# CS50 by Harvard

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/cs50/

10 people recommended CS50 by Harvard in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 10 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a strong, free starting point that covers key programming concepts across several languages and teaches you how to think about code.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Good foundation and way to start (3 comments in the sample): "I think it's an incredible learning resource and a great way to get started." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49507403)) "That would probably be a good foundation to build on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48798922)) "You could take Harvard's CS50 and then tackle it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47786396))
- Enthusiastic, knowledgeable instructor (2 comments in the sample): "His presence, knowledge and overall enthusiasm for the topic are outstanding." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48830893)) "as  competent/articulate/put together/etc as the guy who teaches CS50" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46391459))

## Other online courses people recommend

- [Nand2Tetris](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nand2tetris/): 26 recommend, 2 mixed, 3 criticize
- [Math Academy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/math-academy/): 25 recommend, 8 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Neural Networks: Zero to Hero by Andrej Karpathy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neural-networks-zero-to-hero/): 25 recommend, 2 mixed, 1 criticize
- [CS336: Language Modeling from Scratch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cs336-language-modeling-from-scratch/): 11 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "CS50 by Harvard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cs50/ (10 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.