It's worth passing along a message from UC Berkeley. According to its news service, the "fastest-growing course in UC Berkeley’s history — Foundations of Data Science [aka Data 8X] — is being offered free online this spring for the first time through the campus’s online education hub, edX." More than 1,000 students are now taking the course each semester at the university.

Designed for students who have not previously taken statistics or computer science courses, Foundations of Data Science will teach you in a three-course sequence "how to combine data with Python programming skills to ask questions and explore problems that you encounter in any field of study, in a future job, and even in everyday life."

When you sign up for the courses, you will be given two options: 1) the ability to "audit" the courses for free, or 2) pay to take the courses and receive a professional certificate. If you're looking for free, the audit option is your friend.

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