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11 Best Operating Systems Courses for Beginners

We compared 11 Operating Systems courses currently listed on Coursera, edX and Udemy, priced from $24.99 to $209.00. 1 comes from a named university or institution, including University of California, Irvine. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.

Courses compared
11
Price range
$24.99 – $209.00
Providers
Coursera, edX, Udemy
Last updated
30 Aug 2026
How these 11 courses were chosen

Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, edX, Udemy, matched to "operating systems" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.

The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.

There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $24.99 to $209.00, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.

  1. 1
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade C

    Introduction to Operating Systems

    Offered by Codio

    This specialization is intended for people with some programming experience who seek an approachable introduction to how operating systems work on a fundamental level. This course will equip learners with foundational kn...

    $49.00
    listed price
  2. 2
    edX MOOC / Non-credit Grade D

    Introduction to Operating Systems 1: Virtualization

    Offered by Codio

    Learn OS fundamentals with no installs. Build C skills while exploring processes, CPU scheduling, and memory basics through short readings, images, and runnable code. Video-free, self-paced assignments provide instant fe...

    $149.00
    listed price
  3. 3
    edX MOOC / Non-credit Grade D

    Introduction to Operating Systems 4: Persistence

    Offered by Codio

    Learn how OSes store and protect data with no installs. Cover I/O, directories, file systems, integrity, protection, and distributed systems through short readings, images, and runnable code. Video-free and self-paced, w...

    $149.00
    listed price
  4. 4
    edX MOOC / Non-credit Grade C

    Introduction to Operating Systems 3: Concurrency

    Offered by Codio

    Learn how OSes handle work in parallel with no installs. Study concurrency, threads, locks, lock-based data structures, and multi-CPU scheduling with runnable code and guided experiments. Video-free, self-paced lessons u...

    $149.00
    listed price
  5. 5
    Coursera Certificate Grade B University-backed

    Introduction to Computer Information Systems

    Offered by University of California, Irvine

    This Specialization is intended for anyone seeking to learn basic computer skills. Through 3 courses, you will study computer hardware, software, and data safety. You will also learn about digital literacy and productivi...

    $49.00
    listed price
  6. 6
    Udemy MOOC / Non-credit Grade B

    Introduction to Linux Kernel Development

    This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Linux kernel design and architecture, aimed at equipping you with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. I will begin by covering essential operating system...

    $199.99
    listed price
  7. 7
    Udemy Certificate Grade C Lowest price here

    Introduction to Systems Programming in C

    OverviewThis course is intended to be an introductory course for those interested in systems programming. I tried to keep this course very simple and easy to understand. In order to do that I created this slide deck that...

    $24.99
    listed price
  8. 8
    Udemy Certificate Grade C

    Introduction to C Programming

    If you are completely new to programming and want a simple introduction, then this course is for you. This course is partly based on the textbook C How to Program by Deitel and Deitel. C Programming is still a common req...

    $49.99
    listed price
  9. 9
    Udemy Certificate Grade C

    Computer Fundamental Basic Hardware & Software for Beginners

    Computer Fundamental Basic Hardware & Software for Beginners. This course is designed for the people to knowledge about computer . After complete this course you will be knowledge about What is computer , computer ge...

    $24.99
    listed price
  10. 10
    Coursera MOOC / Non-credit Grade B

    Introduction to Information Technology and AWS Cloud

    Offered by Amazon Web Services

    Technology is omnipresent, but how did we get here? And what does the future hold for a world that's increasingly connected, mobile and data-rich? This course is intended to give learners enough technical context to unde...

    $49.00
    listed price
  11. 11
    edX MOOC / Non-credit Grade D

    Introduction to Linux

    Offered by The Linux Foundation

    Never learned Linux? Want a refresh? Develop a good working knowledge of Linux using both the graphical interface and command line across the major Linux distribution families.

    $209.00
    listed price

Best Operating Systems Courses for Beginners compared

Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.

What the prices here tell you

The 11 priced courses on this page run from $24.99 to $209.00, with the middle of the range around $49.99 — a spread of $184.01. That is a wide gap for one subject. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.

Who is behind these courses

These courses come from Coursera, edX and Udemy. The platforms differ in how they sell: some charge once per course, others expect a subscription, and the listed price is not always what you pay at checkout after a promotion. 1 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of California, Irvine — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.

Before you enrol

Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 30 August 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.

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