CS50 photo

If you’re interested in taking the course, go to this EDx page or go to this official page for CS50x

CS50x is one of the largest Computer Science course provided by HarvardX, it’s available online and is free.

A few weeks ago, I decided to finally complete the CS50x course. So in this post, I’m going to explain to you what to expect in this course, my impression, and how much work do you need to complete this course. Let’s start from me. I wrote down how much time I spent working on the Problem Sets of CS50x, and I spent 47 hours total to complete 10 problem sets, 10 labs, and 1 final project in 8 days.

Course Structure & More About It

This is a course with 10 Lectures, 10 Labs, 10 Problem Sets, and 1 Final Project. (per 2021)

  1. Lectures
    One lecture per week, about 1 to 2 hours long.
  2. Labs
    Labs are made to prepare yourself for Problem Sets, usually not as strict as Problem Sets, because you may be allowed to collab with one or two classmates.
  3. Problem Sets
    This is the real assignment and is meant to be solved by yourself. This part is known for moderately time consuming and difficult.
  4. Final Project
    At the end, you’ll have to submit a final project in form of app. The course gives you freedom in choosing technologies and platforms that you like. You probably will have to create a presentation for it, upload it to YouTube public/unlisted. There is a gallery for the final projects where students who accept, will have their final project displayed.

Where I’m Coming From & What I Think

According to CS50’s FAQ, two-thirds (2/3) of CS50 students have never taken a CS course before. With that said, I’m currently an Information Systems student in my final year, and you can safely assume that I’m familiar with some parts of the course like algorithm, and languages like C and Python.

After reflecting back on it, I’m somewhere in between calling it difficult. It’s definitely not easy for me, it took me a lot of trial and error to solve a Problem Set. A word that fits this course is “challenging”.
David J. Malan, the lecturer of this course, did a great job teaching this course, the crew also did a great job visualizing lots of concepts to know. The lectures is done very well in explaining things and make them very exciting.

What You Get

CS50 certificate

After taking this course, you’re going to be much more familiar with hands-on technologies such as C and Python Programming Language, solving problems using algorithms, and you’ll have some insight into how computers use memory to store data, and some insight into Web Development.

Also if you complete the course and score at least 70% for each assignments, you’ll get an E-Certificate. My favorite part is that it used to hosted under harvard.edu’s subdomain. But I recently moved under cs50.io instead. But you can still hyperlinks to harvard’s and it will redirect to cs50’s. Still, I do like the fact that it’s associated with Harvard. It brings more leverage aside from the course itself being one of the best free CS course you could take online.

Final Thoughts

CS50 is very worth taking, the lectures are one of the best, and the assignments are challenging. About difficulty, I’m going to agree with what most people say: CS50 is rather time consuming than difficult. You’re expected to solve way more difficult problems in the Problem Sets than what you get from the Lecture.