Crash Course Computer Science: study plan and how long it takes
The CrashCourse playlist is 41 videos and 7.9 hours long. Here's how long it takes at different paces, a week-by-week schedule built from the real videos, and a planner that turns it into your own daily plan.
41 videos · 7.9 hours · CrashCourse
Crash Course Computer Science, hosted by Carrie Anne Philbin, explains how computers work from the ground up in about 10 minutes per episode: binary and logic gates, CPUs and memory, programming, algorithms and data structures, operating systems, networks and the internet, security, and AI, along with the history behind them.
It's not a programming course but a broad, engaging map of the field.
Who it's for: Beginners, non-programmers and new CS students who want the big picture of how computing works.
How long does it take?
The full playlist is 7.9 hours across 41 videos. Here's roughly how many days that is at different daily watch times and speeds, counting video time only:
| Daily time | At 1x | At 1.5x | At 2x |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 min a day | 16 days | 11 days | 8 days |
| 1 h a day | 8 days | 6 days | 4 days |
| 2 h a day | 4 days | 3 days | 2 days |
Make your own schedule
The playlist link is already filled in. Press Plan, set how much time you have each day and your speed, and you'll get a day-by-day schedule with a finish date and a calendar file. It reads the live playlist, so new videos are included.
Week-by-week schedule
A sample plan at 30 minutes a day and normal speed, using whole videos so none is split across days. That's 3 weeks in total. For a different pace, start date or speed, use the planner above.
Week 1Videos 1–15 · 2h 39m
Day 1 · 25m
- 1Crash Course Computer Science Preview3m
- 2Early Computing: Crash Course Computer Science #112m
- 3Electronic Computing: Crash Course Computer Science #211m
Day 2 · 21m
- 4Boolean Logic & Logic Gates: Crash Course Computer Science #310m
- 5Representing Numbers and Letters with Binary: Crash Course Computer Science #411m
Day 3 · 23m
- 6How Computers Calculate - the ALU: Crash Course Computer Science #511m
- 7Registers and RAM: Crash Course Computer Science #612m
Day 4 · 22m
- 8The Central Processing Unit (CPU): Crash Course Computer Science #712m
- 9Instructions & Programs: Crash Course Computer Science #811m
Day 5 · 22m
- 10Advanced CPU Designs: Crash Course Computer Science #912m
- 11Early Programming: Crash Course Computer Science #109m
Day 6 · 24m
- 12The First Programming Languages: Crash Course Computer Science #1112m
- 13Programming Basics: Statements & Functions: Crash Course Computer Science #1212m
Day 7 · 22m
- 14Intro to Algorithms: Crash Course Computer Science #1312m
- 15Data Structures: Crash Course Computer Science #1410m
Week 2Videos 16–29 · 2h 51m
Day 8 · 24m
- 16Alan Turing: Crash Course Computer Science #1513m
- 17Software Engineering: Crash Course Computer Science #1611m
Day 9 · 27m
- 18Integrated Circuits & Moore's Law: Crash Course Computer Science #1714m
- 19Operating Systems: Crash Course Computer Science #1814m
Day 10 · 24m
- 20Memory & Storage: Crash Course Computer Science #1912m
- 21Files & File Systems: Crash Course Computer Science #2012m
Day 11 · 24m
- 22Compression: Crash Course Computer Science #2113m
- 23Keyboards & Command Line Interfaces: Crash Course Computer Science #2211m
Day 12 · 23m
- 24Screens & 2D Graphics: Crash Course Computer Science #2312m
- 25The Cold War and Consumerism: Crash Course Computer Science #2411m
Day 13 · 23m
- 26The Personal Computer Revolution: Crash Course Computer Science #2510m
- 27Graphical User Interfaces: Crash Course Computer Science #2613m
Day 14 · 25m
- 283D Graphics: Crash Course Computer Science #2713m
- 29Computer Networks: Crash Course Computer Science #2812m
Week 3Videos 30–41 · 2h 25m
Day 15 · 24m
- 30The Internet: Crash Course Computer Science #2912m
- 31The World Wide Web: Crash Course Computer Science #3012m
Day 16 · 24m
- 32Cybersecurity: Crash Course Computer Science #3113m
- 33Hackers & Cyber Attacks: Crash Course Computer Science #3212m
Day 17 · 24m
- 34Cryptography: Crash Course Computer Science #3313m
- 35Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence: Crash Course Computer Science #3412m
Day 18 · 23m
- 36Computer Vision: Crash Course Computer Science #3511m
- 37Natural Language Processing: Crash Course Computer Science #3612m
Day 19 · 25m
- 38Robots: Crash Course Computer Science #3712m
- 39Psychology of Computing: Crash Course Computer Science #3813m
Day 20 · 24m
- 40Educational Technology: Crash Course Computer Science #3912m
- 41The Singularity, Skynet, and the Future of Computing: Crash Course Computer Science #4013m
Tips for finishing
- Watch two or three episodes a day and you'll finish in about two weeks.
- Follow it with CS50x if it makes you want to start programming.