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

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Open Source Society University

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

OSSU computer-science

Contents
 Summary
Community
Curriculum
Code of conduct
Team

Summary
The OSSU curriculum is a complete 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 multiple times per year)
Be of generally high quality in teaching materials and pedagogical principles
Match the curricular standards of the CS 2013: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate
Degree Programs in Computer Science

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 in extras/courses or extras/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
Duration. It is possible to finish within about 2 years if you plan carefully and devote roughly 20
hours/week to your studies. Learners can use this spreadsheet to estimate their end date.
Make a copy and input your start date and expected hours per week in the Timeline sheet.
As you work through courses you can enter your actual course completion dates in the
Curriculum Data sheet and get updated completion estimates.

Cost. All or nearly all course material is available for free. However, some courses may charge
money for assignments/tests/projects to be graded. Note that both Coursera and edX offer
financial aid.

Decide how much or how little to spend based on your own time and budget; just remember
that you can't purchase success!

Process. Students can work through the curriculum alone or in groups, in order or out of order.

We recommend doing all courses in Core CS, only skipping a course when you are certain
that you've already learned the material previously.
For simplicity, we recommend working through courses (especially Core CS) in order from
top to bottom. Some students choose to study multiple courses at a time in order to vary
the material they are working on is a day/week. A popular option is to take the math
courses in parallel with the introductory courses. Course prerequisites are listed to help
you determine if you are prepared for a given course.
Courses in Advanced CS are electives. Choose one subject (e.g. Advanced programming)
you want to become an expert in and take all the courses under that heading. You can
also create your own custom subject; the discord community may provide feedback on
your planned subject.

Content policy. If you plan on showing off some of your coursework publicly, you must share
only files that you are allowed to. Respect the code of conduct that you signed in the beginning
of each course!

How to contribute

Getting help (Details about our FAQ and chatroom)

Community
3396 online
We have a discord server! This should be your first stop to talk with other
OSSU students. Why don't you introduce yourself right now? Join the OSSU Discord
You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a
change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation.
Read more here.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Add Open Source Society University to your Linkedin profile!
Note: There is an unmaintained and deprecated firebase app that you might find when
searching OSSU. You can safely ignore it. Read more in the FAQ.
Curriculum
Curriculum version: 8.0.0 (see CHANGELOG)

Prerequisites
Intro CS
Introduction to Programming
Introduction to Computer Science
Core CS
Core programming
Core math
CS Tools
Core systems
Core theory
Core security
Core applications
Core ethics
Advanced CS
Advanced programming
Advanced systems
README.md
Advanced theory
Advanced information security
Advanced math
Final project

Prerequisites

Core CS assumes the student has already taken high school math, including algebra,
geometry, and pre-calculus.
Advanced CS assumes the student has already taken the entirety of Core CS and is
knowledgeable enough now to decide which electives to take.
Note that Advanced systems assumes the student has taken a basic physics course (e.g.
AP Physics in high school).

Intro CS

Introduction to Programming

If you've never written a for-loop, or don't know what a string is in programming, start here.
This course is self-paced, allowing you to adjust the number of hours you spend per week to
meet your needs.
Topics covered: simple programs simple data structures

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Introduction to 10 10
none chat
programming weeks hours/week

Introduction to Computer Science

This course will introduce you to the world of computer science. Students who have been
introduced to programming, either from the courses above or through study elsewhere, should
take this course for a flavor of the material to come. If you finish the course wanting more,
Computer Science is likely for you!

Topics covered: computation imperative programming basic data structures and

algorithms and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Introduction to Computer
15 high school
Science and Programming 9 weeks chat
hours/week algebra
using Python (alt)

Core CS

All coursework under Core CS is required, unless otherwise indicated.

Core programming

Topics covered: functional programming design for testing program requirements

common design patterns unit testing object-oriented design static typing
dynamic typing ML-family languages (via Standard ML) Lisp-family languages
(via Racket) Ruby and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Systematic Program
13 8-10 chat: part 1
Design (textbook) none
weeks hours/week / part 2
(alt: part 1 / part 2)

Systematic
Programming 4-8
5 weeks Program Design chat
Languages, Part A hours/week
(Hear instructor)

Programming 4-8 Programming

3 weeks chat
Languages, Part B hours/week Languages, Part A

Programming 4-8 Programming

3 weeks chat
Languages, Part C hours/week Languages, Part B
 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Object-Oriented 4
4 weeks Basic Java
Design hours/week

4 Object-Oriented
Design Patterns 4 weeks
hours/week Design

2-5
Software Architecture 4 weeks Design Patterns
hours/week

Core math

Discrete math (Math for CS) is a prerequisite and closely related to the study of algorithms
and data structures. Calculus both prepares students for discrete math and helps students
develop mathematical maturity.

Topics covered: discrete mathematics mathematical proofs basic statistics O-

notation discrete probability and more

Courses Duration Effort Notes Prerequisites Discussion

The
alternate
Calculus 1A:
13 6-10 covers this high school
Differentiation chat
weeks hours/week and the math
(alt)
following 2
courses

Calculus 1B: 13 5-10

- Calculus 1A chat
Integration weeks hours/week

Calculus 1C:
Coordinate 5-10
6 weeks - Calculus 1B chat
Systems & hours/week
Infinite Series

2015/2019
solutions
Mathematics
13 5 2010
for Computer Calculus 1C chat
weeks hours/week solutions
Science (alt)
2005
solutions.

CS Tools

Understanding theory is important, but you will also be expected to create programs. There are
a number of tools that are widely used to make that process easier. Learn them now to ease
your future work writing programs.
Topics covered: terminals and shell scripting vim command line environments
version control and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

The Missing Semester of 12

2 weeks - chat
Your CS Education hours/week

Core systems

Topics covered: procedural programming manual memory management boolean algebra

gate logic memory computer architecture assembly machine language virtual
machines high-level languages compilers operating systems network protocols
and more

Additional
Courses Duration Effort Text / Prerequisites Discussion
Assignments

Build a
Modern
Computer
C-like
from First 7-13
6 weeks - programming chat
Principles: hours/week
language
From Nand
to Tetris
(alt)

Build a
Modern one of these
Computer programming
12-18
from First 6 weeks - languages, chat
hours/week
Principles: From Nand to
Nand to Tetris Part I
Tetris Part II

Operating
Systems: 10-12 6-10 Nand to
- chat
Three Easy weeks hours/week Tetris Part II
Pieces

Computer
algebra,
Networking: 4–12 Wireshark
8 weeks probability, chat
a Top-Down hours/week Labs
basic CS
Approach

Core theory
Topics covered: divide and conquer sorting and searching randomized algorithms
graph search shortest paths data structures greedy algorithms minimum
spanning trees dynamic programming NP-completeness and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Divide and Conquer,

any programming
Sorting and
4-8 language,
Searching, and 4 weeks chat
hours/week Mathematics for
Randomized
Computer Science
Algorithms

Divide and Conquer,

Graph Search, Sorting and
4-8
Shortest Paths, and 4 weeks Searching, and chat
hours/week
Data Structures Randomized
Algorithms

Greedy Algorithms,
Graph Search,
Minimum Spanning 4-8
4 weeks Shortest Paths, and chat
Trees, and Dynamic hours/week
Data Structures
Programming

Shortest Paths
Greedy Algorithms,
Revisited, NP-
4-8 Minimum Spanning
Complete Problems 4 weeks chat
hours/week Trees, and Dynamic
and What To Do
Programming
About Them

Core security

Topics covered Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability Secure Design Defensive

Programming Threats and Attacks Network Security Cryptography and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Cybersecurity 10-12
8 weeks - chat
Fundamentals hours/week

Principles of Secure
4 weeks 4 hours/week - chat
Coding

Identifying Security
4 weeks 4 hours/week - chat
Vulnerabilities

Choose one of the following:

 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Identifying Security
5
Vulnerabilities in 4 weeks - chat
hours/week
C/C++Programming

Exploiting and Securing

5
Vulnerabilities in Java 4 weeks - chat
hours/week
Applications

Core applications

Topics covered: Agile methodology REST software specifications refactoring

relational databases transaction processing data modeling neural networks
supervised learning unsupervised learning OpenGL ray tracing and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Databases: Modeling 10
2 weeks core programming chat
and Theory hours/week

Databases: Relational 10
2 weeks core programming chat
Databases and SQL hours/week

Databases: 10
2 weeks core programming chat
Semistructured Data hours/week

11 9
Machine Learning Basic coding chat
weeks hours/week

Computer Graphics 12 C++ or Java, linear

6 weeks chat
(alt) hours/week algebra

Software Core Programming,

8-10
Engineering: 4 weeks and a sizable chat
hours/week
Introduction project

Core ethics

Topics covered: Social Context Analytical Tools Professional Ethics

Intellectual Property Privacy and Civil Liberties and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Ethics, Technology and 2

9 weeks none chat
Engineering hours/week

Introduction to Intellectual 2
4 weeks none chat
Property hours/week
 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

3
Data Privacy Fundamentals 3 weeks none chat
hours/week

Advanced CS

After completing every 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 take every course that is relevant to the field they intend to go
into.

Advanced programming

Topics covered: debugging theory and practice goal-oriented programming parallel

computing object-oriented analysis and design UML large-scale software
architecture and design and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites

6-8
Parallel Programming 4 weeks Scala programming
hours/week

6-8
Compilers 9 weeks none
hours/week

Introduction to 14
- -
Haskell weeks

Learn Prolog Now! 12

- -
(alt)* weeks

Python, object-oriented
Software Debugging 8 weeks 6 hours/week
programming

Python, programming
Software Testing 4 weeks 6 hours/week
experience

(*) book by Blackburn, Bos, Striegnitz (compiled from source, redistributed under CC license)

Advanced systems

Topics covered: digital signaling combinational logic CMOS technologies

sequential logic finite state machines processor instruction sets caches
pipelining virtualization parallel processing virtual memory synchronization
primitives system call interface and more
 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Notes

Computation Alternate links

10 6
Structures 1: Digital Nand2Tetris II contain all 3
weeks hours/week
Circuits alt1 alt2 courses.

Computation
Structures 2: 10 6 Computation
Computer weeks hours/week Structures 1
Architecture

Computation
Structures 3: 10 6 Computation
Computer weeks hours/week Structures 2
Organization

Advanced theory

Topics covered: formal languages Turing machines computability event-driven

concurrency automata distributed shared memory consensus algorithms state
machine replication computational geometry theory propositional logic
relational logic Herbrand logic game trees and more

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites

Theory of 13 10 Mathematics for Computer

Computation (alt) weeks hours/week Science, logic, algorithms

Computational 16 8
algorithms, C++
Geometry weeks hours/week

3 mathematical thinking, probability,

Game Theory 8 weeks
hours/week calculus

Advanced Information Security

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites

4-6 understanding basic web

Web Security Fundamentals 5 weeks
hours/week technologies

Security Governance & 3

3 weeks -
Compliance hours/week

2-3
Digital Forensics Concepts 3 weeks Core Security
hours/week

Secure Software
1-2 Core Programming and
Development: Requirements, 7 weeks
hours/week Core Security
Design, and Reuse
 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites

Secure Software
Secure Software
1-2 Development:
Development: 7 weeks
hours/week Requirements, Design, and
Implementation
Reuse

Secure Software Secure Software

1-2
Development: Verification 7 weeks Development:
hours/week
and More Specialized Topics Implementation

Advanced math

Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites Discussion

Essence of Linear
- - high school math chat
Algebra

14 12 corequisite: Essence
Linear Algebra chat
weeks hours/week of Linear Algebra

Introduction to
14 12
Numerical Linear Algebra chat
weeks hours/week
Methods

Introduction to 10 4-8
Set Theory chat
Formal Logic weeks hours/week

15 5-10 Differentiation and

Probability chat
weeks hours/week Integration

Final project

OSS University is project-focused. The assignments and exams for each course are to prepare
you to use your knowledge to solve real-world problems.

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, but the project will also validate and
consolidate your knowledge. You can create something entirely new, or you can find an
existing project that needs help via websites like CodeTriage or First Timers Only.

Students who would like more guidance in creating a project may choose to use a series of
project oriented courses. Here is a sample of options (many more are available, at this point
you should be capable of identifying a series that is interesting and relevant to you):
 Courses Duration Effort Prerequisites

12 15
Fullstack Open programming
weeks hours/week

freshman-level physics, linear

Modern Robotics 26 2-5
algebra, calculus, linear
(Specialization) weeks hours/week
ordinary differential equations

Data Mining 30 2-5

machine learning
(Specialization) weeks hours/week

30 3-5
Big Data (Specialization) none
weeks hours/week

Internet of Things 30 1-5

strong programming
(Specialization) weeks hours/week

Cloud Computing 30 2-6

C++ programming
(Specialization) weeks hours/week

Data Science 43 1-6

none
(Specialization) weeks hours/week

Functional Programming 29 4-5 One year programming

in Scala (Specialization) weeks hours/week experience

Game Design and

6 5 programming, interactive
Development with Unity
months hours/week design
2020 (Specialization)

Evaluation

Upon completing your final project:

Submit your project's information to PROJECTS via a pull request.

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

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>

Use our community channels to announce it to your fellow students.

Solicit feedback from your OSSU peers. 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.

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.

Cooperative work

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

Which programming languages should I use?

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

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

Congratulations

After completing the requirements of the curriculum above, you will have completed the
equivalent of a full bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Congratulations!

What is next for you? The possibilities are boundless and overlapping:

Look for a job as a developer!

Check out the readings for classic books you can read that will sharpen your skills and
expand your knowledge.
Join a local developer meetup (e.g. via meetup.com).
Pay attention to emerging technologies in the world of software development:
Explore the actor model through Elixir, a new functional programming language for
the web based on the battle-tested Erlang Virtual Machine!
Explore borrowing and lifetimes through Rust, a systems language which achieves
memory- and thread-safety without a garbage collector!
Explore dependent type systems through Idris, a new Haskell-inspired language with
unprecedented support for type-driven development.
Code of conduct
OSSU's code of conduct.

How to show your progress

1. Create an account in Trello.

2. Copy this board to your personal account. See how to copy a board here.

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

We also have labels 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 were added by the
student.
Doing : cards with that label represent courses the student is currently 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 a course.
Section : cards with that label represent the section that we have in our curriculum.
Those cards with the Section label are only to help the organization of the Done column.
You should put the Course's cards below its respective Section'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 be public or private.

Team
 Eric Douglas: founder of OSSU
Josh Hanson: lead technical maintainer
Waciuma Wanjohi: lead academic maintainer
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