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Learner reviews & feedback for Functional Programming Principles in Scala

4.88,269 reviews

About this course

Functional programming is becoming increasingly widespread in industry. This trend is driven by the adoption of Scala as the main programming language for many applications. Scala fuses functional and object-oriented programming in a practical package. It interoperates seamlessly with both Java and Javascript. Scala is the implementation language of many important frameworks, including Apache Spark, Kafka, and Akka. It provides the core infrastructure for sites such as Twitter, Netflix, Zalando, and also Coursera.

In this course, you will discover the elements of the functional programming style and learn how to apply them usefully in your daily programming tasks, such as modeling business domains or implementing business logic. You will also develop a solid foundation for reasoning about functional programs, by touching upon proofs of invariants and the tracing of execution symbolically. The course is hands-on; most units introduce short programs that serve as illustrations of important concepts and invite you to play with them, modifying and improving them. The course is complemented by a series of programming projects as homework assignments. Recommended background: You should have at least one year of 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 background in mathematics (e.g., algebra, logic, proof by induction). Last, you should have some familiarity with using the command line.

Featured reviews

5.0Reviewed Jan 14, 2017

Content and the lecturing is super. All the assignments makes you think about the subjects. If you want to learn about functional programming and something about scala this is the course for you.

5.0Reviewed Sep 17, 2022

The course is very well structured and explained, I enjoyed and learned a lot. At least for me, I needed way more time for understanding the theory and completing the exercises than what estimated.

5.0Reviewed Jun 4, 2019

It was a good introduction to Scala for me. The video are precise and concise. The assignment are made for you to apply the concepts seen in the videos, but they remain challenging and fun to do!

5.0Reviewed Aug 12, 2017

An excellent introduction to the concepts of functional programming that had the "side-effect" of getting me hooked on the language! (Even though the hipster in me really wanted to prefer Clojure.)

5.0Reviewed Dec 8, 2019

One of the very few courses and Specialization that I highly recommend simply because of the number of materials covered in the best quality possible by the instructor. It's simply an amazing course.

5.0Reviewed Sep 13, 2018

It took me much longer than expected to finish the course and sometimes it made me feel stupid and helpless. Diving into functional programming was a mind bending experience, totally worth time spent!

5.0Reviewed Jun 12, 2019

This is a remarkable course in which the creator of the Scala programming language not only teaches the language but also offers deep insights into the theory of programming and computer science.

4.0Reviewed Jun 11, 2018

I really liked the course. Prof. Martin Odersky has a real talent of discussing some entangled problems at hand. I liked the programming assignments. I look forward to the rest of the specialization.

4.0Reviewed Jan 13, 2019

The course in general is kind of theoretical. Some of the homeworks are fairly challenging. I found it a useful companion to the Programming in Scala book, which I'm working through at the moment.

5.0Reviewed Sep 23, 2019

As expected Martin is awesome in explaining principle of functional programming. I have started reading the book as well to make sure I keep up with the knowledge which I have gained from this course.

5.0Reviewed Jan 9, 2021

I thought the course was fantastic. The exercises were just the right difficulty, and the lectures were very clear. Martin explains the concepts in a very understandable and approachable manner.

4.0Reviewed Aug 4, 2020

Excellent content and instruction. could be improved by providing practice exercises with solutions. Also peer participation is too low to be useful, and there is no instructor feedback in the forum.