Hacker News was created by Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, as a place for tech-savvy individuals to share and discuss interesting content related to technology, startups, programming, and more.

Initially, it started as a simple link aggregator, where users could submit links to articles, blog posts, and projects they found intriguing.

Over time, it evolved into a thriving community with a strong emphasis on intellectual curiosity, thoughtful discussions, and quality content.

I'm an avid reader of Hacker News and often come across high-quality discussions from the community. I found that the courses and books people discuss on Hacker News are really good, so I conduct monthly analyses and aggregate the top courses/books found in comments and rank them.

Top Courses

• Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)

  Coursera · Hebrew University of Jerusalem · 112 HN points · 38 HN comments

• coursera.org/learn/nand2tetris2

  Coursera · Offered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem · 154 HN points · 10 HN comments

• Mathematics for Machine Learning

  Coursera · Imperial College London · 106 HN points · 4 HN comments

• CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

  edX · Harvard University · 1 HN points · 16 HN comments

• Probabilistic Graphical Models 1: Representation

  Coursera · Stanford University · 15 HN comments

• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 8 HN points · 7 HN comments

• Circuits and Electronics 1: Basic Circuit Analysis

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 11 HN comments

• CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

  edX · Harvard University · 6 HN comments

• Basic Modeling for Discrete Optimization

  Coursera · The University of Melbourne · 7 HN comments

• CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

  edX · Harvard University · 13 HN points · 2 HN comments

• Introduction to Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science

  Coursera · University of California San Diego, National Research University Higher School of Economics · 10 HN points · 3 HN comments

• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 3 HN comments

• Intro to Theoretical Computer Science

  Udacity · 3 HN points · 2 HN comments

• Digital Signal Processing

  Coursera · École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne · 1 HN points · 6 HN comments

• Solving Algorithms for Discrete Optimization

  Coursera · The University of Melbourne · 3 HN comments

• JavaScript (JS) Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass

  Udemy · 2 HN comments

• Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2 HN comments

• Computation Structures - Part 1: Digital Circuits

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 2 HN comments

• Computation Structures - Part 1: Digital Circuits

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 4 HN comments

• Computation Structures 3: Computer Organization

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 1 HN comments

• Computation Structures 2: Computer Architecture

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 1 HN comments

• Data Mining

  Coursera · University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · 1 HN comments

• Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 2

  edX · Stanford University · 1 HN comments

• Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1

  edX · Stanford University · 1 HN comments

• Computer Science: Algorithms, Theory, and Machines

  Coursera · Princeton University · 1 HN comments

• CS50's Computer Science for Business Professionals

  edX · Harvard University · 1 HN comments

• Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms

  Udemy · Andrei Neagoie · 1 HN comments

• Cloud Computing

  Coursera · University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · 1 HN comments

• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python

  edX · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · 1 HN comments

• Materials Data Sciences and Informatics

  Coursera · Georgia Institute of Technology · 1 HN comments

Our methodology

We conducted this analysis by "ranking things based on social signals"

It's the result of mining the HN archives for references to online courses and then ranking them and displaying all references in one place.

Ranking currently takes into account HN stories (points) and comments (sentiment, karma, estimated points).

Who are we

Find accountability partners, and study online courses & books with other learners. Moocable helps you find your next course/book/problem set, and lets you find study partners.