CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript Course Review

If you have been following this blog and/or my Youtube channel, you know how big a fan I am of CS50’s original course — Introduction to Computer Science.

CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript – https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50s-web-programming-python-and-javascript?delta=0
CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science – https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

After finishing that course, to my delight, I saw that they have many other follow-up courses such as their CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python as well as this one, CS50’s Web Programming with Python and JavaScript, which is the topic of this review.

Just like the previous course, CS50 Web is divided into 8 “weeks” (I like to think of these as just ‘sections’, as you can spend any time you want with each), each consisting of a roughly 2-hour video lecture, accompanying lecture notes as well as a project which applies the contents learned in that week’s materials.

As you’ll see, this time the projects are much more substantial than the original CS50’s problem sets.

This is also the biggest difference compared to the original CS50. The projects are much more involved and difficult, often taking me several days each to complete. But I think this is actually a very good thing, for several reasons which I will discuss a bit later.

You’ll essentially learn how to build full web applications on your own using the Django Python framework. In fact, you’ll already build several of these during the course.

To my initial disappointment, another difference from CS50 is that CS50 Web is not taught by the renowned David Malan, but instead by CS50’s assistant teacher Brian Yu.

This disappointment was quickly forgotten as I got used to Brian’s equally engaging and intuitive teaching style. Just like David, he explains concepts extremely clearly and in a way that makes you genuinely excited about the topics.

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0:00 Intro
1:00 CS50 vs CS50 Web
2:33 The Lectures
4:56 The Projects
6:40 But, is it hard?
9:05 Should you do it?

Tags: cs50, cs50web, harvard university, harvard cs, harvard computer science, edx, mooc, David malan, brian yu, best online course to learn computer science, coding, programming, software engineer, self taught programmer, web app, how to become a software engineer, self-taught software developer, no cs degree, learn computer science, programmer, getting a programming job, web developer,code bootcamp vs college

DISCLAIMER: some of the links in the description may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service using the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. This is no extra charge to you!

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46 Comments

  1. I'm 30 years old Industrial Engineer that migrated to Data Science 6 years ago and have been escalating empirically to be today a Machine Learning Engineer, but right now I'm having a hard time filling the gaps in my core knowledge, especially in computer science stuff, do you recommend me to start with this and the intro to CS? I'm trying to build also a roadmap to strengthen my base knowledge but it would be great to hear other people opinion.

  2. Good review man, a month ago I became a web developer after a while and I always look forward to learn more, I like to challenge myself to become better because web dev and trading stocks and crypto has a similarity and it is we learn something new everyday, I have been taking a look to this Harvard courses to improve my skills and also I have taken few courses from Harvard and in fact the are all worth so I thinking to get in just to see what else I can learn out of it. Thank you for your time and for this video.

  3. "You want to split the lectures into multiple parts"

    Yeah, that's basically how I usually approach the lectures in cs50x, I very rarely wach an entire lecture in a single day. Specially cuz I like to take time to also try out the code they write there on my on computer to see how it works. So usually, I take like two days to watch a single lecture.

  4. I submitted 2 projects and received the following notification:

    Current Progress

    0 of 6 assignments complete.

    During the week of 9 January 2023, our gradebooks will archive past progress; be sure to review your course's FAQ for exactly how this may affect what you see on this page in the meantime!

    P0

    Project 0: Search

    Your submission has been received. Be sure you've submitted your Google Form as well! It may take up to three weeks for your submission to be graded, please be patient. Also note that your submissions will not necessarily be graded in order.

    P1

    Project 1: Wiki

    Your submission has been received. Be sure you've submitted your Google Form as well! It may take up to three weeks for your submission to be graded, please be patient. Also note that your submissions will not necessarily be graded in order.

    What you need to know: Be sure you've submitted your Google Form as well!

  5. Agreed, I had the most boring monotone voiced teacher with zero enthusiasm for an intro to cs course many years ago and ended up dropping it.

  6. You Always inspire me Thanks a lot I like your content so great to have you I have a question I hv basic understanding or I can say even more in html and css now I just started the CS50w web programming with python and Javascript but I did not took the CS50 Computer Science Introduction so is it it like what do you say is better to stop the cs50W and start the cs50 computer science or I should stick with the cs50w then take cs50 Thanks

  7. about 4 month ago I watched your cs50x review and It got me interested so I started doing it. Now I'm working on my final project of cs50w, so I just want to thank you for introducing me to this course.
    also what did you start doing after cs50w if you don't mind, cuz I'm not sure what to do after finishing it.

  8. If I already have taken 2 years worth of csci classes involving languages like JavaScript, python, c++ and html/css am I fine to start with CS50 Web? Or should I start with regular CS50?

  9. I've been watching videos of CS50. I've also been learning Java for more than two years and JavaScript for a couple of months. . Would you recommend starting CS50w without actually taking CS50 and doing all the projects there first?

  10. hey man. Great stuff. i started to learn HTML and CSS and i want to continue with Javascript and so on. Do i need to take the computer science course before the web programming one?

  11. For anyone that's amazed that Harvard is giving these courses away for free… It's because the goal is to make software engineers cheap by flooding the market. It's not some altruistic move on their part to help people lift themselves out of poverty or whatever pie in the sky nonsense you want to attribute to them. It's purely profit driven.

  12. congratulations for this wonderful video, just came accross ur channel! Awesome job. I was wondering isnt the edX paid version of the course more "aknowledged" or "verified" of some sort? i cant understand the reason why Harvard has both options since edX is founded by them and MIT

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