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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Principles of Secure Coding by University of California, Davis

4.4
stars
336 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces you to the principles of secure programming. It begins by discussing the philosophy and principles of secure programming, and then presenting robust programming and the relationship between it and secure programming. We'll go through a detailed example of writing robust code and we'll see many common programming problems and show their connection to writing robust, secure programs in general. We’ll examine eight design principles that govern secure coding and how to apply them to your own work. We’ll discuss how poor design choices drive implementation in coding. We’ll differentiate between informal, formal, and ad hoc coding methods. Throughout, methods for improving the security and robustness of your programs will be emphasized and you will have an opportunity to practice these concepts through various lab activities. A knowledge of the C programming language is helpful, but not required to participate in the lab exercises....

Top reviews

SS

Feb 16, 2020

The course was an exceptional one. And helped me to lot to understand what Robust and Secure coding really means. Thank you so much tutor.

SJ

Sep 2, 2019

Matt Bishop is an excellent Secure Coding Trainer. I enjoyed the sessions all the way and it was totally engaging with practical examples.

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1 - 25 of 78 Reviews for Principles of Secure Coding

By Derek F

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Apr 30, 2020

The information presented was overall good and entertainingly presented. The material itself was a bit C-centric and UNIX-centric, and assumed a lot of background knowledge about C and operating system design. It would have been better to actually explain the necessary background rather than assuming that the listener already knew it. I can imagine some students (especially those that don't know C or UNIX administration) being quite confused and frustrated. Also, some of the code examples given were needlessly complex, and I think the time spent explaining them in detail could have been better used covering other topics.

The quizzes were sometimes quite frustrating, not so much because the information that they were testing was difficult, but because many of these questions were quite misleading due to poor, ambiguous or imprecise phrasing of questions and answers. I wouldn't have worried about this much except for Coursera's annoying 2-time limit for quiz retakes before a mandatory 8-hour wait. In some cases, having more knowledge actually made it harder to answer these questions correctly, since knowing that the "correct" answer was technically wrong and thus hard to distinguish from "wrong" answers could be a hindrance.

With these concerns noted, I did find the course valuable, and I think many people will learn useful skills from it.

By David A

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May 11, 2020

l feel like the instructor's presenting content from the past quite a bit. l'd love to see the course content updated or applied practically to real world modern applications. A lot of the content seemed theoretical. While it's realistic to, 'program defensively', the content really doesn't hit home unless you're able to demonstrate exploitation. Modern day attacks are based around APIs and Stacks and while the material is more relevant to the C or C++ programmer, it would of been good to actually see the attacks talked about executed. We all know we have to program robustly or defensively, but show us what could happen if we don't. Sure smashing the stack for fun and profit is a great read, but try modernizing your content for the relevant generation taking the course on this platform. Found the overall course content pretty dry.

By Ben

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Nov 7, 2019

I felt the scope of this course is too narrow and focussed mainly one a few examples in C code. I would've got more out of it and found it more interesting if the scope was broader and the examples were a higher level, perhaps written in pseudo-code.

By Marshall L

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May 19, 2021

good information and presentation.

I suggest updating the coding example source to include a main file and integrate with MS Studio.

By AISHWARYA U

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Apr 18, 2020

Very good material to understand the concepts.

Kindly include the latest technologies as well like Javascript.

By philippe t

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Feb 9, 2020

Good introduction of fundamentals. Basic concepts are very well explained. Practices classes are less useful as there are some missing explanations/in-depth analysis to catch the whole picture.

By Sanjeev K J

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Sep 3, 2019

Matt Bishop is an excellent Secure Coding Trainer. I enjoyed the sessions all the way and it was totally engaging with practical examples.

By Tobias A

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Oct 13, 2019

Good introduction, at times the explanations are a bit dry and lengthy. A couple more real world stories would spice things up and make principles more memorable.

By Sayan S

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Feb 17, 2020

The course was an exceptional one. And helped me to lot to understand what Robust and Secure coding really means. Thank you so much tutor.

By Paolo D R

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Feb 26, 2020

Very interesting course! The teacher is very clear and provides clear and useful samples! For sure I recommend it!

By Reynaldo P G

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Oct 18, 2020

It is a good course to take. It gives you a good lecture about what you should take into account when coding

By Rameshkumar A

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Jan 5, 2020

Nice course for secure coding.

Learnt how the code should be and how the code should not be.

By Fernando F

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May 6, 2020

Clear and fast point of view from the security perspective

By Shi Z

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Apr 11, 2020

Good in general. More code examples would be better.

By Giorgio B

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Oct 28, 2019

Very good overview of Secure Coding principles!

By Rhicha S

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Mar 27, 2020

Course content is really good, well explained.

By Howard S

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Nov 4, 2019

Good Foundational Learning for secure coding.

By GuoweiYin

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Feb 24, 2020

I learned a lot, Thanks very much.

By Mohankumar S

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Dec 11, 2019

Very good videos

By NAGARGOJE S S

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Jun 1, 2020

good learning

By Vijay V

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Jan 21, 2020

Great course!

By Woratham N

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Nov 25, 2019

Thanks a lot

By AKKASH B N S

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May 13, 2020

good

By Samantha P C F

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Dec 3, 2019

Good

By Harendra K

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Jun 3, 2020

The course provides good insights in secure coding and robust programming. However, I think there should more than 10 questions for each module for assesment.