Current students should visit Canvas for handouts and assignments.

This webpage is to provide information about CS105 to prospective students and visitors and the schedule and handouts are from prior quarters.

Stanford expects our students to become the leaders of the 21st century. Because computing is so pervasive, students will be making decisions on computing whether they end up in business, education, working for NGOs, or working in government. We want to put CS105 graduates in the best position possible to make informed decisions on computing in both their personnel and professional lives.

• Students will gain a good understanding of how computing devices work, what their limitations are, and what their strengths are.
• Students will gain practical skills that they can take forward from the course, including a thorough grounding in webpage development.
• Working with computers should be fun. We want to ensure that our students enjoy the class.

Here are some of the comments students from CS105 have written in their teaching evaluations.

A great way for a humanities major to fulfill FR. Very fun and rewarding.

Great class for a WAYS requirement that teaches you tangible skills.

IF you are a humanities major (honestly even if you aren't,) this class teaches practical and useful knowledge and is also FUN! Professor Young sprinkles humor throughout the lectures and keeps them interesting, so you should go to those. The textbook and worksheets are really well written and accessible.

I learned the most in this class than I did in all of my classes this quarter. I learned how to completely code and style a whole website and to put it on the Stanford webserver. I also learned LOADS of relevant and actionable information about computer privacy as well as the basic hardware of computers. Most importantly, this class improved my self-confidence. I have shied away from STEM classes for a while and have never tried a CS class. Now, I feel more confident about trying new classes and further exploring my interests.

I took CS 105 to fulfill my formal reasoning requirement, but it quickly became my favorite class of the quarter. Professor Young is a terrific teacher. He explains concepts clearly and takes time to answer student questions. He wants every student to succeed. The material we covered was fascinating. I can now design my own website and do basic programming. Furthermore, the lectures contained a plethora of practical information. I can take better care of my Mac now that I know more about its operations. I can also stay safe and secure on the Internet. Ultimately, I would recommend to this class to anyone interested in computer science.

[Y]ou learn actually useful skills/applications if you aren't planning on doing CS as a career. This is a great course for anyone who does not want to take CS106A but want to learn useful computer skills. This professor is great at making CS manageable for non-techie people