This is CS50, Harvard University’s introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming, for concentrators and non-concentrators alike, with or without prior programming experience. (Two thirds of CS50 students have never taken CS before.) This course teaches you how to solve problems, both with and without code, with an emphasis on correctness, design, and style. Topics include computational thinking, abstraction, algorithms, data structures, and computer science more generally. Problem sets inspired by the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. More than teach you how to program in one language, this course teaches you how to program fundamentally and how to teach yourself new languages ultimately. The course starts with a traditional but omnipresent language called C that underlies today’s newer languages, via which you’ll learn not only about functions, variables, conditionals, loops, and more, but also about how computers themselves
Computer Science. Computational Thinking. Problem Solving: Inputs, Outputs. Representation: Unary, Binary, Decimal, ASCII, Unicode, RGB. Abstraction. Algorithms. Running Times. Pseudocode. Scratch: Functions, Arguments, Return Values; Variables; Boolean Expressions, Conditionals; Loops; Events; Threads.
C. Source Code. Machine Code. Compiler. Correctness, Design, Style. Visual Studio Code. Syntax Highlighting. Escape Sequences. Header Files. Libraries. Manual Pages. Types. Conditionals. Variables. Loops. Linux. Graphical User Interface (GUI). Command-Line Interface (CLI). Constants. Comments. Pseudocode. Operators. Integer Overflow. Floating-Point Imprecision.
Preprocessing. Compiling. Assembling. Linking. Debugging. Arrays. Strings. Command-Line Arguments. Cryptography.
Searching: Linear Search, Binary Search. Sorting: Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, Merge Sort. Asymptotic Notation: ????, Ω, Θ. Recursion.
Pointers. Segmentation Faults. Dynamic Memory Allocation. Stack. Heap. Buffer Overflow. File I/O. Images.
Abstract Data Types. Queues, Stacks. Linked Lists. Trees, Binary Search Trees. Hash Tables. Tries.
Python: Functions, Arguments, Return Values; Variables; Boolean Expressions, Conditionals; Loops. Modules, Packages.
SQL: Tables; Types; Statements; Constraints; Indexes; Keywords, Functions; Transactions. Race Conditions. SQL Injection Attacks.
Prompt Engineering. System Prompt. User Prompt. Generative Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence. Decision Trees. Minimax. Machine Learning. Reinforcement Learning. Explore vs. Exploit. Deep Learning. Neural Networks. Large Language Models. Transformer Architecture. Hallucinations.
Internet: Routers; TCP/IP; DNS. HTTP: URLs, GET, POST. HTML: Tags; Attributes. Servers. Regular Expressions. CSS: Properties; Selectors. Frameworks. JavaScript: Variables; Conditionals; Loops. Events.
Flask. Route. Decorators. Requests, Responses. Sessions. Cookies.
Fun. Games.