Learn Java the Hard Way

( 8 Reviews )

Created by: Graham Mitchell

Produced in 2013

Quality Score

Content Quality

Video Quality

Qualified Instructor

Course Pace

Course Depth & Coverage

Overall Score : 92 / 100

Course Description

"Learn Java the Hard Way" is a book with tutorial videos that teaches you how to code the same way a lot of us learned as children in the 1980s: typing in short, simple programs and getting them to work.The exercises and explanations in this book are distilled from my nearly two decades of experience teaching programming to ordinary students. Over 2,000 students have taken my classes and nine months later almost all of them knew how to code - at least a little!If you have ever bought another Java book for "beginners" and been lost by page 10, then my book is for you.

Beginner Level

Instructor Details

Graham Mitchell

4.6 Rating
8 Reviews

Graham taught Computer Science at Leander High School (near Austin, TX) for twenty years (fall 1997 - spring 2017). Most authors of "how to code" text books have never worked in the classroom or have only taught university students who are already majoring in Computer Science or who have quite a bit of prior experience. And although he has had a lot of exceptional students over the years, most of his students were regular kids with zero experience and no particular aptitude for programming. Graham taught them to code, and he can teach you.

Students also recommend

Java Programming (2013)

4.8 (12 Reviews)

Provider: University of Helsinki MOOC

Free

Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners (2013)

4.4 (51 Reviews)

Provider: Udemy
Time: 16h

11.99

Java Video Tutorial (2011)

4.5 (13 Reviews)

Provider: YouTube
Time: 22h

Free

More Courses

Reviews

4.6

8 total reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star

Write a Review

By [deleted] on 2/19/2019

The book is a good way to get started from the absolute basics. I like the emphasis on using Notepad++, which is very simple, along with the command line to execute programs- this approach is much simpler to begin with, as opposed to using a full IDE (such as Netbeans or IntelliJ).

By pauldpearson on 4/17/2017

I did the Learn Java Book and website and found it very verbose and pretty basic.

By ThreeViewsofASecret on 4/14/2017

It was fun! Challenging at times, but I found it was less technically informative than I'd like. I used google-fu to define a lot of of the code you're given and make sense of nomenclature which wasn't expounded upon in the book

By AbigailLilac on 12/7/2015

There are a lot of learning resources out there that baby you too much and never take off the training wheels. On the other side of things, there are a lot of resources for "beginners" out there that leave people confused and put off. Learn Java the Hard Way strikes a good balance. The author is great at what he does.

By BoatZnHoes on 10/24/2015

LJTHW is an awesome book for a total beginner. I studied a bit of java in college but never really got it. Im 90% done with this book and understand and can apply every topic covered. I even find myself wanting to modify the examples to make them more functional or logical.

By adolfnixon on 8/31/2014

I love the lessons so far! This is the first programming language I'm learning and all the instructions have been very plain english and informative.

By kuboa on 8/26/2014

First of all, great book! I'm going through the sample at the moment and will definitely buy the rest. I had tried many times learning Java before (as a means of eventually getting into Android development) but always found the learning materials confusing and uneven in their "teaching curve" (if that's a thing). It looks like this time I'll be able to stick around to the end.

By DougfromDoug on 10/6/2013

I highly recommend Learn Java The Hard Way. It's the most amazing tool I've used to learn Java yet! (Though I've never used an actual classroom haha)