15 Best Free Coursera Courses for Beginners to learn Essential Tech Skills in 2024 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you are looking for free Coursera courses to learn new tech skills like cloud computing, AWS, Google Cloud, networking, programming, android app development, and Machine learning, you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best Coursera courses to learn Data Science, Software Development, Cloud Computing, and Web Development, and in this article, I am going to share the best free Coursera courses you can join to learn in-demand skills. The list contains both permanent free courses, I mean courses that have been free from the beginning, and some free courses for learners in India for a limited amount of time. 

Learners from India can join these free courses until June, and they will learn new skills and receive a free certificate. I also intend to make this article a master resource for free tech-related Coursera courses. 

I have also added many popular free courses from Coursera, like the Machine Learning course by Andrew Ng, which is joined by more than 4 million people worldwide, and Algorithms free courses by Robert Sedgewick of Princeton University. 

These courses are offered by top-class Universities like The University of Edinburgh, Stamford, University of Toronto, Princeton University, and companies like Amazon Web Services, Vmware, Atlassian, and Google Cloud.

I am also thinking of adding new free Coursera courses every now and then, which would be useful for programmers, developers, and IT professionals. So, you can bookmark this article or subscribe for updates so that whenever we add a new free Coursera course, you will receive a notification. 

15 Best Free Coursera Courses for Coding, Data Science, and Cloud Computing for Beginners in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time, here is a list of the best free Coursera courses to learn programming, algorithms, machine learning, Git, Cloud Computing with AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, and courses to learn app development with Android. 

1. Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose [FREE]

If you are looking for a free Coursera course to learn Java Programming from scratch, this course is for you. This 88-hour long course is taught by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne, authors of the famous Algorithms book and very well-known teachers.

This course beginners Java programming from basic variables, conditionals, loops, arrays, and I/O. After that, you will learn about functions, recursion, modular programming, and code reuse, and finally, an introduction to object-oriented programming.

The course covers the first half of their book Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach (the second half is covered in their Coursera course Computer Science: Algorithms, Theory, and Machines). All the course features are free, but it does not offer a certificate upon completion.

2. Algorithms Part I and II

This is another awesome free Coursera course for Java programmers and others who want to learn Data Structure and Algorithms from Princeton University course material. This course covers the essential information that every serious programmer needs to know about algorithms and data structures, emphasizing applications and scientific performance analysis of Java implementations.

This is a two-part course where part I covers elementary data structures, sorting and searching algorithms, and their implementation in Java. Similar to the previous courses, this course is completely free, but it doesn't offer any certificate on completion.

The second part of this free Algorithms course on Coursera covers graph and string-processing algorithms. This course is also taught by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne, and it's completely free on Coursera.

If you want to improve your data structure and algorithm skills, you can join this free course and start learning today from your home or office. More than 26% of people started a new career after completing these courses, and 28% got a tangible career benefit. 14% also got a pay increase or promotion.

3. Build Your First Android App (Project-Centered Course)

If you want to learn Android app development and are looking for a Coursera course, this one is for you. This project-centered course will teach you how to design, build, and distribute applications on the Android mobile platform. 

This course provides you with a set of customizable building blocks that you can assemble to create many different types of apps. After completing the project and having a personalized app that you can use and share, you’ll have the skills and background to move on to more advanced coursework in Android development. 

I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn Android app development, and it's currently free for learners in India.

4. Learn to Program: The Fundamentals by University of Toronto

If you want to learn how to code or program on Coursera for free, you should join this course. This course introduces the fundamental building blocks of programming and teaches you how to write fun and useful programs using the Python language. 

Here are things you will learn in this course:

• Python Syntax And Semantics
• Computer Programming
• Python Programming

Overall, a great course for refreshing your python basics and any beginner looking to learn to program with Python. After completing this course and practicing the assignments, you will be in a comfortable position. This course is offered by the University of Toronto.

5. Version Control with Git

If you are looking for a Coursera course to learn Version Control with Git, the most powerful and popular version control tool, this course is for you. Atlassian, the company behind JIRA, Confluence, etc. This course is also free for learners in India. They can enroll in this course until the end of next month to earn a free certificate.

In this course, you will not learn everything about Git, but you will build a strong conceptual understanding of how git works and, afterward, will be able to confidently dig deeper into any topic that interests you. This course required no previous knowledge of Git, but if you have worked with git before, you may find this course to be both useful and challenging.

There are two paths in this course. Both rely heavily on hands-on labs. One path assumes that you have experience using a command-line interface and the other path uses the Sourcetree GUI client.

If you are not experienced with a command line, I recommend going through the Sourcetree path. Eventually, you might want to go through both paths to decide which tool to use for specific tasks. Besides, repetition is good for learning :)

6. Migrating to Google Cloud

This is another awesome course on Cloud Computing by Google Cloud Platform,     and this one is also free for learners in India and gives them a chance to earn a free certificate if they enroll by the end of June.

If you are migrating your application to Cloud, particularly to Google Cloud Platform, and need a fundamental course, this is for you. In this, you will learn strategies to migrate from a source environment to Google Cloud. You will learn about fundamental Google Cloud concepts and advanced stuff like creating virtual machines, configuring networks, and managing access and identities.

The course also covers the installation and migration process of Migrate for Compute Engine, including special features like test clones and wave migrations. It will take approximately 20 hours to complete this course, and it's completely online.

7. Introduction to Cloud Identity

This is another amazing cloud computing course from Coursera and Google Cloud Platform, free for learners from India until the end of next month. This course will teach you fundamental concepts about Cloud Identity, Identity, and Access Management, which admins can use to begin their journey of managing and establishing security and access management best practices for their organization.

Here are things you will learn in this course

• How to establish a Cloud Identity domain for their organization or personal domain.
• How to Add Users to practice user lifecycle management.
• How to Modify user permissions to understand core Cloud Identity features.
• How to Add mobile devices within the Google Mobile Management module.
• How to Modify mobile management policy sets to gain familiarity with product options.
• How to Navigate the Reports module and practice running reports.
• How to Explore and apply different security protocols to the domain.

Overall a great course for admins who wants to learn about access control and security on the Google Cloud Platform.

 

8. Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming

If you have always wanted to learn how to program and code and looking for free resources, then this Coursera course is for you. This cours is offered by the University of Edinburgh, and it's free for learners from India until next month.

If you have always wanted to learn how to program but had no idea where to start from then, don't worry; this course will teach you how to program in Scratch, an easy-to-use visual programming language.

More importantly, it will introduce you to the fundamental principles of computing, and it will help you think like a software engineer.

9. Introduction to AWS Identity and Access Management

This is another amazing Coursera course offered by one of the tech giants, Amazon Web Service itself. If you want to learn Identity and Access Management in AWS then this course is for you. More than 8800 people have already joined this course and it's also free for learners from India who can earn before the end of next month to earn a free certificate.

This course aims to teach you foundational knowledge and skills that will enable you to grow in your use of both AWS IAM and the rest of the AWS ecosystem. Throughout the course, the focus will be on the base-level knowledge needed for understanding the functionality of IAM and simple ways to implement its usage.

This is a beginner-level course that takes almost 11 hours to complete. It's also expected that you are familiar with AWS's basic concepts and core services, like what regions and availability zones are? And what is Amazon EC2, S3, VPC, etc.?

10. Google Cloud Fundamentals for Azure Professionals: Core Infrastructure

This is another awesome course offered by Google Cloud Platform for Azure professionals who want to learn Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This course is also free for learners in India, and it also offers a free certificate from Coursera. This course also has Hands-on labs, which give you foundational skills for working with GCP.

This course will teach you important concepts and terminology for working with Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You learn about and compare many computing and storage services available in Google Cloud Platform, including Google App Engine, Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage, Google Cloud SQL, BigQuery, and  Google Kubernetes Engine.

You will also learn about important resource and policy management tools, such as the Google Cloud Resource Manager hierarchy and Google Cloud Identity and Access Management.

11. Networking and Security Architecture with VMware NSX

If you are looking for an online course to learn Networking and Security Architecture on VMware, this course is for you. This course is offered by Vmware itself, and it's also free for learners in India until the end of next month. This 8-week online course equips learners with the basics of network virtualization with VMware NSX.

Here are things covered in this course:

• Network virtualization basics
• NSX business value and use cases
• How NSX is different from traditional networking
• Understanding of networking and security solution architecture with VMware NSX

To get the most out of this course, you should have familiarity with generic IT concepts of routing, switching, firewalling, disaster recovery, business continuity, cloud, and security.

12. Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals for AWS Professionals

If you are an AWS user who wants to learn Google Cloud Platform, another promising public cloud platform, particularly for Machine learning and Big Data, then this course is for you. This hands-on course will teach Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in the four technology pillars: networking, compute, storage, and database.

Here are key things covered in this course:

• How to identify GCP counterparts for Amazon VPC, subnets, routes, Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, auto-scaling, Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon S3,  Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, AWS IAM, and more
• How to Configure accounts, billing, projects, networks, subnets, firewalls, VMs, disks, auto-scaling, load balancing, storage, databases, IAM, and more
• How to manage and monitor applications
• How to explain feature and pricing model differences
• How to locate documentation and training.

It is specially designed for AWS Solution Architects and SysOps Administrators familiar with AWS features and setup and who want to gain experience configuring GCP products immediately. With presentations, demos, and hands-on labs, participants quickly get details of similarities, differences, and initial how-tos.

13. Introduction to Programming with MATLAB

If you are new to programming and want to learn to program with MATLAB, a special-purpose programming language, this course is for you. This course is offered by Vanderbilt University, and it's completely free to join, in fact almost 400K people have already joined this course.

 MATLAB is a special-purpose language that is an excellent choice for writing moderate-size programs that solve problems involving manipulating numbers.

Here are key skills you will learn in this course:

• Fundamental computer programming concepts include variables, control structures, functions, etc.
• Various data types and how to handle them in MATLAB.
• How to work with matrices in MATLAB
• How to do file input/output in MATLAB.

This course teaches computer programming to those with little to no previous experience. It uses the programming system and language called MATLAB because it is easy to learn, versatile, and very useful for engineers and other professionals.

14. Getting Started with AWS Machine Learning

This is another Coursera course that is free for learners in India, offered by Amazon Web Services. You can use this course to learn MachineLlearning on the AWS Cloud platform. Machine learning (ML) is one of the fastest-growing areas in technology and a highly sought-after skill set in today’s job market. 

This course will teach you how to get started with AWS Machine Learning. You will learn about Machine Learning on AWS, Computer Vision on AWS, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Each topic consists of several modules deep-diving into various ML concepts, AWS services, and insights from experts to put the concepts into practice.

Having good knowledge of Machine learning on public cloud platforms like AWS is a very in-demand skill, and that's what you will learn here.

15. Machine Learning by Andrew Ng

This is probably the most popular machine learning course on Planet and many people, including myself, have learned Machine learning from this course. This one is created by none other than Andrew Ng, one of the pioneers of teaching Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence as well as one of the Coursera founders. More than 4 million people have already joined this course. 

Here are things you will learn in this course:

• Supervised learning
• Unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction, recommender systems, deep learning).
• Best practices in machine learning
• Case studies

This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning, data mining, and statistical pattern recognition. It also shares many case studies and applications so that you'll also learn how to apply learning algorithms to building smart robots, text understanding, computer vision, database mining, and other areas. 

The best thing about this course is that it's free, and you can join it anytime to start with Machine learning.  

That's all about the best free Coursera courses for Programmers, Developers, and IT professionals to join in 2024 and learn essential tech skills. You can enroll in these Coursera courses for free, and learners from India can even get free certificates for many of these courses but only until June. Coursera supports learners in India by offering them quality courses and certificates for free. 

Other courses are free, but you may not get a free certificate there, but you can use them to learn in-demand tech skills like Machine Learning, Algorithms, Java, Programming, Cloud Computing, Android App Development, and much more.


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