Programming Foundations: Fundamentals

Course details

Gain the core knowledge to begin programming in any language. In this course, instructor Annyce Davis uses Python to explore the core concepts and structure of programming languages and helps you grasp what’s going on under the hood. After going over basic statements and expressions in Python, Annyce explores strings, variables, and conditional code—which are common topics in all programming languages. She also shows how to work with different kinds of data and troubleshoot a variety of errors. Along the way, she compares how code is written in several different languages and provides guidance on the criteria to use when choosing a programming language. Upon wrapping up this course, you’ll have the knowledge you need to continue your coding journey in whichever language piques your interest.

Learning objectives
Writing source code
Basic statements and expressions
Working with numbers and strings
Writing conditional code
Increasing your efficiency with functions
Working with comments
Making decisions in code
Troubleshooting errors
Learning about other languages

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - The fundamentals of programming
02 - Following along with the course

1. Programming Basics

03 - What is programming
04 - What is a programming language
05 - Writing source code
06 - Running your code
07 - Using an IDE

2. Programming Syntax

08 - Why Python
09 - Installing Python on a Mac
10 - Installing Python on Windows
11 - Running Python on the command line on Mac
12 - Running Python on the command line on Windows
13 - Installing Visual Studio Code on a Mac
14 - Installing Visual Studio Code on Windows
15 - Running Python in an IDE
16 - Basic statements and expressions
17 - Troubleshooting issues

3. Variables and Data Types

18 - Introduction to variables and data types
19 - Variables across languages
20 - Working with numbers
21 - Working with strings
22 - Properly using whitespace
23 - Working with comments
24 - Challenge - What's the output
25 - Solution - What's the output

4. Conditional Code

26 - Making decisions in code
27 - Exploring conditional code
28 - Working with simple conditions
29 - Conditionals across languages
30 - Challenge - Guessing game
31 - Solution - Guessing game

5. Modular Code

32 - Introduction to functions
33 - Creating and calling functions
34 - Setting parameters and arguments
35 - Returning values from functions
36 - Functions across languages
37 - Challenge - Favorite cities
38 - Solution - Favorite cities

Glossaries

Conclusion

39 - Exploring languages
40 - Next steps

Programming Foundations: Fundamentals

Authors

Annyce Davis