Why Learning Python at Harvard Could be a Major Career Boost?

By S G Rickman On Oct 4, 2022

This article lists some of the benefits of learning Python at Harvard University

There’s no doubt about it: Python has emerged as one of the most exciting and lucrative 21st-century programming languages. Considering the tech field’s pedal to the metal growth and demand, it’s worth taking a course for learning Python at Harvard University. The best thing about Harvard is that CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science, the most popular intro to programming course is a free online course. CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science has the highest enrollment on Harvard’s campus and is free to anyone interested in taking it. In this course, you can learn about core computer science concepts, such as:

Algorithms – binary search, bubble sort, merge sort, etc.
Data structures – linked lists, hash tables, etc.
Memory – stack, and heap
The languages used are C, Python, SQL, and some others based on what you choose for the final track (UPDATE: It seems like they got rid of tracks for the 2021 version). There are myriad free CS courses available online, but this is the most enjoyable and engaging one found so far.

Here are three points that demonstrate the benefit of learning Python at Harvard-

Philosophy

This course is geared towards people of all programming levels.

The course is beginner-friendly and challenging at the same time because the lectures walk you through the content well but the assignments require you to think and do more research. Also, often they give you a choice of two assignments, depending on whether you’re “more comfortable” or “less comfortable”.

Entertaining Lectures

In addition to being informative, Professor David Malan’s lectures are well-paced, animated, and creative. Watch any of them, and you’ll probably agree (available on Youtube too).

Creative Assignments

Rather than boring tasks like “iterate over this array in C”, you get to implement programs like photo filters, spell checkers, voting systems, and Hogwarts student databases, using concepts that you learned along the way.

The CS50 course at Harvard University gives you the basics of computer science and is considered one of the best programming courses in the world. Through edX, the courses are delivered online, which is co-founded by Harvard. These courses are free to enroll in, however, there is a chance to pay a fee to receive a certificate, which you can add to your resume or LinkedIn.

People with little or no computer science experience and those who know how to program have benefitted from CS50 courses. On the 7th of December 2005, Mark Zuckerberg joined CS50 with Professor Michael D. Smith for a guest lecture about Facebook and computer science.

Apart from this, there is another well-known course – Using Python for Research. This course bridges the gap between introductory and advanced courses in Python. While there are many excellent introductory Python courses available, most typically do not go deep enough for you to apply your Python skills to research projects. In this course, after first reviewing the basics of Python 3, you will learn about tools commonly used in research settings. Using a combination of a guided introduction and more independent in-depth exploration, you will get to practice your new Python skills with various case studies chosen for their scientific breadth and their coverage of different Python features.

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