Programming
Courses on software development: languages, frameworks, testing practice and the craft of building and shipping applications.
Verified courses first, then the rest of the category
IBM’s AI engineering certificate, aimed at building, training and deploying models rather than at using finished AI products, and pitched well above its introductory material.
Not independently verified
IBM’s data engineering certificate, addressing the pipelines and storage that sit underneath analysis rather than the analysis itself.
Not independently verified
IBM’s full stack developer certificate, covering front end, back end and cloud deployment as one sequence rather than as separate specialisms.
Not independently verified
The opening course of Michigan’s applied data science sequence, on pandas and the Python data stack. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ language-agnostic introduction to programming, intended to come before any of its individual language tutorials. Short written lessons, free with no account required.
Not independently verified
DataCamp’s four-hour Python introduction, taught for data work specifically rather than as general programming. Requires a paid plan.
Not independently verified
DataCamp’s introduction to R, taught as short interactive exercises in the browser. Marked free on the platform’s own catalog, which is unusual there and worth knowing.
Not independently verified
A written Java tutorial in the W3Schools house style: short lessons, runnable examples in the page, and a reference section. Free without an account, with an optional paid certificate.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ JavaScript tutorial, covering the language in short written lessons with editable examples that run directly in the page. Free without an account, with an optional paid certificate.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ jQuery tutorial, covering a library still present on a very large number of existing sites. Short written lessons with runnable examples, free to read.
Not independently verified
A written Kotlin tutorial covering the language in short lessons with runnable examples. Published free by W3Schools, with certification available separately.
Not independently verified
A very short technical course, seven lessons and roughly eleven minutes, on using the Ahrefs API. Free, and narrow enough that its length is the main thing to know about it.
Not independently verified
An artificial intelligence course written specifically for web developers rather than for researchers or data scientists, which is unusual enough to be the main reason to choose it. Part of the web.dev Learn series, free and open in the browser.
Not independently verified
A course on building websites that preserve user privacy, published by Google as part of the web.dev Learn series. Free written modules read in the browser with no account required.
Not independently verified
A course on progressive web apps, working through the aspects of building an installable, offline-capable web application. Part of the web.dev Learn series, published free by Google with no account required.
Not independently verified
Codecademy's introductory Python course, taught as interactive exercises in the browser rather than as video. Thirteen modules run from output and control flow through lists, loops, functions, strings and beyond, with an average completion time given as twenty-four hours. The lessons, exercises and quizzes are available on a free account; certificates of completion, practice projects and assessments require a paid Plus or Pro subscription, which is worth knowing before starting.
Not independently verified
A software testing course published as part of the web.dev Learn series, described by its publisher as an in-depth treatment rather than an introduction. Free written modules read in the browser.
Not independently verified
A course on integrating AI and machine learning tooling into game development, published free by Hugging Face and openly readable.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ MongoDB tutorial, covering the document database in short written lessons. Free to read without an account, with an optional paid certificate.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ tutorial on MySQL specifically, as distinct from its language-level SQL course. Short written lessons with runnable queries, free without an account.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ Node.js tutorial, covering server-side JavaScript in short written lessons with runnable examples. Free without an account, with an optional paid certificate.
Not independently verified
A written tutorial on NumPy, the array library underneath most Python numerical work. Short lessons with runnable examples, published free by W3Schools.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ tutorial on pandas, the Python library most data analysis work is actually done in. Short written lessons with runnable examples, free without an account.
Not independently verified
W3Schools’ PHP tutorial, covering the language that still runs a large share of the web. Short written lessons with runnable examples, free without an account.
Not independently verified
About this subject
Courses on writing software: languages and their fundamentals, frameworks and libraries, testing, tooling and the parts of the job that sit around the code. This is the oldest and best-served subject in online learning, which is both an advantage and a problem. There is a great deal of excellent free material, and there is a great deal of material that teaches a framework version nobody uses any more.
Guidance
Verification tells you that a course delivers the material it advertises. It cannot tell you whether it teaches good practice. These are the things worth checking yourself.
A course on JavaScript and a course on a JavaScript framework age at completely different rates. Language fundamentals stay useful for years; framework specifics can be out of date within one major release. If you are starting out, the language course is usually the better investment, and it makes the framework course shorter later.
Screenshots of an old interface, a deprecated API or an installation step that no longer works will cost you more time than the course saves. Where a provider publishes a last-updated date we record it. Where they do not, the listing shows only the date we checked the page, which tells you about our research rather than about the course.
Watching someone type is not learning to type. The courses that produce competence tend to have exercises you complete, a project you build, or an environment you work in. The format is recorded on each listing where the provider states it, and the summary usually says whether the material is written, video, or interactive.
A course that says it assumes a year of Python usually means it. Starting an advanced course early is the most common way people conclude they cannot program, when in fact they simply started three steps along. The level on each listing comes from what the provider states.
Programming is unusual in how much serious teaching is published free of charge by universities, browser vendors and open-source projects. A paid course can still be worth it for structure, feedback or a specific niche, but in this subject it is worth knowing what is free before deciding.
Standards
The published standard applies unchanged. These are the checks that tend to matter most in this subject.
A verification says nothing about code quality, whether the practices taught are current, or whether the course will lead to employment. We do not review the correctness of teaching material.
Questions
We make no claim about that, and we treat any course that promises it as a claim to examine rather than to repeat. Verification confirms the course delivers what it advertises. Hiring depends on many things a course does not control.
A verification is dated and has a re-check date, and it stops being current when that date passes. It is not a permanent statement. For unreviewed listings we record the date we checked the page, which is not the same as the date the course was updated.
We do not rank courses and we never publish a best-of list. The directory orders verified courses first because those are the ones anyone has checked, not because they are better than the rest.
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