Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by carb 5193 days ago
I haven't taken the class, but have helped many friends through the course if they needed it.

The class is more of an introduction to programming using Python than a class about learning Python the language. They learned some things like sorting, searching, testing, basic hash tables, etc. However, the primary reasons the course exists are to see let students explore Computer Science or because their major requires that they take either 6.00 (This course) or 1.00 (Same type of course, but in Java.)

If you want to learn Python and you're an experienced programmer, this class will take you maybe a night or two to breeze through. I would recommend taking other courses on OCW instead though with a more specific focus. If you want basic-intermediate algorithms, take 6.006. If you want low-level, 6.004 is a great introduction. (If you want advanced algorithms, buy CLRS and take 6.046).

tl;dr: 6.00 is more for people that have never programmed anything before, not to learn Python.