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Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science!

• Summary
• Curriculum
  • Prerequisites
  • Introduction to Computer Science
  • Core CS
  • Advanced CS
  • Final project
  • Pro CS
• Code of conduct
• Community
  • How to show your progress
  • Team
• References

The OSSU curriculum is acomplete education in computer science using online materials.It's not merely for career training or professional development.It's for those who want a proper,well-rounded grounding in concepts fundamental to all computing disciplines,and for those who have the discipline, will, and (most importantly!) good habits to obtain this education largely on their own,but with support from a worldwide community of fellow learners.

It is designed according to the degree requirements of undergraduate computer science majors, minus general education (non-CS) requirements,as it is assumed most of the people following this curriculum are already educated outside the field of CS.The courses themselves are among the very best in the world, often coming from Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc.,but specifically chosen to meet the following criteria.

Courses must:

• Be open for enrollment
• Run regularly (ideally in self-paced format, otherwise running at least once a month or so)
• Fulfill theacademic requirements of OSSU
• Fit neatly into the progression of the curriculum with respect to topics and difficulty level
• Be of generally high quality in teaching materials and pedagogical principles

When no course meets the above criteria, the coursework is supplemented with a book.When there are courses or books that don't fit into the curriculum but are otherwise of high quality,they belong inextras/courses orextras/readings.

Organization. The curriculum is designed as follows:

• Intro CS: for students to try out CS and see if it's right for them
• Core CS: corresponds roughly to the first three years of a computer science curriculum, taking classes that all majors would be required to take
• Advanced CS: corresponds roughly to the final year of a computer science curriculum, taking electives according to the student's interests
• Final Project: a project for students to validate, consolidate, and display their knowledge, to be evaluated by their peers worldwide
• Pro CS: graduate-level specializations students can elect to take after completing the above curriculum if they want to maximize their chances of getting a good job

Duration. It is possible to finish Core CS within about 2 years if you plan carefully and devote roughly 18-22 hours/week to your studies.Courses in Core CS should be taken linearly if possible, but since a perfectly linear progression is rarely possible,each class's prerequisites is specified so that you can design a logical but non-linear progressionbased on the class schedules and your own life plans.

Cost. All or nearly all course material prior to Pro CS is available for free,however some courses may charge money for assignments/tests/projects to be graded.Note that Coursera offersfinancial aid.Decide how much or how little to spend based on your own time and budget;just remember that you can't purchase success!

Content policy. If you plan on showing off some of your coursework publicly, you must share only files that you are allowed to.Do NOT disrespect the code of conduct that you signed in the beginning of each course!

How to contribute. Please seeCONTRIBUTING.

Getting help. Please check ourFrequently Asked Questions, and if you cannot find the answer, file an issue or talk to ourfriendly community!

Curriculum version:8.0.0 (seeCHANGELOG)

• Prerequisites
• Introduction to Computer Science
• Core CS
  • Core programming
  • Core math
  • Core systems
  • Core theory
  • Core applications
• Advanced CS
  • Advanced programming
  • Advanced math
  • Advanced systems
  • Advanced theory
  • Advanced applications
• Final project
• Pro CS

• Core CS assumes the student has already taken high school math and physics, including algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus.Some high school graduates will have already taken AP Calculus, but this is usually only about 3/4 of a college calculus class, so the calculus courses in the curriculum are still recommended.
• Advanced CS assumes the student has already taken the entirety of Core CSand is knowledgeable enough now to decide which electives to take.
• Note thatAdvanced systems assumes the student has taken a basic physics course (e.g. AP Physics in high school).

These courses will introduce you to the world of computer science.Both are required, but feel free to skip straight to the second course when CS50 (the first course) moves away from C.(Why?)

Topics covered:imperative programmingprocedural programmingCmanual memory managementbasic data structures and algorithmsPythonSQLbasic HTML, CSS, JavaScriptand more

All coursework under Core CS isrequired, unless otherwise indicated.

Topics covered:functional programmingdesign for testingprogram requirementscommon design patternsunit testingobject-oriented designJavastatic typingdynamic typingML-family languages (via Standard ML)Lisp-family languages (via Racket)Rubyand more

• Required to learn about monads, laziness, purity:Learn You a Haskell for a Great Good!
  • OBS: probably the best resource to learn Haskell:Haskell Programming from First Principlespaid
• Required, to learn about logic programming, backtracking, unification:Learn Prolog Now!

Topics covered:linear transformationsmatricesvectorsmathematical proofsnumber theorydifferential calculusintegral calculussequences and seriesdiscrete mathematicsbasic statisticsO-notationgraph theoryvector calculusdiscrete probabilityand more

¹ Note: When you are enrolled, please see thislist of errorsandthese recommendationsfor how to progress through the course.

Topics covered:boolean algebragate logicmemorymachine languagecomputer architectureassemblymachine languagevirtual machineshigh-level languagescompilersoperating systemsnetwork protocolsand more

• Recommended: While Hack the Kernel recommends Modern Operating Systems as a textbook, we suggest usingOperating Systems: Three Easy Pieces.

Topics covered:divide and conquersorting and searchingrandomized algorithmsgraph searchshortest pathsdata structuresgreedy algorithmsminimum spanning treesdynamic programmingNP-completenessand more

Topics covered:Agile methodologyRESTsoftware specificationsrefactoringrelational databasestransaction processingdata modelingneural networkssupervised learningunsupervised learningOpenGLraytracingblock ciphersauthenticationpublic key encryptionand more

After completingevery required course in Core CS, students should choose a subset of courses from Advanced CS based on interest.Not every course from a subcategory needs to be taken.But students should takeevery course that is relevant to the field they intend to go into.

The Advanced CS study should then end with one of the Specializations underAdvanced applications.A Specialization's Capstone, if taken, may act as theFinal project, if permitted by the Honor Code of the course.If not, or if a student chooses not to take the Capstone, then a separate Final project will need to be done to complete this curriculum.

Topics covered:debugging theory and practicegoal-oriented programmingGPU programmingCUDAparallel computingobject-oriented analysis and designUMLlarge-scale software architecture and designand more

Topics covered:parametric equationspolar coordinate systemsmultivariable integralsmultivariable differentialsprobability theoryand more

Topics covered:digital signalingcombinational logicCMOS technologiessequential logicfinite state machinesprocessor instruction setscachespipeliningvirtualizationparallel processingvirtual memorysynchronization primitivessystem call interfaceand more

¹ Note:These courses assume knowledge of basic physics.(Why?)If you are struggling, you can find a physics MOOC or utilize the materials from Khan Academy:Khan Academy - Physics

Topics covered:formal languagesTuring machinescomputabilityevent-driven concurrencyautomatadistributed shared memoryconsensus algorithmsstate machine replicationcomputational geometry theorypropositional logicrelational logicHerbrand logicconcept latticesgame treesand more

These Coursera Specializations all end with a Capstone project.Depending on the course, you may be able to utilize the Capstone as your Final Project for this Computer Science curriculum.Note that doing a Specialization with the Capstone at the end always costs money.So if you don't wish to spend money or use the Capstone as your Final, it may be possible to take the courses in the Specialization for free by manually searching for them, but not all allow this.

OSS University isproject-focused.You are encouraged to do the assignments and exams for each course, but what really matters is whether you canuse your knowledge to solve a real world problem.

After you've gotten through all of Core CS and the parts of Advanced CS relevant to you, you should think about a problem that you can solve using the knowledge you've acquired.Not only does real project work look great on a resume, the project willvalidate andconsolidate your knowledge.You can create something entirely new, or you can find an existing project that needs help via websites likeCodeTriageorFirst Timers Only.

Another option is using the Capstone project from taking one of the Specializations inAdvanced applications;whether or not this makes sense depends on the course, the project, and whether or not the course's Honor Code permits you to display your work publicly.In some cases, it may not be permitted;donot violate your course's Honor Code!

Put the OSSU-CS badge in the README of your repository!

• Markdown:[![Open Source Society University - Computer Science](https://img.shields.io/badge/OSSU-computer--science-blue.svg)](https://github.com/ossu/computer-science)
• HTML:<a href="https://github.com/ossu/computer-science"><img alt="Open Source Society University - Computer Science" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/OSSU-computer--science-blue.svg"></a>

Upon completing your final project, submit your project's information toPROJECTSvia a pull request and use ourcommunity channels to announce it to your fellow students.

Your peers and mentors from OSSU will then informally evaluate your project.You will not be "graded" in the traditional sense — everyone has their own measurements for what they consider a success.The purpose of the evaluation is to act as your first announcement to the world that you are a computer scientist,and to get experience listening to feedback — both positive and negative — and taking it in stride.

The final project evaluation has a second purpose: to evaluate whether OSSU,through its community and curriculum, is successful in its mission to guide independent learners in obtaining a world-class computer science education.

You can create this project alone or with other students!We love cooperative work!Use ourchannels to communicate with other fellows to combine and create new projects!

My friend, here is the best part of liberty!You can useany language that you want to complete the final project.

The important thing is tointernalize the core concepts and to be able to use them with whatever tool (programming language) that you wish.

After completing the requirements of the curriculum above, you will have completed the equivalent of a full bachelor's degree in Computer Science, or quite close to one.You can stop in the Advanced CS section, but the next step to completing your studies is to develop skills and knowledge in a specific domain.Many of these courses are graduate-level.

Choose one or more of the followingspecializations:

• Mastering Software Development in R Specialization by Johns Hopkins University
• Artificial Intelligence Engineer Nanodegree by IBM, Amazon, and Didi
• Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree by kaggle
• Cybersecurity MicroMasters by the Rochester Institute of Technology
• Android Developer Nanodegree by Google

These aren't the only specializations you can choose. Check the following websites formore options:

• edX:xSeries
• Coursera:Specializations
• Udacity:Nanodegree

• Look for a job as a developer!
• Check out thereadings for classic books you can read that will sharpen your skills and expand your knowledge.
• Join a local developer meetup (e.g. viameetup.com).
• Pay attention to emerging technologies in the world of software development:
  • Explore theactor model throughElixir, a new functional programming language for the web based on the battle-tested Erlang Virtual Machine!
  • Exploreborrowing and lifetimes throughRust, a systems language which achieves memory- and thread-safety without a garbage collector!
  • Exploredependent type systems throughIdris, a new Haskell-inspired language with unprecedented support for type-driven development.

OSSU's code of conduct.

• Subscribe to ournewsletter.
• Use ourforum if you need some help.
• You can also interact throughGitHub issues.
• We also have a chat room!
• AddOpen Source Society University to yourLinkedin andFacebook profile!

PS: A forum is an ideal way to interact with other students as we do not lose important discussions, which usually occur in communication via chat apps.Please use our forum for important discussions.

1. Create an account inTrello.
2. Copythis board to your personal account.See how to copy a boardhere.

Now that you have a copy of our official board, you just need to pass the cards to theDoing column orDone column as you progress in your study.

We also havelabels to help you have more control through the process.The meaning of each of these labels is:

• Main Curriculum: cards with that label represent courses that are listed in our curriculum.
• Extra Resources: cards with that label represent courses that was added by the student.
• Doing: cards with that label represent courses the student is current doing.
• Done: cards with that label represent courses finished by the student.Those cards should also have the link for at least one project/article built with the knowledge acquired in such course.
• Section: cards with that label represent the section that we have in our curriculum.Those cards with theSection label are only to help the organization of the Done column.You should put theCourse's cards below its respectiveSection's card.

The intention of this board is to provide our students a way to track their progress, and also the ability to show their progress through a public page for friends, family, employers, etc.You can change the status of your board to bepublic orprivate.

• Curriculum Founders:Eric Douglas
• Curriculum Maintainers:Eric Douglas andhanjiexi
• Contributors:contributors

• Google - Guide for Technical Development
• Coursera
• edX
• Udacity
• Stanford University
• Carnegie Mellon University: Computer Science Major Requirements
• MIT Open Courseware
• Teach Yourself Computer Science
• Obtaining a Thorough CS Background Online