MIT Missing Semester
Shares rank 7 of 17 online courses by recommenders
People recommend it for practical skills like shell, git, debugging and profiling that CS programs skip, though some find the code quality section weak.
People recommend it for practical skills like shell, git, debugging and profiling that CS programs skip, though some find the code quality section weak.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fills a gap in CS curriculum
“I always thought this practical side of development was missing in a CS or engineering curriculum.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “MIT Missing Semester 2026” “It's nice that someone at MIT is recognizing this and putting together this material.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “MIT Missing Semester 2026” Shell, git and debugging skills
“the fundamentals in here (shell, git, debugging, profiling) are more relevant with AI, not less”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education” “The original shell scripting lecture changed how I think about automation.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education” Important course for developers
“In some way this could be the most important course.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education” “That's why this course is so important”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Fix Your Tools” Worth watching the lectures
“Awesome course and I encourage everyone to check out the previous iteration”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “MIT Missing Semester 2026” “This time would be much better spent watching these 9h of lectures.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Seen as irrelevant in AI era
“irrelevant in the age of ai”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education” Falls short of real needs
“MIT came up with "The Missing Semester of Your CS Education" to compensate, but it's nothing compared to what's actually needed”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Guix System First Impressions as a Nix User” “Delete the AI bullshit and go back to teaching programmers how to learn and understand what they are building.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education”
Other online courses people recommend
The four most recommended other online courses, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Math Academy | 35 | 1 | 97% | 12 | 9 mo6 owners | Approved |
| Nand2Tetris | 31 | 3 | 91% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Neural Networks: Zero to Hero by Andrej Karpathy | 29 | 2 | 94% | 9 | — | Approved |
| CS193p SwiftUI course by Paul Hegarty | 13 | 1 | 93% | 2 | 11.9 yrs5 owners | — |
| MIT Missing SemesterThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The original shell scripting lecture changed how I think about automation.”
“I was somewhat disappointed by the code quality section”
“Delete the AI bullshit and go back to teaching programmers how to learn and understand what they are building.”
“the fundamentals in here (shell, git, debugging, profiling) are more relevant with AI, not less”
“irrelevant in the age of ai”
“This time would be much better spent watching these 9h of lectures.”
“In some way this could be the most important course.”
“That's why this course is so important”
“MIT came up with "The Missing Semester of Your CS Education" to compensate, but it's nothing compared to what's actually needed”
“It's nice that someone at MIT is recognizing this and putting together this material.”
“I always thought this practical side of development was missing in a CS or engineering curriculum.”
“Awesome course and I encourage everyone to check out the previous iteration”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.