The best educational videos, according to hackers
8 educational videos were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 3 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended educational videos with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Andrej Karpathy YouTube videos
24 recommend, 3 criticize, 89% approval
Shares rank 1 of 8 by recommenders
Clear introduction to LLM basics
Free video tutorials by Andrej Karpathy that explain LLMs and deep learning basics clearly, with hands-on code that people say helps newcomers.
Handmade Hero by Casey Muratori
24 recommend, 10 criticize, 71% approval
Shares rank 1 of 8 by recommenders
Free, clear educational videos
Recommended as a free, detailed video course for learning low-level programming and game development, with source code and line-by-line explanations. Critics note it trails off without a finished game.
Essence of Linear Algebra by 3Blue1Brown
16 recommend, 1 criticize, 94% approval
Ranked 3 of 8 by recommenders
Strong geometric intuition and visualizations
Free YouTube video series that builds geometric intuition for linear algebra through visualizations, helping concepts click for many viewers. Main caveat: the videos are dense, and some say they learned little from them.
All 8 educational videos, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tied 1 | Andrej Karpathy YouTube videos | 24 | 3 | 89% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Tied 1 | Handmade Hero by Casey Muratori | 24 | 10 | 71% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Essence of Linear Algebra by 3Blue1Brown | 16 | 1 | 94% | 7 | — | Approved |
| 4 | Ask an Astronaut | 9 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 5 | Terence Tao explains 6 essential mathematical concepts | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | FastUbu | 6 | 1 | 86% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Digital Show & Tell by Monty Montgomery | 6 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| 8 | There is No Quintic Formula by 2swap | 5 | 2 | 71% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same educational video in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to educational videos that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.