Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Top 5 Free Java Courses for Beginners to Learn Online in 2024 - Best of Lot

We all love free resources, don't we? If you want to learn Java online in 2024 and looking for the best free core Java online courses then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best Java courses for beginners and in this article, I am going to share the best free courses to learn Java online. There was a time when I buy a lot of books when I was preparing for my engineering entrance exam but I only ended up buying books not reading them. After that, I changed my habit to first try to read a book on loan or try free resources and only buy when I really need them. When I started my programming journey, mostly I learn from free resources like free courses and books and there I developed the passion to collect free resources as well. 

I agree that paid resources are often better than free resources like books and courses but if you are just starting your journey, it's the free resource that you should try first. Once you have some background and interest, you should consider buying a proper book or courses for comprehensive learning.

Thankfully, there is a lot of legal, free resources available on the web, including books, eBooks, online courses, and PDFs. If you are someone who enjoys learning at your own pace by taking online free courses then you have come to the right place.

Today, I am going to share some of the best free Java courses for beginners. When I say beginners, I mean, someone who is starting from scratch, knows nothing about Java but may or may not know a little bit about programming.

Remember, free doesn't mean non-valuable, which many people think, of course, paid resources are often better, but you can still learn Java online from these free resources. You can take these free Java courses to start your journey into the beautiful world of Java programming.

Btw, if you don't mind spending a few bucks to learn a valuable skill like Java Programming then I also recommend you to join The Complete Java Masterclass course by Tim Buchalaka on Udemy. This is a massive 80+ hour course that you can get for just $10 on Udemy sales. It's one of the most comprehensive, well-structured, and up-to-date courses to learn Java in depth. 



7 Best Free Online Java Courses for Beginners in 2024 

Here is my collection of some of the best Java courses which are available online for free. The list includes free Java courses from sites like Udemy, Pluralsight, Coursera, Educative, CodeCademy, and other popular online portals. You can use this resource to start your Java journey:

1. Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners [Udemy Free Course]

This Udemy course is I think the most popular free Java course available online. With more than 1 million students already enrolled and countless 5-star ratings, I have never seen a popular free Java course other than this one.

The course is ideal for anyone who started learning to program in the Java programming language. Btw, you already made a good choice to start learning to program with Java, which is arguably the best language to start programming.

This course assumes no prior programming knowledge, just a desire to learn to program. You learn from scratch right from installing Java into your laptop to writing and running your first Java program.

It also covers most Java fundamentals like data types, operators, and many essential classes of API. It also touches base on the Collection framework and some of the new features introduced in Java 8 like lambda expression and Stream API.

best free Java Courses for Beginners




2. Learn Java from Scratch [Educative Free Course]

This is another awesome free Java course beginners can take to learn Java from scratch. This free course is offered by Educative, a text-based interactive learning platform that allows you to run a Java program right from your browser. This means you don't need to install anything to start with, just log in to this course and start learning Java. 

The Learn Java from Scratch free course will not only teach you the basics of Java programming but also help you to master object-oriented programming and core Java development step-by-step. You will learn to program in the right way, cutting out the useless fluff and filler, and master the skill required to build large, real-world Java programs.

Seriously, this is one of the most interactive beginner Java Programming courses online you will ever see for free of cost. I highly recommend this text-based course if you want to learn Java in 2024 by self-learning. 

free interactive course to learn Java




3. Java Programming: Beginner to Guru  [FREE Udemy Course]

This is one of the best free Java courses for beginners and anyone interested to learn Java online. Since Java is arguably the best programming language to start off learning nowadays, learning to program in Java is the best of both worlds.

This course is created by none other than but John Thompson, author of my favorite Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru course. The author has done an excellent job in explaining core Java concepts in this beginner-friendly course and most importantly he offered it for FREE. 

Beginners and college students can easily correlate the story with themselves and the author seems to speak their language so you will easily connect to the course.

This course provides a nice overview of all the core concepts in Java to build a strong foundation in your computer programming skills. The course seems very popular in Udemy with already 130,000+  students enrolled and an average 4.5 rating.

best Udemy course to learn Core Java for FREE




4. Java Fundamentals: The Java Language [Pluralsight free Pass]

This is an excellent beginner Java course by Jim Wilson. Jim has over 30 years of software engineering experience and the course reflects that. It's an ideal course for an Android developer as well who wants to learn Java before getting started with Android.

This course provides complete coverage of the Java programming language giving you the strong language foundation required for any Java-based development environment like client-based, server-side, or building games and apps for Android smartphones.


This course provides you with everything you need to quickly ramp up and become an effective Java programmer.

Btw, the course is not completely free and you need to signup to get this course, but you can still take this course for free because Pluralsight provides 10 days free trial, which is more than enough to cover this one and another Java course I am going to introduce in next section.

Free Java Courses for Beginners



5. Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals [Coursera]

This is another collection of free Java courses for beginners on Coursera. This is called a Specialization which also gives you certification once you complete all the courses and assessments but those are not free, if you want certificates then you need to pay but you can take all the courses inside this specialization for free learn Java in depth. 

Java is a vast language and at the start, it, may seem intimidating to many developers, but this course makes it easy by stepping you through all of the important Java concepts and getting you started quickly.

This certification is divided into five parts, each one of these is a Java course that you can join for free to audit. You will learn the basics of the Java programming language with more advanced topics being covered like Software design in the 4th course. The 5th part is a project where you will build a NetFlix-like recommendation system in Java. 

Here is the list of free Java Courses from this Coursera Specialization:
  • Java Programming: Solving Problems with Software
  • Java Programming: Arrays, Lists, and Structured Data
  • Java Programming: Principles of Software Design
  • Java Programming: Build a Recommendation System

As I said, you can join all of these courses for free. Talking about social proof, more than 200,000 students have already joined this course and 40% of them say they have started a new career after completing this specialization and 17% say they got a promotion or hike. 

free Coursera course to learn core Java

But why when to take a Specialization's courses for free you may not get the Coursera certificate. If you are joining this course to get certificate then you need to either enroll into the specialization or take a subscription plan like Coursera Plus which provides unlimited access to more than 7000+ Coursera courses, projects, and professional certificates.  


6. Learn Java by CodeCademy [FREE]

Many people doesn't know that CodeCademy has an excellent free course to learn Java, and this is not a one hour or half-an hour course but a comprehensive 25 hours long course to learn Java from scratch in 2024.

This beginner friendly course has 16 lessons and the course is also going through an update to make it better. In this course, you will learn object oriented programming with Java. You will learn about writing Java code, compiling and running your Java program on both command line as well using an IDE like IntelliJ IDEA. 

The course structure is bit different than others as it focus more on skill then topics. As I said, the course start with very basic and you will learn about data types, loops, variables, conditionals like if-else, control flow, class, object, and essential Java classes like ArrayList. 

You will also build 7 project in this free Java course like a Calculator App, a Tic Tac Toe app and much more. which is fantastic as it will help you to learn better, and you can do all this for free. I highly recommend  this free course to beginners who wants to learn Java in 2024. 

Btw, if you like the CodeCademy then you can also join CodeCademy PRO, a premium subscription for programmers and Students. It cost around $15.99 per month on a yearly plan and provides access to all the CodeCademy content, courses, quizzes, and projects. You can use this to earn, practice &
apply job-ready skills.

best free course to learn Java for beginners



7. Java Programming - Master Java Basics [Free]

This free course introduces the first segment of the comprehensive training program, 'Java from Zero to First Job,' this free course is meticulously crafted for individuals who aspire to learn programming from the ground up. 

No prior knowledge is required except the ability to turn on a computer, making it accessible to absolute beginners. The course creators, having meticulously researched feedback from top-rated Udemy courses, have focused on enhancing the quality of the learning experience. 

Notably, each lesson is designed with a high concentration of valuable material, ensuring that a mere 5 minutes of their content is equivalent to watching another 30-minute lesson. The creator, Andrii Piatakha have invest substantial time in lesson preparation, scripting, structuring, and video editing to eliminate any dull segments, making the course more efficient and engaging. 

The approximately 2-hour training course covers Java basics, offering a more time-effective alternative to longer courses while ensuring a seamless learning experience. Furthermore, each topic is presented independently, eliminating confusion and ensuring clarity in understanding. 

As a testament to their commitment to excellence, the creators encourage learners to try the course and provide valuable feedback, appreciating the continuous improvement process. Dive into Java learning with confidence, knowing that this course is designed to provide a top-notch and streamlined educational experience.

free Udemy course to learn Java online



That's all about some of the best free core Java courses available online. Unlike pirated copies of books, these courses are made free from the creators or platforms they are providing them. These free online Java resources are also good to start with but given that Java is very vast, you may need to spend some more time to understand different areas of Java. 

You may need to join separate courses to learn advanced Java skills like multi-threading, collections, design patterns, Java 8 and Functional programming, IO and NIO, and advanced Java topics like garbage collection and JVM tuning. I'll be keep posting resources for those as well, but if you hurry, you may check the following resources.



Thanks for reading this article, if you like these free Java courses for beginners then please share them with your friends and colleagues. They are absolutely free and a good resource to learn Java online. If you have any questions or feedback, please drop a note.

P. S. - If you don't mind spending a few bucks to learn a valuable skill like Java Programming then I also recommend you to join The Complete Java Masterclass course by Tim Buchalaka on Udemy. This is a massive 80+ hour course that you can get for just $10 on Udemy sales. 

8 comments :

Blue Rain said...

Thanks for this article :) Can you suggest a good online course (paid or otherwise) which project based? I am already going through Tim Buchalka's course on Udemy and have completed about 50% of it (up to Section 12 - Java Collections)so I guess I know the basics of Core Java.

Thanks again and will be looking forward to your suggestions :)

javin paul said...

Hello @Unknown, Practice Java by Building Projects is another free course on Udemy which is project based and good for some hands-on experience. You can check that if you want.

Anonymous said...

How could you not suggest the University of Helsinki's amazing Java 1 and 2 courses? They are free and make these other options look like garbage. Please check it out.

javin paul said...

Hello Anonymous, is it available on Coursera or edX? or any other platform?

Anonymous said...

Is learning Java really worth it? I suggest forget everything and learn JavaScript,

Anonymous said...

Not a good idea to learn just JavaScript - better is to learn Java first and JavaScript after that!

javin paul said...

Good point, as a Java developer I second that opinion and I actually learned that way but there are many people who are learning JavaScript without learning Java and that's perfectly fine.

Anonymous said...

Is learning Java enough to get a job..or we also need to have knowledge about HTML,CSS & CSS, Please answer ???

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