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What are the best resources for a beginner to learn C?

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7 Options Considered

7 Options ConsideredPriceLast Updated
The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)
Mar 16, 2018
C Programming: A Modern Approach
Jan 5, 2018
Learn C The Hard Way
Dec 26, 2016
Hackr.io
Jan 4, 2018
C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide
Jan 15, 2018
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The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)

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Endi Sukaj
郭春林
Top Pro

It's excerpted from the idea of its creators

•••
This book is written by Dennis Ritchie, who was one of the main people behind the development and design of C and UNIX.
Laura Kyle
Top Pro

Well known classic

•••
This book is so well known that it's affectionately called "K & R", after the authors. It's been cited in many other books and is familiar to most, if not all, CS students.
Aubrey
Top Pro

Creative, challenging exercises

•••
The challenges at the end of each chapter do a great job of requiring many of the skills learned up to that point. Completing the challenges is a great way of insuring you understand the material.
gilch
Top Con

Teaches bad style

•••
The K&R style works for old Unix mainframe command-line programs that exit after a simple task and leave the cleanup to the OS; where input is only from trusted experts; and most functions are only called internally to the program. The environment is very different today. This style will get yo...
Laura Kyle
Anastasia Marchenkova
Top Con

Out of Date

•••
Some commands and practices are out of date, so errata and googling is needed while going through the book.
Laura Kyle
Anastasia Marchenkova
Top Con

Not for beginners

•••
Assumes familiarity not only with programming concepts but some C language specifics.
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C Programming: A Modern Approach

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Aubrey
Top Pro

Challenges your way of thinking

•••
The book really challenges you to think like a programmer by constantly asking questions that force you to solve problems, rather than telling you how to solve the problem and only asking you to write the syntax.
Aubrey
Top Pro

Written in a very clear, understandable way

•••
The author breaks things down into small pieces and uses examples to explain everything in a very clear way.
Laura Kyle
Top Con

Answers to exercises aren't provided

•••
The exercises throughout the book don't have the exercises provided, which may be a con to beginners.
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Learn C The Hard Way

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Laura Kyle
Top Pro

In-depth look at a variety of topics

•••
The book is not just about C. It'll teach you to become an over-all better programmer and give you a better understanding of computer science. You'll learn about things like testing, debugging, and sorting algorithms.
Laura Kyle
Top Pro

Lots of challenging exercises

•••
The book includes 52 practical projects that include everything from pointers to stacks and queues.
Laura Kyle
Top Con

Not good for complete beginners

•••
Learn C The Hard Way states in the preface that it is not for first-time programmers. If you don't have any background with programming, they suggest you start with Learn Python The Hard Way. Some readers suggest that this book is better suited for developers with at least some experience in...
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Hackr.io

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suchita singh
Top Pro

Recommendation for every programming language/framework/library

•••
Found Python as well as Jenkins:)
suchita singh
Top Pro

Nice filters

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Free, Video, Book, Beginner, Advanced, etc.
suchita singh
Top Pro

Community Trust

•••
Instead of getting a recommendation from a single dev, you get recommendation from the entire programming community.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide

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Aubrey
Top Pro

Short chapters

•••
There are 32 chapters in the book, which is 352 pages long. The short chapters make it extremely easy to use this book as a reference, and breaks everything down into small pieces that are easy to digest.
Laura Kyle
Top Con

Slow for someone with prior experience

•••
This book, as the title suggests, is really aimed at people with no prior programming experience. Fundamentals are gone through in detail (such as loops, variables etc.), which would be quite a slow review for someone with experience in another language.

CS50x - HarvardX (edX)

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Laura Kyle
Top Pro

High quality instruction

•••
CS50x is the actual Harvard course turned into a MOOC, with the lectures filmed from the actual Harvard course. The problem sets are all the same as well. This has resulted in the quality of the course being extremely high.
Laura Kyle
Top Pro

Really in-depth

•••
The reason the time demand for the course is so great is because of how in-depth it is. CS50 has you programming in C right from the start. Computer Science concepts, such as runtime analysis and data structures, are also taught very early on and applied in projects. Along with C, this course wi...
Laura Kyle
Top Pro

Amazing instructors

•••
The instructors are very enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable. The main professor uses a variety of fun examples to demonstrate points, often making for exciting and funny lectures.
Laura Kyle
Top Con

Large demand on time

•••
The course is very fast-paced. Weekly suggested readings are usually a couple of chapters from two different text books, there are hours of videos each week, plus problem sets that often take a beginner many hours to complete. In order to keep up with the course, you have to be prepared to put in...
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C Programming for Beginners - OVERIQ.COM

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Endi Sukaj
thepopeye
Top Pro

Goes into a lot of depth even though it's just a beginner tutorial

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?

48 Community Recommendations

Cyril Andreatta
Gustavo Henrique Mascarenhas Machado
Semantyx
Bennett Hoffman
Chris Bolton
suchita singh
Samuel Ford
gilch
郭春林
Laura Kyle
Anastasia Marchenkova
+25
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Request recommendations from the community
suchita singh
suchita
Contributor for 8 months
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Hackr.io
Recommended 4 months ago
Hackr.io provides a curated list of best c prog resources. It saves a lot of time for newbies.
Pro
 Community Trust
Pro
 Nice filters
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