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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Number Theory and Cryptography by University of California San Diego

4.5
stars
573 ratings

About the Course

A prominent expert in the number theory Godfrey Hardy described it in the beginning of 20th century as one of the most obviously useless branches of Pure Mathematics”. Just 30 years after his death, an algorithm for encryption of secret messages was developed using achievements of number theory. It was called RSA after the names of its authors, and its implementation is probably the most frequently used computer program in the world nowadays. Without it, nobody would be able to make secure payments over the internet, or even log in securely to e-mail and other personal services. In this course we will start with the basics of the number theory and get to cryptographic protocols based on it. By the end, you will be able to apply the basics of the number theory to encrypt and decrypt messages, and to break the code if one applies RSA carelessly. You will even pass a cryptographic quest! As prerequisites we assume only basic math (e.g., we expect you to know what is a square or how to add fractions), basic programming in python (functions, loops, recursion), common sense and curiosity. Our intended audience are all people that work or plan to work in IT, starting from motivated high school students....

Top reviews

SS

Jul 31, 2020

I loved this course! It is unlike any I have taken before. All courses in this specialization have always included fun activities to make the taught content fun and understandable.

PW

Nov 21, 2018

I was really impressed especially with the RSA portion of the course. It was really well explained, and the programming exercise was cleverly designed and implemented. Well done.

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51 - 75 of 126 Reviews for Number Theory and Cryptography

By Aswani K C

Nov 30, 2020

Excellent course to learn number theory principles and relate them to asymmetric cryptosystems. The course is highly rigorous and challenging.

By Deepjyoti H P

Jul 30, 2020

This course was amazing! Got a good, but brief insight into the basics of cryptography. The examples at the end of the course were great!

By Perumali S

Jun 14, 2020

Its a good course to the beginers of cryptography.If you want to join you should know basic number theory and computer language python.

By Aditi H

Sep 27, 2023

Enjoyable and informative if the student applies oneself. RSA Quest was fun even though the last question was beyond me.

By Hepta M K

Aug 27, 2020

This course introduces one into the world of cryptograghy and was very interesting especially the RSA Quest.

By Ayrton C A d A

Nov 16, 2020

Very good course to learn the basic concepts of number theory and cryptography, and how to implement them.

By Yin L H

Aug 4, 2020

I really appreciate the teachers' effort for the quests.

The most fascinating assignment ever.

By Manikant R

Jun 12, 2020

Very challenging and exciting to. It was not math it seemed to be like more of puzzle games

By Rishi b

Sep 12, 2020

A Very Good Course for Beginners who want to start learning cryptography from scratch

By R T

Jun 15, 2021

for the joke at the very end of the final project, i give this course 5 stars

By Alex M

Aug 19, 2021

The best course I've taken on Courses – and I've completed 20+ MOOCs!

By Kyamran S

Jan 11, 2022

Good understanding mathematics fundamentals for cryptography.

By Kushwanth R

Aug 5, 2020

I can't really get sync b/w mathematics and programming

By MUNTHALA L T

Jan 28, 2024

Thanks for this course. This course is useful for us.

By Rồng T V

Jul 27, 2021

The course 's great. I gain a lot of useful knowledge

By Jherson M

Sep 24, 2020

Very fun and simple, maybe too simple, but it's fine

By Lucius

Feb 3, 2022

Very good. Learning math with coding is a good way

By Akash V

Aug 24, 2020

Really good course, kept my really good questions

By Henrique T Y

Apr 22, 2021

A great course, I loved the cryptography part!!!

By SYED J H

Jun 21, 2020

probably the best course of this specialization

By Michael T

May 12, 2023

Another excellent class from Coursera and UCSD

By SHREYAS M C C

Nov 29, 2020

One of the best courses I have taken so far!!

By Zhen X

Jun 24, 2020

The last week of this course is very amazing!

By Gaoge Z

Jul 31, 2020

Great RSA Quest. Fun and engaging!

By Duy B

Apr 27, 2023

Great course about number and RSA