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

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Oct 24, 2019

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9 Options Considered

Best resources for a beginner to learn C	Price	Last Updated
-- Learn C The Hard Way	-	Sep 26, 2019
82 The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)	-	Oct 24, 2019
-- C Programming: A Modern Approach	-	Aug 28, 2019
-- repl.it	FREE	Oct 16, 2019
-- W3Schools	Free	Oct 16, 2019

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score 12 · Answer 1

Learn C The Hard Way

Top Pro

Lots of challenging exercises

The book includes 52 practical projects that include everything from pointers to stacks and queues. See More

Top Con

Has errors

Includes technical errors throughout the book. See More

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. See More

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 C. See More

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score 25 · Answer 2

The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)

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. See More

Top Con

Out of Date

Some commands and practices are out of date, so errata and googling is needed while going through the book. See More

Elias Van Ootegem's Experience

If you really want to learn C as a beginner, there's no better resource than good old K&R. Not only is the book succinct, it revolves around giving you exercises rather than explaining every single detail at length. It's the programming language book that set the template for all books we see today. The "Hello, World" program can be traced back to Brian Kernighan, for example. Dennis Ritchie fathered the C programming language, which is also a plus (obviously). Get the second edition, though (ANSI C), and realise that after working your way through this book, you'd do well to catch up on new features that have since been added to the language (new types, concurrency support, etc...) See More

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. See More

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 your server owned by hackers, or crash it due to a memory leak, etc. You will have to unlearn what you've learned from this book to use C correctly in the real world today. See More

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. See More

Top Con

Not for beginners

Assumes familiarity not only with programming concepts but some C language specifics. See More

Top Pro

This book set the template for programming language books

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score 10 · Answer 3

C Programming: A Modern Approach

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. See More

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. See More

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. See More

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score 1 · Answer 4

repl.it

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score 1 · Answer 5

W3Schools

Top Pro

Well organized tutorials

All of the lessons are separated into their own pages, which makes it easy to learn about specific concepts. See More

Top Con

No online coding

Does not have an online coding option to try out code. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Good introduction for total beginners which also covers the background of C, installation and shows examples. See More

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score 3 · Answer 6

Hackr.io

Top Pro

Community Trust

Instead of getting a recommendation from a single dev, you get recommendation from the entire programming community. See More

suchita singh's Experience

Hackr.io provides a curated list of best c prog resources. It saves a lot of time for newbies. See More

Top Pro

Nice filters

Free, Video, Book, Beginner, Advanced, etc. See More

Top Pro

Recommendation for every programming language/framework/library

Found Python as well as Jenkins:) See More

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score 5 · Answer 7

CS50x - HarvardX (edX)

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. See More

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 a lot of hours. See More

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. See More

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 will also introduce you to web development (JavaScript and PHP). See More

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score 2 · Answer 8

C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide

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. See More

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. See More

Answer 9

C Programming for Beginners - OVERIQ.COM

Top Pro

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

9 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Learn C The Hard Way

My Recommendation for Learn C The Hard Way

Lots of challenging exercises

Has errors

In-depth look at a variety of topics

Not good for complete beginners

My Recommendation for The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)

My Recommendation for The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R)

It's excerpted from the idea of its creators

Out of Date

Well known classic

Teaches bad style

Creative, challenging exercises

Not for beginners

This book set the template for programming language books

My Recommendation for C Programming: A Modern Approach

My Recommendation for C Programming: A Modern Approach

Challenges your way of thinking

Answers to exercises aren't provided

Written in a very clear, understandable way

My Recommendation for repl.it

My Recommendation for repl.it

My Recommendation for W3Schools

My Recommendation for W3Schools

Well organized tutorials

No online coding

My Recommendation for Hackr.io

My Recommendation for Hackr.io

Community Trust

Nice filters

Recommendation for every programming language/framework/library

My Recommendation for CS50x - HarvardX (edX)

My Recommendation for CS50x - HarvardX (edX)

Amazing instructors

Large demand on time

High quality instruction

Really in-depth

My Recommendation for C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide

My Recommendation for C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide

Short chapters

Slow for someone with prior experience

My Recommendation for C Programming for Beginners - OVERIQ.COM

My Recommendation for C Programming for Beginners - OVERIQ.COM

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

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