Top 8 C++ Online Courses for Beginners to Learn in 2024 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, If you want to learn C++ and looking for some awesome courses and books then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best C programming courses, as well as free C++ courses, and the best C++ books for advanced programmers and In this article, I am going to share some of the best courses to learn C++ from scratch. These are the truly great courses from Udemy, Coursera, Pluralsight, and Educative and you can join them to learn C++ online from your home. If you are new to the programming world or have been coding for some time then you know that C++ is one of the most popular and widely used programming languages. It was the first major object-oriented programming language that was used widely by the software development industry as well as in Academia.

Many of us learned to code using C/C++ in the 1990s and early 2000s, and it is still very popular at many coding schools, colleges, and computer science courses in Universities. It's also used widely in the real world. You will find C++ code on server-side applications, video games (Unreal engine), device drivers, embedded programming, and even on high-frequency trading applications.

It's almost everywhere, and fortunately, there is a shortage of good C++ developers, and that's where a lot of opportunities come in and with some really good salary and pay perks.

You might be thinking that C++ is a general-purpose programming language and it is used by millions of developers then why is always a shortage of good C++ developers? One reason for this could be C++ reputation for being hard to learn and use, but with the changes in the language over the last few decades, C++ is now much safer and simpler to learn.

Modern C++ programming (C++11 and onwards) is aimed at making coding simpler, flexible, and reusable. Features like lambdas, templates, smart pointers, type-traits, and threading really give C++ enormous power, and it's not as difficult to code in C++ as it was with classic C++, I mean C++98 and C++03 standards.

It's also growing and getting better constantly because C++20 is scheduled for next year and C++23 is already in progress. Because of this advancement in functionality and sustained focus on making C++ simpler, many developers are learning C++.

The USP of C++ is that it offers a powerful combination of performance and abstraction that other languages don’t have, for example, if you compare C++ with Python, surely Python is easier to learn but you can't get the same performance as C++ which is needed for operating system and games.

8 Best C++ (CPP) Online Courses for Beginners to learn in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time here are the best courses to learn C++ programming from Udemy, Pluralsight, Coursera, Educative and other websites. I have particularly chosen courses that can teach you Modern C++ like C++11 standards and beyond with a focus on C++17 standards.

In these online training courses, you will learn C++ Fundamentals, including C++ 17, how to write simple console applications, and be ready to move on to writing platform-specific code.

 I have not just included normal online courses but also interactive courses where you can write code and execute them without having trouble downloading and setup C++ on your own machine. This actually accelerates your learning and once you get the momentum you can easily complete your C++ IDE setup and install C++ on a local machine or laptop.

1. Beginning C++ Programming - From Beginner to Beyond [Udemy]

This is one of the best courses to learn Modern C++, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), and STL skills needed for gaming, system, and application development.

Created by Tim Buchalka's Learn Programming Academy and Frank J. Mitropoulos this is a well-structured course with a lot of focus on Modern C++ features like lambda, threading, templates, and others.

The best part of the course is instructor Frank J. Mitropouous, who has been using C++ since 1989 and has more than 30 years of experience with C++ in coding and teaching. He is also a Ph.D. and University professor which really brings clarity to all the lectures.

When I joined this course, I was so hooked that I watched for 2 hours without any break, that's a big indication of how good this course is.

If you want to learn C++ from scratch or just want to refresh your C++ knowledge for developing using the Unreal Game engine or writing code for a new VR system, this C++ course is best for you. I strongly encourage all beginners and people who have learned C++ 10 years ago to join this course to learn Modern C++ in depth.

2. C++ For C Programmers [Best Coursera Course]

If you are looking for a C++ course on Coursera then you should check this out. As the title suggested this course is for programmers coming from a C background but it's equally useful if you are coming from Python, Java, or JavaScript background.

All you need is a bit of experience with programming as examples and exercises require a basic understanding of algorithms and object-oriented programming.

This is also a two-part course, in the first part you will learn basics and in the second part, you will learn advanced concepts. This course is well suited for experienced C programmers who want to program in C++.

And, if you find Coursera courses and certifications useful then you should also join the Coursera Plus, a subscription plan from Coursera which provides you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects. It cost around $399/year but its complete worth your money as you get unlimited certificates

3. Learn C++ from Scratch [Free Educative Course]

This is another good course to learn C++ on Educative and it a free of charge. In this free C++ course, you will learn C++ programming from scratch.

This highly interactive course begins with a simple hello world program and proceeds to cover common concepts such as conditional statements, loop statements, and functions in C++.

It then reflects upon the idea of pointers and arrays, as well as the power they give to the programmer to write better code.

Finally, it dives deeper in order to teach advanced concepts such as classes, inheritance, and templates in C++ through interactive challenges and exercises.

4. C++ Fundamentals Including C++ 17 By Kate Gregory [Pluralsight Course]

If you are looking for a great C++ course on Pluralsight then C++ Fundamental by Kate Gregory is the perfect one for you. If you are scared of C++ or a thing that is a difficult programming language with pointers and memory management, think again, this course will show you how easy Modern C++ can be.

Here are the main topics you will learn in this course:

• The basic syntax of variables
• Templates, Operator Overloading, const
• Indirection with pointers and references
• How to avoid manual memory management in C++

Modern C++ is a powerful language that works on a huge variety of platforms and has useful features that other languages don't have. It's used heavily on embedded programming, game programming, and high-performance trading. In fact, a good C++ developer is always in demand and they always have more than offer when they change their job.

Btw, you would need Pluralsight membership to join this course, alternatively, you can take their 10-day free trial to watch this course for free.

5. Learn C++ from CodeCademy [Best CodeCademy Course]

CodeCademy is another website that I love for its interactive learning. They don't cover everything in C++ but you don't need everything as a beginner. All you need to know is the 20% of C++ concepts which are used 80% of the time.

Their interactive website also helps a lot in understanding concepts. I found them interesting and encouraging to do the task and learn the concept along the way. If you love to learn by doing and hands-on learning then you will love this course and CodeCademy in general.

This course will start with the fundamental programming concepts before digging deeper into the more advanced C++ topics. You will build everything from a Harry Potter Sorting Hat to a program that can censor text!

6. Generic Programming Templates in C++ [Best Educative Course]

Templates are one of the many powerful features of Modern C++ programming and with each new C++ standard, they become more important.

Templates provide an efficient way to make your code more flexible and reusable, this way you can avoid repeating code that would otherwise be identical except for different types. Templates also give you the ability to provide abstraction without a performance penalty.

This interactive course from Educative will teach you everything about generic programming Templates. After completing this course you should be able to write flexible and reusable code without any performance penalty.

And, if you find the Educative platform useful for learning and their Grokking courses like Grokking the System Design Interview, Grokking the Object-Oriented Programming interview then consider getting an Educative Subscription that provides access to their 100+ courses for just $18 per month. It's very cost-effective and great for preparing for coding interviews.

7. C++: From Beginner to Expert [Udemy Course]

This course is designed for people who don't have any knowledge about programming and want to program in C++, this means it's perfect for you if you want to start your programming journey using C++.

The course is taught by Arkadiusz Wlodarczyk, a popular instructor from Poland. He is fun and enthusiastic when it comes to teaching. The course covers really basic concepts like variables, loops, conditional statements, arrays, pointers, functions, and many other programming fundamentals.

Talking about social proof this course is trusted by more than 35,000 students and it has on average 4.4 ratings from close to 6700 participants, which is phenomenal.

I recommend this course to only people who are true beginners and don't have any programming experience, for others who know how to code in Java or Python, you will find some lectures very basic.

8. Learn Advanced C++ Programming [Udemy Course]

This is another great C++ course on Udemy to learn about some intermediate to advanced C++, including C++ 11's fantastic additions to the C++ standard. This course is created by none other than John Purcell,  one of the best Udemy instructors and whose free C++ and free Java courses are really popular.

You will learn about STL, advanced C++ programming, and some new features introduced on C++ 11 edition, which is also the most used C++ version in the professional world. 

Talking about social proof, this course is trusted by more than 30,000 students and it has on average 4.4 ratings from close to 4500 participants.

That's all about the best courses to learn C++ from scratch. These courses are great for people starting to learn programming using C++ or programmer coming from different programming language backgrounds like Python, JavaScript, Ruby, or Java. You can pick one or two courses from this list depending upon your liking and whether you can connect to an instructor or not and start following them.

Once you have gone through C++ basics and are comfortable writing and reading C++ programmers, you can start exploring advanced topics like Concurrency and Embedded programming. I will also post some of the advanced C++ courses to master particular areas of C++ like templates, concurrency, and embedded programming, so stay tuned for those.

By the way, if you are wondering how long does it take to learn C++ or you can learn C++ in 21 days as many books and courses claim then you will enjoy this comic which I found on Twitter:

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these best C++ online courses for beginners to learn in 2024 then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are keen to learn C++ Programming but looking for free online training courses to start with then you can also check out this C++ Tutorial for Complete Beginners course by John Purcell on Udemy. More than 400K people have used this free course to learn C++ and you just need a free Udemy account to join this.