About this course

This programming course takes a unique approach, as it focuses on learning a systematic programming method rather than a programming language. This practical approach will help you channel your creativity so that you can program well in any language.

This course, part of the Software Development MicroMasters Program, presents a core design method with a focus on numbers, strings, images and lists.

You will learn techniques to:

• Develop program requirements
• Produce programs with consistent structure that are easy to modify later
• Make your programs more reliable by building tests as an integral part of the programming process.

This course concludes with the design of a simple interactive game.

Learners who enroll in the Verified track will receive staff grading for the course project and increased interaction with the instructor and staff.

What you’ll learn

• How to represent information as data
• How to focus each part of your program on a single task
• How to use examples and tests to clarify what your program should do
• How to simplify the structure of your program using common patterns
• Recognize and represent more complicated information