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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Programming Languages, Part A by University of Washington

4.9
stars
1,906 ratings

About the Course

This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of programming languages, with a strong emphasis on functional programming. The course uses the languages ML, Racket, and Ruby as vehicles for teaching the concepts, but the real intent is to teach enough about how any language “fits together” to make you more effective programming in any language -- and in learning new ones. This course is neither particularly theoretical nor just about programming specifics -- it will give you a framework for understanding how to use language constructs effectively and how to design correct and elegant programs. By using different languages, you will learn to think more deeply than in terms of the particular syntax of one language. The emphasis on functional programming is essential for learning how to write robust, reusable, composable, and elegant programs. Indeed, many of the most important ideas in modern languages have their roots in functional programming. Get ready to learn a fresh and beautiful way to look at software and how to have fun building it. The course assumes some prior experience with programming, as described in more detail in the first module. The course is divided into three Coursera courses: Part A, Part B, and Part C. As explained in more detail in the first module of Part A, the overall course is a substantial amount of challenging material, so the three-part format provides two intermediate milestones and opportunities for a pause before continuing. The three parts are designed to be completed in order and set up to motivate you to continue through to the end of Part C. The three parts are not quite equal in length: Part A is almost as substantial as Part B and Part C combined. Week 1 of Part A has a more detailed list of topics for all three parts of the course, but it is expected that most course participants will not (yet!) know what all these topics mean....

Top reviews

SS

Jan 3, 2017

Instant favourite programming course. Great instructor and material, fun assignments, mind-bendy recursion, cool concepts you didn't know you wanted to know about. Learned a lot.

SZ

Apr 2, 2017

Great course! One of the few courses I actually finished on Coursera. Though I think it could be made longer to have less lectures/homework, but that's probably a general issue with Coursera for me.

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426 - 450 of 554 Reviews for Programming Languages, Part A

By Rosendo G

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May 18, 2025

The best course in Coursera!

By Alexandru P

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Sep 4, 2024

one of the best courses ever

By Emanuele R

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Sep 25, 2020

Absolutely worth the effort!

By Devendra

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Jul 30, 2017

The instructor is uber cool!

By vishnu r

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Sep 22, 2018

the class was simply superb

By Showing J

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Apr 27, 2017

对函数式编程非常好的入门介绍，互相批改作业的氛围非常好

By Cyril C

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Jan 10, 2021

very good material covered

By 张家培

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Mar 7, 2017

有趣的课程，可以对函数式编程产生初步的认识，值的一学

By Umar A

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Jan 8, 2024

The course is really good

By Q L

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Apr 20, 2019

amazing course, I love it

By blader

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Mar 12, 2017

the course is fascinating

By Robert L

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Mar 9, 2024

very good; learned a lot

By Rajeev J

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May 4, 2023

Excellent Course By Dan.

By Gopal J

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Apr 6, 2019

it`s a very good course.

By Грибовський В О

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May 1, 2020

Very interesinfg course

By Yuhang W

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Mar 14, 2020

I just LOVE this course

By Chenjun S

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Jun 21, 2018

Dan is a great teacher!

By Apor B

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Apr 25, 2022

A fantastic experience

By l1nxy

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Apr 21, 2019

it's very great course

By Tso C F

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Aug 20, 2018

learn real programming

By Suvrat A

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Aug 29, 2016

The best MOOC ever! :)

By Alper G

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Dec 30, 2020

Excellent content !!

By Walker

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Aug 11, 2018

很赞，学到了很多实用的基本概念和方法。

By Alex

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Jan 21, 2017

It's really good!!!

By Tang

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May 20, 2018

took it, worth it!