Essential Coding Theory
Error-correcting codes get a rigorous treatment aimed at theoretical computer scientists, tracing the field from Shannon and Hamming's founding work in the late 1940s through modern asymptotic and algorithmic results. The syllabus covers construction and existence results for codes, combinatorial limits on how well a code can perform, and decoding algorithms, alongside applications elsewhere in computer science. Materials from MIT OpenCourseWare include lecture notes and problem sets that work through the proofs and constructions in detail rather than just surveying them. The course assumes a background in discrete math and algorithms and is pitched at an advanced level, useful for anyone wanting the theoretical foundations behind data transmission, storage reliability, and cryptographic constructions that rely on coding theory. No enrollment or certificate is offered; it is a self-study version of an MIT graduate subject, free to work through at your own pace.