Haskell, a purely functional programming language popular in academia, offers a unique coding experience. Functions in Haskell mirror mathematical counterparts closely, distinguishing it from imperative languages. With features like laziness, algebraic data types, and monads, learning Haskell unlocks a new coding perspective.
Discover the best free online courses to master Haskell with the Best Courses Guides (BCG). From over 80 Haskell courses on Class Central, we’ve curated top courses by esteemed institutions like the University of Helsinki, Glasgow, Nottingham, and more. Additionally, we’ve included offerings from YouTube and independent providers for added diversity.
Explore our top picks below:
Here are our top picks
Click to skip to the course details:
What is Haskell?
Haskell, named after logician Haskell Curry, is a functional programming language used in education, research, and industry. Its purely functional nature ensures functions do not alter external variables, providing programming stability. Statically typed with type inference at compile time, Haskell also offers other features like concurrency and lazy evaluation.
Why You Should Trust Us
Class Central, a leading platform for online education, has assisted 60 million learners in finding their ideal courses. With a decade of experience, we’ve curated a catalog of 200,000 online courses and 200,000 user reviews. The Class Central team, with over 400 completed online courses, continues to explore and recommend quality learning experiences.
Courses Overview
- All courses featured in this guide are either free or free-to-audit
- 50% of courses cater to beginners, while the rest target intermediate learners
- Approximately 1.2K learners are currently following Haskell courses on Class Central
The University of Helsinki offers the free Haskell MOOC, a text-based course ideal for beginners. This course delves into the fundamentals of Haskell in a pure functional programming context, covering topics like recursion, higher-order functions, and algebraic data types. Part 2 introduces Input/Output (I/O) and monads, and the course includes an active Telegram channel for assistance.
Key details:
- Institution: University of Helsinki in collaboration with Nitor
- Instructors: Antti Laaksonen, John Lång, and Joel Kaasinen
- Level: Beginner
- Workload: 100 hours
- Exercises: Quizzes and programming exercises
- Credits: 10 ECTS credits for Helsinki students
- Certificate: None
The Functional Programming in Haskell course by Professor Graham Hutton from the University of Nottingham offers a comprehensive introduction to Haskell. Ideal for beginners, this free course teaches functional programming principles and Haskell syntax, bridging the gap from imperative to functional programming paradigms.
Key learnings include:
- Core principles of functional programming and Haskell syntax
- Advanced concepts like typeclasses and recursion
- Practical applications such as list comprehensions and I/O operations
- Transitioning to Haskell’s lazy evaluation behavior
Course link: Functional Programming (nott.ac.uk)
The Haskell and Functional Programming course for complete beginners is designed for those new to functional programming and Haskell syntax. This course equips learners with skills to solve problems in a functional style, covering topics like immutability, algebraic data types, and monad programming patterns.
Key takeaways:
- Fundamentals of functional programming and Haskell syntax
- Advanced topics like lazy evaluation and typeclasses
- Practical applications in file operations and string manipulation
- Understanding monad programming patterns and applicatives
Provider: GitHub
Instructor: Dmitrii Kovanikov
Level: Beginner
Workload: 8 hours
Exercises: Practical exercises
Certificate: None
The Beginner crash course by Type Classes offers an introduction to Haskell and functional programming for curious learners. Designed for absolute beginners, this course covers Haskell basics, interactive programming, and fundamental concepts like polymorphism and recursion.
Key highlights:
- Exploration of Haskell basics and GHCi usage
- Writing interactive programs in Haskell
- Introduction to key typeclasses like Monoid and Functor
- Practical project organization and application of Haskell concepts
After completing this beginner course, learners can progress to advanced courses or resources to deepen their understanding of functional programming in Haskell.
Website: typeclasses.com
Instructor: Chris Martin
Level: Beginner
Workload: 5–6 hours
Certificate: None
The Functional Programming Course by Tony Morris and Mark Hibberd on GitHub introduces beginners to functional programming using Haskell. This interactive course emphasizes core functional programming concepts, Haskell syntax, and advanced topics like functors, monads, and IO operations.
Key learnings include:
- Comprehensive coverage of Haskell syntax and program structure
- Exploration of core functional programming concepts
- Advanced topics like states, comonads, and parsers
- Practical problem-solving skills through coding exercises
Provider: GitHub
Instructors: Tony Morris and Mark Hibberd
Level: Intermediate
Certificate: None
The Learn4Haskell course by Kowainik offers an interactive approach to learning functional programming in Haskell through four pull requests. This course, suitable for learners with prior programming experience, covers Haskell syntax, fundamental concepts, and key functional programming principles.
Key takeaways include:
- Exploration of Haskell syntax and basic functional programming concepts
- Advanced topics like custom types and typeclasses
- In-depth understanding of functional programming paradigms
- Practical skills through coding exercises with instructor feedback
Institution: Kowainik
Provider: GitHub
Instructors: Veronika Romashkina and Dmitrii Kovanikov
Level: Intermediate
Certificate: None
After taking a Haskell course, practice and enhance your skills on Exercism, a free online coding platform with a wide range of exercises. From converting phrases into acronyms to advanced coding challenges, Exercism offers exercises for all proficiency levels. Seek personal mentoring for guidance on improving your code and mastering Haskell programming.
Join Exercism to:
- Engage in practical coding exercises with automated feedback
- Request personal mentoring for guidance on code improvement
- Challenge yourself with exercises of varying difficulty
Provider: Exercism
Level: All
Enrollments: 28K
Exercises: 100+ hands-on programming challenges
Mentors: 354
Certificate: None
How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them
Our course selection process follows a proven methodology applied in previous Best Courses Guides. Here’s a three-step overview:
- Research: Utilizing Class Central’s extensive database, courses are initially shortlisted based on ratings, reviews, and popularity.
- Evaluate: Reviews from Class Central, Reddit, and course providers inform the assessment of each course’s quality and learner feedback.
- Select: Courses meeting criteria like comprehensive content, affordability, and positive reviews are handpicked for inclusion in the guide.
Fabio oversaw the research and final version of this article.
