Is Java Programming & Software Engineering Fundamentals Certification on Coursera worth it?
Java is a modern programming language that supports OOP (object-oriented programming) and was invented in 1995 by oracle corporation. It can be used in any platform that runs java like windows, Linux, or macOS and is used in the android application.
Thankfully, many courses out there to learn Java programming language on different platforms like Udemy, Educative, Pluralsight, Skillshare, edX, and more, but I have found a course offered by Duke University through the Coursera platform, and you are now reading this review for that course.
Now that you know how important and beneficial learning the Java Programming language can be, it’s time to find out how this course can help you become a Java developer in 2025.
1. The Instructor Reputation
The course is created by four instructors from Duke University, and here in this section, I’m going to discuss in brief the reputation of every instructor so let’s start with the first one:
Susan H. Rodger: She got her Ph.D. and M.S from Purdue University in computer science. She is a professor in the computer science department at Duck
University and worked on many different computer projects.
Robert Duvall: He taught at this university for over 15 years, is a lecturer in the Duck university computer science department, and holds an MS degree in computer science from
Brown University.
Owen Astrachan: One of the best professors at Duck University with over 25 years of experience teaching students computer science, and he helped create some projects related
to computer science.
Andrew D. Hilton: a prior advisory at IBM, a teacher at Duck university since 2012, and an associate professor in this university at electrical and computer
engineering.
2. The Specialization Content and Structure
The specialization contains many courses geared toward beginners until you acquire the skills to create programs that can solve complex real-world problems. You can also join these courses for free for learning. So let’s explore the specialization content:
Being a programmer, not only as all people think about creating programs but also solving real-world problems, and the most important thing like a computer so you can program it to solve certain issues.
concepts of some other languages like Javascript and creating simple web pages using HTML/CSS. More than 400K students have already joined this course.
2.2. Java Programming: Solving Problems with Software
After understanding how to think like a programmer and some foundation concepts, you will start learning the Java language like the loops, functions, variables, creating classes, and much more stuff, and building some simple programs.
More than 200K students have joined this course to learn Java programming, and you can also join this particular course for free, but you need to pay for certification.
This is an important course because it touches the Java Collection framework, which provides standard implementations of several key data structures like an array, list, set, and map. A good understanding of this module is required to use Java in your professional and day-to-day work. More than 100K people have joined this free course.
2.4. Java Programming: Principles of Software Design
After learning many things about the Java language, you will try to create an application that solves real-world problems using the interface. One of the projects is a simple program that analyzes and sorts the earthquake
data.
Software design is a difficult topic to master but yet very important one. There are few free courses to learn Software design, but you can use this one to refresh your software design skills or learn from scratch.
2.5. Java Programming: Build a Recommendation System
There is no better way to learn than by building projects, and this last module of Coursera’s most popular Java certification program asks you to create projects. You have achieved a lot, and to prove that you understand Java very well, you will create a recommender system as you see in big companies’ services such as Netflix and Amazon.
This is a very interesting project for Java programmers as you will work with data from movies, and create a
recommendation system using that data. I highly recommend every Java programmer to try out this project and improve their Java and software development skills.
3. People Review
This Coursera specialization is probably one o the best courses to learn the foundation of programming and the Java language. The course rating of 4.6 scores and has more than 186k students enrollments proving that it is worth your
time and effort to take this course and start a career as a software engineer in the Java language.
The statistics show that 42% of the students started a new career after completing the specialization, and 17% increased their payment or a promotion.
That’s all about Coursera’s popular Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamental Specialization. This article reviewed one of the greatest courses to learn programming concepts and how to think like a computer and the Java language that becomes more popular day after day, and now you are one step to start your
new career.
So what you are waiting for? Join this course and become a Java developer in 2025.
