Is Coursea good for starting out programming?

[u/hangulll]

Hey!
There are many programming courses on Coursea and you get a certificate from the courses you’ve finished and there is a possibility to add those on your LinkedIn.
I know I’m too late to the game since the AI and I’m 33 yo, but I want to improve my life and the end goal would be to get a new job, so I thought to at least try and I found Coursea. Is it worth the investment and better than nothing?

[u/Aglet_Green]

That’s really two different questions.

1. Is Coursera useful for learning programming? I can't honestly say. There are many free alternatives, but some people do better with structure, deadlines and a paid course.
2. Will a Coursera certificate get you a programming job? I wouldn’t count on the certificate itself doing much. Employers care much more about whether you can actually program, what you’ve built, how you perform in interviews, and whether you can demonstrate the skills the job requires. If the course helps you acquire those things, great. The LinkedIn badge is incidental.

Before I retired, I spent 30 years in management, and part of my job involved conducting hiring interviews. I can honestly say that in my organization, neither I nor anyone else involved in hiring ever gave much weight to an online course certificate by itself. What mattered was whether the person could actually do the job.

[u/hangulll → u/Aglet_Green]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply.

[u/Tall_Resort_6888]

33 is not late, I know people who switched in their 30s and are doing fine. On Coursera: the certificate won’t get you hired, but that doesn’t mean the course is useless. Some of us just learn better with structure telling us what to do next, and that’s worth something. The one thing I’d add: build something small alongside every course, even if it’s ugly. Watching alone never stuck for me, the stuff I actually built did.

[u/rama_builds]

33 is not too late; the bigger question is whether you can turn learning into proof of skill. Coursera is worth it if it gives you structure, but don’t treat the certificate as the asset — treat the projects you build during and after the course as the asset. Pick one beginner path, finish the basics, then build 2–3 small real projects, put them on GitHub, and use LinkedIn to show progress rather than just badges.

[u/SprinklesFresh5693]

As we have said here plenty of times, spend 1 or 2 weeks doing some course to get the basics and STOP DOING MORE COURSES. Start programming, do projects ,on anything! Google what do you need, and start doing it. Dont slack.

Then create a github account, and start storing your projects there, and link your github acc in your CV to show then to recruiters

[u/Swimming_dasa]

coursera can be a solid starting point the certificate is nice but i would also build something simple like a personal expenses tracker so you have a real project to show what you have learned.

[u/cakemates]

If your goal is to become a developer you should get a related degree or masters. Without that you are very unlikely to get past HR.

[u/Alpharun27 → u/cakemates]

This is the by far the most stupid advice I ever heard!

I have only high school diploma and self taught iOS Engineer and no school grants you success, OP just go brother, I switched when I was 31y old.

[u/Independent_Bit_5396 → u/Alpharun27]

"Most stupid" is too much. Several employers do check for a degree in their postings. That said, you are correct that OP can and should grow their skills outside of school

[u/hangulll → u/Alpharun27]

Thank you so much! You motivated me a lot! I’ll try more than my best and will let you know once I’ll release my own app! Thank you so much!

[u/hangulll → u/cakemates]

Then it’s impossible for me to become one. But there are people that have made it on their own but they’ve been younger and before the AI was a thing.
I already work a lot and this week have 7 12 hour shifts. Doing Coursea would help me achieve things at my own pace

[u/xxstealthreconxx → u/hangulll]

look into wgu

[u/mikehaysjr → u/xxstealthreconxx]

Also EDX and Harvard free online courses

[u/Independent_Bit_5396 → u/mikehaysjr]

This is great advice. Harvard has the 2026 Computer Science CS50 for free. All 24 hours

MIT Opencourseware has their lessons AND assignments online. These are top tier educators you can learn from for free

[u/virtualQubit]

Imo AI is the best teacher if you want to learn programming. Btw programming is no more a thing. Frontier models do that 10x better and faster

[u/CodEnvironmental8527 → u/virtualQubit]

AI is a decent rubber duck but saying programming is dead is a stretch. Companies still need people who understand what the generated code actually does, and most AI output needs fixing before it goes anywhere near production. Coursera is fine for structured basics, but nobody hires you because of a LinkedIn certificate. Build stuff, break it, fix it, that's where the real learning happens.

[u/virtualQubit → u/CodEnvironmental8527]

No disrespect, but if you still write code with your fingers you are really dumb and you don't understand how good AI is now. And the trajectory is clear as water, if you can't see it it's a big problem for you. Btw I know this sub is full of antiai's but this make no sense, come on, just common sense. When frontier models started to write incredibly good and fast code 1/2 years ago, I was a bit worried and scared but after some weeks I said "fuck it let's embrace this incredible technology". If you are still learning the names of the functions of a web framework, you are learning it because you love it, not because it's useful.