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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Cryptography I by Stanford University

4.8
stars
4,218 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.

LG

Dec 15, 2017

This course gives is perfect to start learning cryptography, explanations are detailed, topics carefully selected combining theory with real world examples and making emphasis in important details.

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101 - 125 of 872 Reviews for Cryptography I

By Vlad

Aug 18, 2022

Amazing course. I learned so much in such a little amount of time, and actually did a pretty good job understanding the material. For context, I'm a high school student, so this shouldn't even have been a good idea for me -- yet, I was able to thoroughly digest and implement everything Dan Boneh taught, and I'm grateful for the ability to take this online!

By Quý Đ H N

May 1, 2020

Thank you Coursera and The professor for such an oppotunity to learn Cryptography.

It's very challenging in the begining but the more i learn the more interesting the subject becomes. Professor Dan Boneh is really great at teaching the materials.

I hope that Cryptography II will be opened soon so that i could further my career in the cybersecurity field.

By Abdur R R K

Aug 25, 2017

This course has taught me crypto basics in the best possible way. I am eagerly waiting for the second part to enhance my knowledge about this interesting field. The Lectures and they way questions were formed in quizzes made the learning interesting and benefiting. Best wishes to the instructor and Organizer who arranged and compiled the course material.

By Babich K

Apr 7, 2020

Very interesting course! Good, balanced presentation of lecture material. Weekly tests make you think well and study the theory more deeply. Despite the fact that there are few questions in the tests, they are not so simple as not to open the textbook. Later I want to finish all optional programming tasks and read recommended books more carefully again.

By Kenneth H

Apr 9, 2017

This course is the real deal. You will have to work hard to pass it. It gives a solid overview of the main cryptographic concepts like pseudo random generators, functions and permutations, block and stream ciphers, public key encryption, and key exchange. If you haven't studied number theory, plan to spend some extra time getting up to speed.

By Andrey A

Oct 17, 2016

I am happy about the fact, that this course is teaches people very important Cryptography subtleties. This makes me think more about -- what would be the best way to preserve this information, so that it can guide future human generations! Thank you, Professor Dan Boneh! I am looking forward for the Crypto II. Kind Regards, Andrey Arapov

By Isaac D

Mar 16, 2018

This was a great intro cryptography course for someone with a strong mathematics background like myself! Not fluff, Dan Boneh cuts straight to the point. Every lecture is brilliantly presented and explanations are always thorough and easy to follow. Topics are relevant for real world applications. Amazing course. Can't wait for part 2.

By Евгений С

Jul 25, 2019

I liked this course very much, because it covers a lot of cryptogrpahy topics in a way accessible to most undegraduates with basic understanding of algebra. I especially liked the links to relevant papers in the end of every module. Dan explains everything in a very simple way.

Thanks for the course! Looking forward to the second part.

By Aurimas Š

Sep 26, 2017

Very interesting course, even though I come from engineering background and wanted to explore cryptograpy for fun, managed to understand the concepts and the course built a strong cryptographic foundation. Big thanks to professor Dan Boneh and all the mentors that answered questions in forums. Hopefully see you all in Cryptography II

By 罗健 魏

Aug 23, 2020

It's a quite pleasing experience to finish this course.

With the comprehensive analyzing and teaching, you might be able to grasp some basic concepts of modern cryptography such as ciphers, adversaries etc.

For better understanding of some lessons, I suggest you spend more time do the math.

Anyway, I highly recommend this course!

By Karthik G

May 29, 2020

This course is tough, as in it makes you work hard for understanding the concepts and giving your all. This course was definitely lengthy but the hard work put into it makes the accomplishment feel so much better.Thank you, Professor Dan Boneh for this course,will definitely come and rewatch those lectures if I have any doubts.

By kaarthik s

Sep 18, 2017

This is an amazing course and taught the basics of cryptography, including all the math required to understand it. For someone who graduated almost 20 years ago, going through this course provided an amazing and easy to understand intro to cryptography and the associated math. I look forward to the second part of this course.

By Pär C

Jan 28, 2023

Its a good course with a good presenter. Having said that this was not entirely easy for me. It started out nicely and then accelerated the math quite a lot. Its not really hard math as such but keeping all the abstraction layers and definitions in mind and getting things to click can (for me) require a pause here and there.

By Martin K

Jan 11, 2021

This pretty abstract and complicated subject is explained very well by Dan Boneh. Especially tricky issues such as "when is random random enough" or "how secure is this encryption" are molded into clear and concise mathematical definitions and Professor Boneh explains it clearly without any unnecessary pump or circumstance.

By Vagner L

Apr 19, 2022

The course is really good. It covers in deep details the building blocks of moder cryptography algorithms. Starting from the basics model till the more complex ones. Besides that, for those who want to learn more about each topic the professor provides a lot of texts and materials. Looking forward for the Cryptography II.

By Pawel W

Apr 8, 2017

FANTASTIC course!!! No better place to learn Cryptography. Prof. Boneh has amazing ability to explain difficult concepts in an easy way. Don't get me wrong - it's not super easy topic but the way you are guided step by step makes it the best Crypto course on Earth! EXCELLENT JOB!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Naftali A W

Jun 14, 2020

This is just about the best course of taken so far. The videos are very informative, the notes are loaded with relevant information and the discussion forum crowns it all as my questions got answered timely. I loved taking this course and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in learning network security.

By Brett P

Aug 17, 2020

Great introduction to the mathematical theory behind cryptography primitives. Sometimes fast-paced and hard to keep up with. I was looking for something more along the lines of applied-cryptography but saw the high rating so I took the course. I will now look at one of the applied-crypto courses offered.

By Nikita K

Feb 25, 2017

The way material is presented and the cource pace is perfect. After lessons the topics are clear and there will be much more understanding why all those crypto libraries are built like they're built, and how to use them even in case the API is not elegant and is error prone. Can't wait until part II!

By Dzejlan

Jun 7, 2016

I didn't have time to finish but first couple of weeks were great, a lot of math concepts sometimes hard to grasp but I like it, that is why I enrolled, I recommend it for anybody who knows some math and want to know history, how it works and background of cryptography from beginning till this day.

By Andrei P

Jun 19, 2018

Great intro to crypto, I learned a lot, from easy to more sophisticated things. But all in all, the way of thinking is what I liked the most, building everything on logic. I thought the course was well structured and its homeworks were a great resource to learn more and ask myself more questions.

By Vansh J

Jun 29, 2020

Extremely well planed. Maintains a balance between introducing the ideas, implementations of various cryptos while still keeping up with all the relevant mathematics behind them. you will come out of this course understanding the cryptography far better than you did before, Highly recommended!

By Chloe E G

Jun 15, 2020

Really good explainations of each concept throughout the videos. Would really recommend to anyone, even those with little to no mathematical skill beforehand. Haven't used maths in years but with these videos and the extra reading recommended I managed to understand each concept and pass. :)

By Qi N

Jul 2, 2017

Great Course! It is hard and mind-energy consuming while listening to the video (sometimes I have to repeat again and again to get what he says), but gives me a good intro to cryptography. I would probably read the articles he recommended and finish those optional programming projects later.

By Peter O

Nov 15, 2017

I got a great overview of crypto. Most interesting thing is that the developer should be very careful on every even small detail during the implementation due to different possible types of attack. Big plus are also the (non mandatory) homeworks. I'm excited to continue with Crypto II - ho