LAlainon·Dec 30, 2017Submission
Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science
264 points · Open discussionossu
computer-science
HTML2015–2025
ossu / computer-science
computer-science
🎓 Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science!
81Distinct people
92Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
211KGitHub stars
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What it is
🎓 Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science!
GitHub
Where it is used
- Active Courses University (ACU) — Active Courses University uses the OSSU/computer-science curriculum to organize its categories and channels, mapping topics and course-specific channels to OSSU’s structure. Source
What people are saying
Whenever i have someone ask me where to get started on CS - i give them a few options tiered to try and ensure some stickiness/higher utility for them specifically. ~Some…
seven4 used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
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Also in these discussions
- jwasham/coding-interview-university · linked in 3 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 7:02:50 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year92 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2015-10-04 02:17:57 UTC to 2025-09-21 10:29:23 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 17 | 5 | 12 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 1 | 10 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 1 | 10 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
17 sourcesOSSU: Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science
1 points · Open discussionWhen I started teaching myself I never thought it would take me so long. I made two mistakes: I didn't have direction (which you solved by asking a question) and I didn't build stuff.
From this point forward you ought to pick one thing and build stuff. When I say pick one thing, I mean one learning resource at a time. Whether it is "automate the boring stuff" (which is a great resource I haven't read) or one of the resources that I'm linking to (they are different resources that have been suggested on HN in the past), or a suggestion from another comment. Pick one and work on it. It's all about making a decision and sticking to it until you have enough information to make a better decision.
Find someone you can talk with about this stuff. It can get lonely if you don't know anyone who knows about this stuff. I'm available and would even w
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ork on some of the material or courses with you, especially the last two links.
As another user mentioned somewhere below, you will feel like bashing your head against the wall. He/she wasn't kidding. Once you get past that feeling, which will take a very, very long time, you will have overcome the hardest hurdle.
https://github.com/MichielDerhaeg/build-linux/blob/master/RE...
http://exercism.io/
https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science/blob/master/README....
Edit: for anyone else in OP's shoes, feel free to contact me as well.
Open Source Society University has a good list of online courses you can take to approximate a computer science degree.
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
In Ask HN: How can I become a self-taught software engineer?Good question. I'm in a somewhat similar boat and I've been haphazardly working through the courses on here:
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
Since I have a good amount of actual development work, I'm doing Algorithms and Data Structures. Then I'll have a go at Nand to Tetris, since I have the book.
There's infinite room to grow from there. Copy the Trello board and it's a fun little game to get through. It's been fun and not as intimidating as you may think.
Good luck!
In Ask HN: Most useful courses for self-taught programmers?This is a pretty poor platform to point you to edx/coursera courses.
Try this one...much better.
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
In MindWeb – A Computer Science Bachelor CurriculumFrom "Resources to get better at theoretical CS?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15281776 :
- "Open Source Society University: Path to a self-taught education in Computer Science!" https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
This is also great:
- "Coding Interview University" https://github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university
Neither these nor the ACM Curriculum are specifically topologically sorted.
In Ask HN: Any detailed explanation of computer scienceCheck out the Open Source Society University's Computer Science learning path:
https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
In Resources to get better at theoretical CS?This is a big list. I would more suggest:
1. Teach Yourself Computer Science[0]
2. Open Source Society[1]
[0]. https://teachyourselfcs.com/
[1]. https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science
In Free Online Computer Science CoursesAsk HN: What's the Value in “verifying” Open Source CS Degree Courses?
I am interested in hearing folks' thoughts on the value of pursuing "verified" certificates from the various platforms that provide the courses for the Open Source Computer Science Degree (https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science).
My goals in taking these courses are twofold:
a) Enhancing my resume prior to eventual job applications in the software engineering realm.
b) Setting myself up for possible future graduate school applications for an MS in CS.
For background, I am a working professional with a humanities education. I started coding seriously about a year ago and have grown quite proficient. I plan to continue my programming education over the coming year and build a portfolio, but I am also interested in doing some formal CS education. I love coding and find myself wishing every day that I had discovered it when I
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was still in university. Now, I am working on my coding education full-time and will continue on that path for the next year.
Although I am increasingly confident in my coding skills, I suspect that I'll have a better shot at a career transition if I can gain a solid foundation in core CS principles as well. That is why I am investing time and energy into online CS courses with EdX, Coursera, etc. The question is whether I ought to be investing money as well. My main interest in the material is intellectual and I want to continue doing it regardless, but I recognize that future employers and/or graduate school may require some "proof" that I actually learned the material (beyond just portfolio projects).
For reference, I calculated out the cost of buying "verified" certificates for all of the required courses and it comes out to $1,712, depending on course selection.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts.
Path to a free self-taught education in Computer Science
3 points · Open discussionOSSU Computer Science v7 released – learn Computer Science for free
3 points · Open discussionTell him to sign up for Treehouse[0] to start learning the basics of whatever subject he wants (app dev, web dev, etc.), and from there he'll find out if he actually likes it or not.
If he decides that he likes it and he's feeling driven, there are tons of resources[1] online for learning a lot of what he'll get with the CS degree, including video lectures from MIT[2] and Standford[3].
[0]: https://teamtreehouse.com
[1]: https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0F8848A0E4B65481
In Ask HN: How to help a guy with no CS backgrnd learn enough to get a job in tech?What do you think of this curriculum? https://github.com/open-source-society/computer-science
I'd say that these days it's easier to gain all that "foundational knowledge" without attending a university.
In Do Developers Need College Degrees?Showing the 15 most recent of 17 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.