feel that I learned a lot of very useful material. It was challenging but not to intimidating. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to expand their knowledge of Python.

PM

Oct 7, 2017

assignment 9.4 auto grader not working .

LTI unable to launch.

error message: This tool should be launched from a learning system using LTI.

i am using chrome on mac book air 2 and python 3.6

Filter by:

51 - 75 of 10,000 Reviews for Python Data Structures

By Dmitrii C

Sep 30, 2022

Despite the fact that the course is nice, the hands-on activity is the worst ever. I would never say the practice activity is for beginners. It's rather frustrating. Very few exercises and they are too complex for beginners. It's ridiculous. Mr. Chuck tries to fit so many lesson topics into one lesson. Without practicing easy codes to make your first steps, Mr. Chuck wants you to jump into so complex coding.

By Hamid H

Jan 5, 2022

Entire this especillization should be only one basic course. how? by removing instructore hobbies vidoes and Interview vidoes. ( you can find them in YouTube) insted of uploading all those vidoes here. they are fake content.

By Hakan T

Dec 31, 2019

Horrible TAs. They should all be changed. They are extremely rude and annoying.

By Mainak D

Jun 6, 2020

This is the second course in the Python for Everybody specialization, and corresponds to the second half of the previous course of the same name. As with the first course (Getting Started with Python), I found Dr. Chuck's thorough approach to the material to be likely to be very approachable for a beginning programmer. I have some experience with Python, including the previous course and a course in the Genomic Data Science specialization, and I have a fair amount more experience programming using R, so I found this course very easy.The course introduces the common data structures in Python (lists, strings, files, dictionaries, tuples) and the functions used to manipulate them. Dr. Chuck does an excellent job of introducing each piece, although the course is a bit light on practice problems, and there are probably better resources for actually getting comfortable using these on a regular basis. The book "Learn Python the Hard Way" and the EdX course from MITx (6.00.1x) are supposed to be two of the best resources out there. I recently bought the first and enrolled in the second, so I'm hopeful that they will help me to become as comfortable programming in Python as I am in R.Overall, four stars. A gentle introduction to data structures in Python, but a little light on the exercises needed to become really proficient in using them.

By Limin ( L

Oct 6, 2015

Dr. Chuck is the most encouraging and entertaining teacher I have ever met!!! He really makes learning about computer and programming easy and fun! I really enjoyed his lectures and I cannot believe learning programming can be such a pleasure!

Most importantly, Dr. Chuck intentionally included many mistakes in his teaching materials. As a self-taught programmer who has struggled on one's own, I believe this is the most valuable part of the lectures. The students get to understand from the very beginning how to read error messages and tracebacks, how to debug, how not to be intimidated by mistakes and failures, and how to become a confident programmer. This should be THE teaching model for programming in any language!

Thank you, Dr. Chuck! And I look forward to learning more from you in our follow-up courses!

By Monika M

Oct 23, 2023

Absolutely amazing class! I have decided to get into programming and started a different beginner friendly course only to realize I can not catch up. This course is a must for those starting the Python journey, whether want to be a software developer, machine learning engineer or AI engineer. This is where it all begins and the professor, holy molly EXCELLENT. I feel like I am really part of the class and those extra videos from live events make it even more special. You have a gift Mr. Chuck and I am so happy you have devoted so much of your career life to pass on the wisdom in such an amazing way! Thank you and looking forward to the next course!!!!

By Gercino A N J

Dec 3, 2016

I am very happy to have finished this course. I learned a lot from him. I did not like Python. I thought it was not interesting to learn this language, but I was wrong. Today I strongly recommend learning more this language because it can help you a lot with your simple way of solving things. Thanks to all of you who have made this course possible.

By Haven W

Jul 5, 2023

Excellent course. I feel that I learned a lot of very useful material. It was challenging but not to intimidating. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to expand their knowledge of Python.

By Yixiao W

Aug 5, 2023

I love how it showed me that I can also do programming or at least start writing code. Even though I have believed that this is mission impossioble. Thanks to Dr. Chuck! I am having a lot of fun!

By Kimo M

Aug 5, 2023

Dr Chuck is easy to follow and a great instructor. Although his lectures aren't very structured sometimes, I really loved this course and his teaching style

By Nishani K

Aug 10, 2020

It was able understand the basics of data structures easily and work out the assignments.

By FRANCE S V S

Aug 5, 2023

Chuck is the best!

By Mahdi J

Aug 7, 2023

good

By Ishaan k

May 2, 2020

I took the course as my foundation in python programming. It helped me learn some oops concepts as well as data structures. The bonus material is a plus for unmasking about why developers developed a particular thing. The course is somewhat basic and easy to understand. Thanks to Professor Chuck for making it understandable and a wonderful experience for students. The fact which i didn't like about this course is it is too basic and not much practically viable for students but it good for making fundamentals in python.

By Erwin A

Jan 20, 2023

Great course. Great instructor! A few suggestions for improvement:

- if the code snippets used in the slides are summarized as a separate doc, that can be viewed and downloaded after the lessons, would be helpful reference when we are doing the exercises.

- When the slides with code snippets are being shown, the camera should stay focused on the slides and not go back and forth with the presenter. Presenter can be show between the slides. Or do a Picture-in-picture.

By David T

Oct 10, 2016

After also learning R from a non-Coursera MOOC, I find this Coursera course clunky and distractingly esoteric. Coursera occasionally crashes when attempting to parse or record the Python code that I've written, when that code runs fine on a regular IDE. This course in particular also includes lots of optional content that is either unnecessary (The Best Taco in the World video, for example) or for which it is unclear how to apply to Python (An interview with the inventor of JQuery, for example). Additionally, the instructor often assigns variable names that don't explain what the variable represents, which makes the videos a bit harder to follow than necessary. Despite all of this, I have learned a lot from this course.

By Brian L

Jun 6, 2023

I'm having to learn more from internet searches than the program itself when doing the practice exercises. There are SO MANY gaps in information that the material makes you feel like you've missed something while reading.

By John H

Dec 3, 2022

Needs more practice type problems, one example for each data structure and how to utilize them doesn't help to learn much. Even in the book associated with this class there isn't much practice.

By Harry E

Jun 6, 2021

This course did not provide enough material or examples to solve the assignments. External resources required and honestly I'm still a little confused as to the final chapter.

By Justin E

Aug 16, 2023

I'm going to start the good things to say about this course (+specialization). I like the fact this specialization exists, it is there for a reason. This is a course that is meant to be for everybody, more specifically for beginners, and the ones that simply want to get better, learn more about python. I myself am not new to python, I want to be more consistent and overall get better with the programming language, I had enrolled an IBM Data Science and Data Analysis before taking this course, which requires Python, and do plan on learning more about python in the future. I have no problem with the Dr. Chuck videos. I do think he is a great instructor. Annnnd... this is where the good things to say ends here, the cons outweighs the pros.

This course lacks practice assignments (Not graded assignments) to keep learners like myself encouraged to complete the course, and helps the learners to be more familiar with the programming language. I wish there is more assignments so we can practice more.

In regards of graded assignments, they are tricky, I don't have a problem with that personally because it that because it keeps me engaged with the assignments; however, the problem is that I believe some of the videos and textbook does not help with the assignments (Primarily with chapter 8). I don't expect to find the solution, nor do I want to get the solution from anywhere other than doing the work with encountering many trial and errors and debugging.

My absolute least favorite part of the course and the reason why I am unenrolling this course is the teaching assistance in the discussion forum. I've only got on hold with one teaching assistant, and that is Tamara Brunnock, and I'm not here to publicly shame anyone. She had helped me with one assignment, and that was enough to pass one of the grading assignment; however, same cannot be said with the other assignment I am/was stuck on (and probably even more assignments). The assistance provided from her can raise more questions than understanding what to do and could be even more confusing than the first/initial reply. I personally don't find the assistance to be entirely helpful. Not only that, but Brunnock's comments could come off as either rude, passive aggressive, combative, or condescending as I've seen from other people in the forums and the experience I saw from other reviewers, not that I had that experience from Brunnock or any mentors. Not only that, it seems as though there is lack of charisma to help other people out. Personally, I don't really have a problem dealing with people like that, but it only irritates me when people had to deal with people like that. Not only the reviewers raise this issue, it's not just one star, or two star, or even 3 star reviews, but you can see that on a 4 star review. If you look at the top 4 star review of this course. The person perfectly describes it, and that reviewer even happens to be a teacher. I'm not angry or even frustrated, I am just disappointed with Tamara Brunnock. I'm not here to throw shade here, I think there are improvements to be made.

After having to express my opinion I had on this and expressing my disappointment, I want to make my review fair as possible. I don't want to antagonize anyone, that is not the intention. In my firm belief, I think there is a room for improvements that can be made, so I can have a reason to come back in this specialization and get a certificate for completion because I want to learn more about python.

By Michael K

Sep 26, 2021

First of all, the projects Dr. Chuck gave us were far more advanced than what we were prepared to do. He didn't explain many facets of lists and tuples, such as embedded lists and tuple unpacking. More importantly, the teacher's assistant was far less than helpful than expected compared to my first class. In order to pass this class I had to purchase other books to use to understand many other facets of lists and tuples as well as dictionaries and how they interact with each other. The content of this class was intense but Dr. Chuck only explained the very basic components, far less than necessary to accomplish what was expected of me. In short, I was very disappointed with this class.

By Jacqueline C

Nov 25, 2022

Completed all assignments and quizzes as well as the extra work for the Honors certificate. Instructors refuse to grade Capstone assignment so I can get the certificate even though it is done correctly. It appears University of Michigan is using instructors who don't read the assignment instructions or who do not understand what they are grading. Awful experience. Only way to contact is through message board and the reply time is several days. I would have given a lower rating if I could. I do not recommend this Specialization to anyone and will NEVER take another course for University of Michigan.

By Rachael W

Apr 9, 2017

Excellent teaching, but it's not actually free. You must pay in order to access the assignments and the professor's in-browser python sandbox.

By Ya-Jian C

May 28, 2016

It does not touch Hash table or Stack. Just the common data type in python.

By Valerio Q

Jul 6, 2022

Confusing and many useless videos