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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Cryptography I by Stanford University

4.8
stars
4,220 ratings

About the Course

Cryptography is an indispensable tool for protecting information in computer systems. In this course you will learn the inner workings of cryptographic systems and how to correctly use them in real-world applications. The course begins with a detailed discussion of how two parties who have a shared secret key can communicate securely when a powerful adversary eavesdrops and tampers with traffic. We will examine many deployed protocols and analyze mistakes in existing systems. The second half of the course discusses public-key techniques that let two parties generate a shared secret key. Throughout the course participants will be exposed to many exciting open problems in the field and work on fun (optional) programming projects. In a second course (Crypto II) we will cover more advanced cryptographic tasks such as zero-knowledge, privacy mechanisms, and other forms of encryption....

Top reviews

BH

Jan 13, 2020

Provides a comprehensive introduction to cryptographic history, current technology, best practices and known attacker techniques. A great deal of material is covered in a relatively compact program.

BC

Mar 10, 2017

Cutting edge cryptography topics. Good explanations and slides, but pause button is highly recommended. Can be a bit too mathematical for the general public, and not very formal for mathematicians.

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776 - 800 of 872 Reviews for Cryptography I

By Marius C

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Jul 27, 2020

Excellent course. One of the most difficult ones I followed on Coursera. It's a bit dry due to the amount of math in such a short time and because it lacks a bit on the practical side of things. The optional coding assignments are good but I would have preferred a more practical approach for the course as a whole.

By Veereswaran G

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Jul 13, 2020

This course really a best course for cryptography basics and intermediate level. Only negative thing is that real-time approach of how to use crypto-libraries not explained here. So if anyone want to implement the cryptography standards to their product/design, need to refer other sites.

By Julian E

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Feb 16, 2016

I liked the level commitment the programming problems demanded. It truly made you feel you had a deeper understanding of the subject after finishing them as opposed to just reading and answering multiple choice questions. Thanks for putting this together for the world to learn!

By Nikos K

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Oct 12, 2019

Some of the questions in the quizzes were vague and hard to comprehend. Also the professor's hand writing on the notes doesn't help since it's messy and the marker quality is not that good either.

Apart from the above, a good intro course to crypto, thanks.

By Alain G D

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May 10, 2020

A very good presentation of the theory of cryptography algorithms, but I'm disappointed that Crypto II is not available for now: some important points such as SSL/TLS crypto protocols or eliptic curves are not described at all in Crypto I.

By Domingo

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Nov 28, 2016

The course is really what I wanted: It covers theoretical and practical aspect of cryptography. The exercises are also very well designed, although, I found some of them quite difficult.

Overall, I would recommend this course to a friend.

By PRASHANT S

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Sep 4, 2021

It was totally worthy for me for the amount of time I have invested in this course. Got to learn many aspects of Cryptography and also want to thank educator for giving his precious time to make me learn new concepts about Cryptography.

By Pablo G

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Apr 3, 2018

The course is very interesting and the topics are very well explained by the proffessor. I didn have a wide background about cryptography but still could learn a lot. Congrats!!. I would preffer more examples and not so much theory.

By Jerry C

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Apr 6, 2022

Great overview of cryptography! However I think it's a few years out of date (now in 2022), e.g. one code example is using Python 2 which is obsolete. It's quite math-heavy, which could be good or bad depending on what you like.

By Horacio G A

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Jun 30, 2017

The content of the course is excellent. Sometime the excercises are a bit confusing because the losse of information in the content. Also is a little quick but I found it excellent to be an introduction to Cryptography.

By Casper v G

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Sep 26, 2018

Though the material is quite challenging, professor Boneh explains it quite clearly and at an easy pace in his lectures. I found it very interesting to learn more about encryption and how the current standards work.

By sagar s

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Jun 8, 2020

I just want to say that this course is very good for people who know a lot of math and i mean it will be easy for them to grasp the course , so i strongly recommend to please explain concepts a little bit more .

By Nickolas F

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Sep 29, 2017

An amazing course that provided me with important tools in cryptography. I hope I see more courses like this in the future and a special thank you to Professor Dan Boneh for teaching this course. Thank you.

By Md M H F

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Apr 19, 2021

A bit too hard actually, should be more focused on practical cryptography that teaches how to use cryptography in computer programming more efficiently, rather than theoretical cryptography.

By Dan D

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Jun 3, 2018

Really interesting and comprehensive course. Sometimes really important concepts were glossed over quickly which made it occasionally tricky to follow but then it is tricky subject matter!

By Ricardo d C C

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Oct 14, 2018

It is really interesting and clarifying. It does require much attention to details and taking a lot of notes, however. It focuses on the theory, with practical examples. I sure liked it.

By Gabriel D O

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Aug 23, 2017

The lectures are very good. Easy to understand and keep on track. But the lecturer could enunciate better. But that is also not a huge issue since pausing and replaying is an option.

By Howard ( R

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Aug 11, 2017

Excellent material. As usual with computer science courses, some of the material could be presented a bit more clearly. But I am really happy to finally understand this material now.

By Marcos E K

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Apr 29, 2017

Great intro to a complex topic.

It could be improved by having the programming assignments be:

+ Mandatory

+ More related to actual cryptographic algorithms/libraries (only some are)

By Kris J

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Feb 9, 2020

Interesting and learned a lot, but probably need a greater foundation in hex and mod math than I had. I suspect there are prerequisites re in the formal program.

By Tristan B

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Nov 17, 2019

Good overall course, it could use an update on some minor points. Theory is a strong part of the course. I hope the Crypto II course will be up one day.

By Deleted A

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Oct 29, 2018

Best cryptography course ever!! Detailed and clear explanation, fun, nice quizzes. But it would be better if the pace was a little bit slower.

By Md R

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Jul 30, 2017

Excellent Course to understand the Crypto Construction, Possible Attacks, Semantic Security and pplications of crypto in real world scenarios

By Bruno V

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Jul 1, 2018

Great course. Not easy to sustain the rhythm, I prefer "at your own pace" kind of course, where you have time to dig into the subject.

By Shrihari S

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May 29, 2018

The contents are presented in a super good way, this is the best way for anyone to learn basic and essential concepts on cryptography.