Learn to Program: The Fundamentals
- Free
- Paid certificate
- Beginner
- 3 weeks
Learn to Program: The Fundamentals is the University of Toronto's introduction to programming in Python, hosted on Coursera. Seven modules take you from the first lines of code to working with files: Python, variables and functions; strings and how to design a function; Booleans, import, namespaces and if statements; for loops and string manipulation; while loops, lists and mutability; loops over indices, nested lists and files; and finally tuples and dictionaries. Module estimates on the course page range from two to six hours each.
Coursera marks the course as beginner level with no prior experience required and schedules it at three weeks of ten hours a week on a flexible, self-paced timetable. The course is flagged as free, meaning the full set of modules is open without payment. A shareable certificate exists as a paid option; its price is not shown on the page, and financial aid is listed as available for it.
What you’ll learn
- Write and call Python functions and store values in variables
- Work with strings and design functions that operate on them
- Control program flow with Booleans, if statements, for loops and while loops
- Use lists, tuples and dictionaries and understand mutability
- Read from and write to files in Python
Who it’s for
Complete beginners who want a university-style first course in Python; not intended for people who already program and want an advanced treatment.
Syllabus
7 sections as listed on coursera.org, 24 h 57 min in total.
- Python, Variables, and Functions 2 h 49 min
- Strings and Designing Functions 5 h 5 min
- Booleans, Import, Namespaces, and if Statements 2 h 22 min
- For Loops and Fancy String Manipulation 4 h 46 min
- While Loops, Lists, and Mutability 2 h 13 min
- For Loops Over Indices, Parallel and Nested Lists and Strings, and Files 5 h 48 min
- Tuples and Dictionaries 1 h 54 min
Instructors
- Jennifer Campbell Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
- Paul Gries Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Course details
- Skills covered
- Software Documentation
- Programming Principles
- Computer Programming
- Debugging
- File I/O
- Data Structures
- Python Programming
- Includes
- 7 modules · 8 assignments
- Prerequisites
- No prior experience required
- Subtitles
- 25 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 6,740 learners; 526,173 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Coursera (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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