Udacity Review—Or How to Get Top Quality Online Education in 2022

Everyone who is remotely familiar with online learning has probably heard about Udacity at least once. Probably because this platform has the audacity (pun intended) to challenge the old ways of traditional education—it provides on-demand courses to prepare you for today’s job market. 

There are hundreds of Udacity reviews that attest to its seriousness, legitimacy, and high-quality courses.

Find out all you need to know below.

What Is Udacity?

Initially designed to offer free computer science courses through Stanford University, this online learning platform quickly became one of the most popular massive open online courses (MOOC) providers.

But open courses are not the only thing that the service has to offer—you can also find micro-credential programs (aka “nanodegrees”), which give you a certificate upon completion. 

Udacity collaborates with some of the most prestigious corporations down in California, including Amazon, Nvidia, Google, and Facebook. This means that completing the more formally-accredited Udacity courses increases your chances of landing a job with one of the tech giants.

Let’s see exactly what these courses entail and how they are organized.

Udacity Course Categories

The way in which Udacity organizes its courses is pretty straightforward.

It divides its content into several course categories, known as “Udacity Schools,” which individuals, enterprises, and governmental organizations alike can easily access.

The next section of our Udacity review covers the most attractive course clusters in greater detail.

AI & Autonomous Systems

This one is one of the most sought-after categories. It can give you beginner-, intermediate-, and advanced-level training in two of the fastest-growing domains of engineering and technology.

Here are some of the courses you can sign up for:

• AI for Healthcare – four months to complete at 15 hours/week
• AI Product Manager – two months to complete at 5-10 hours/week
• Intro to Self-Driving Cars – four months to complete at 10 hours/week
• Robotics Software Engineer – four months to complete at 10-15 hours/week

Business

The Business category is a core feature among Udacity products. The courses included in this “school” focus on user research, design, distribution, analysis, and business strategy. 

Let’s see some concrete examples:

• Agile Software Development – three months at 5-10 hours/week
• Business Analytics – three months at 10 hours/week
• Digital Marketing – three months at 10 hours/week
• Digital Freelancer – one month at 10 hours/week

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, among other things,  allows companies to streamline their digital workflow, which is why it’s becoming increasingly popular.

If you want to join the party, you can get a Udacity certificate for one (or all) of the following courses:

• Cloud Developer – four months at 10 hours/week
• Hybrid Cloud Engineer – three months at 5-10 hours/week
• Site Reliability Engineer – four months at 5-10 hours/week
• Cloud Architect using Microsoft Azure – three months at 10 hours/week

Cybersecurity

The courses and Nanodegrees in this category will build and enhance your capacity to keep simple and complex IT systems safe. These are some of the classes you can take:

• Introduction to Cybersecurity – four months at 10 hours/week
• Enterprise Security – four months at 5-10 hours/week
• Ethical Hacker – two months at 5-10 hours/week
• Data Privacy – one month at 5-10 hours/week

Data Science

This is among the most appreciated course categories in many Udacity reviews online. The data science classes will help you build solid data visualization and manipulation expertise, predictive analytics, and machine learning.

You can develop these skills and kick-start your career by completing the following courses:

• Data Science for Business Leaders – 4-8 weeks at five hours/week
• Data Streaming – two months at 5-10 hours/week
• Become a Data Analyst – four months at 10 hours/week
• Programming for Data Science with Python – three months at 10 hours/week

Product Management

Product management combines different areas, such as tech, business, and design. Some examples of top-notch courses in the Udacity academy include:

• Product Manager – four months at 10 hours/week
• Data Product Manager – three months at 10 hours/week
• UX Designer – three months at 10 hours/week
• Growth Product Manager – three months at 10 hours/week

Programming & Development

In a way, this category is the platform’s bread and butter.

It aims at developing the core coding skills that every IT professional should master to specialize in any of the above-mentioned areas.

You can enroll in any of the following:

• Introduction to Programming – four months at 10 hours/week
• Android Basics – three months at 10 hours/week
• Blockchain Developer – four months at 10 hours/week
• iOS Developer – six months at 10 hours/week

Udacity Free Courses

Udacity’s instructors design and deliver these courses, too, but the difference between free and paid classes is that the former are somewhat limited in terms of provided knowledge and opportunities to practice.

On the other hand, they are 100% free and immediately available after you create an Udacity account.

They are a great way to test whether the topic at hand is truly interesting for you and how the curriculum and teachers align with your goals.

Here are some of the most popular free courses on the platform: 

Intro to Artificial Intelligence

AI is everywhere now. It’s not just self-driving cars and facial recognition but also AI-powered text generators, virtual assistants, and machines that can identify cancerous cells.

At no cost, Udacity takes intermediate-level users through the fundamentals of AI, along with the most representative applications of this technology. The course should take you around four months to complete, and it covers the following skill areas:

• Image processing
• Machine learning
• Logic and planning
• Robotics

Problem Solving with Advanced Analytics

This course is perfect for those who are interested in business analytics.

You don’t need any prior knowledge, just a willingness to learn how to use Alteryx to solve business problems.

It only takes two weeks to complete, making it one of the fastest courses in the entire library of Udacity courses. 

By taking this class, you can learn how to:

• Use simple linear regression models
• Select the correct analytical methodology
• Solve problems with data

Data Analysis and Visualization

As the name suggests, this intermediate-level course teaches you state­-of-­the-art modeling, analysis, and visualization techniques.

It takes around 16 weeks to complete.

Here are the most important skills that you’ll master by the end of the course:

• The R programming language
• Data processing and visualization
• Types of regression
• Regularization

Get Your Startup Started

Although somewhat generalistic and quick to complete (only three weeks), this course is much more than a simple Udacity PowerPoint presentation.

It gives you actionable insights into business statement creation, business planning through strategic goal setting, and networking. 

The course also covers start-up basics such as:

• Setting milestones
• Assessing and identifying skill gaps
• Finding co-founders, mentors, and employees
• Getting capital and creating your pitch deck

Product Design

The target audience is intermediate users who are likely to finish the course within two months. The course covers:

• Ideation and validation
• UI and UX design
• Design sprint
• Monitoring metrics

Udacity Best Courses

Now that we discussed the free-of-charge portion of Udacity’s offering, it’s time to focus on the paid modules. Unlike the free ones, these classes are way more interactive, challenging, and immediately actionable. 

On top of that, some come with accredited certifications that help you land jobs at major corporations and ultimately build your ideal career.

Below, we at Web Tribunal laid out some of the most popular paid courses:

Data Engineer – $1,695 / five months ($399/month)

This intermediate-level course is like a prerequisite to entering the exciting world of Big Data. It helps you build production-ready data infrastructure.

If you invest 5-10 hours per week, it’ll take you five months to complete it.

Now, let’s review the Udacity course objectives:

• Understand data modeling
• Enable cloud data warehouses
• Leverage spark, data leaks, and pipelines
• Build your own portfolio

Product Manager – $1,356 / four months ($399 per month)

You can complete the Product Manager course in four months if you put in 10 hours per week. It doesn’t require prior experience, so you can start right from the fundamentals of product management—understanding your users and the problems that you aim to solve.

For the standard course price, Udacity teaches you how to:

• Start product strategy
• Tap into product design
• Deploy product development
• Launch your solution successfully

Introduction to Programming – $1,356 / four months ($399 per month)

Invest 10 hours per week and, in return, you’ll get to study the main coding languages and protocols. Even if you’re new to coding, you can learn:

• Basic Web development
• Programming with Python 1
• Programming with Python 2
• Intro to JavaScript

Data Analyst – $1,356 / four months ($399 per month)

This Udacity course targets intermediate-level users who can commit to 10 hours a week. According to several Udacity reviews, it’s one of the best courses on the platform.

It teaches you how to use Python, SQL, and powerful statistical methods to make critical assessments and create data-driven solutions. 

More specifically, you’ll be able to:

• Use Python libraries to explore data
• Apply inferential statistics
• Master Data Wrangling
• Use visualization principles

Become a C++ Developer – $1,356 / four months ($399 per month)

The last in our Udacity courses review is the C++ learning program.

It requires intermediate-level programming knowledge and can be completed within four months at a pace of 10 hours a week.

This class allows you to tap into the most exciting applications of C++, such as self-driving cars, robotics, and video games. 

These are the key areas that it focuses on:

• C++ foundation
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
• Memory Management and Concurrency
• Build your own application

Udacity Course Structure

The bulk of a regular Udacity masterclass consists of video lectures with closed captioning, much like other similar MOOCs.

However, Udacity stands out from the crowd with its ingenious quizzes at the end of the modules. These quizzes allow you to test your newly-acquired knowledge in real-time and take corrective actions if the results are not satisfying.

You can also find various follow-up homework for most of the courses, as well as unique projects that focus on turning theory into practice.

In-house mentors assess the projects, provide personalized and actionable feedback on students’ work, and are there for you whenever you require Udacity’s tutoring services.

Udacity offers plenty more perks to its users. For instance, it allows you to download each course’s syllabus before you pay for it, access career services (resume, LinkedIn profile, and cover letter reviews), engage with the learners’ community, and reach out to the mentors whenever you have questions.

Furthermore, if you sign up for certain classes or nanodegree programs, you can take a 75-minute final exam and get employer-recognized credentials.

Udacity ensures University-level quality by having highly-competent professionals and teachers as in-house employees. There are certain criteria to meet in order to become an Udacity instructor, including formal certifications, years of experience, and verified expertise. 

These highly-trained professionals take care of the course creation process while the mentors give you actionable feedback in real-time.

Udacity Pricing

As you probably noticed already, Udacity’s offering can be divided into two main categories:

If you fail to complete a paid course within the estimated amount and wish to continue taking the classes, you’ll have to pay extra—usually the monthly Udacity fee. 

While Udacity is not the most budget-friendly learning platform out there, it provides great value for money through top-quality educational content, highly prepared teachers and mentors, and accredited certifications. 

Is Udacity Worth It?

Udacity is what the name suggests:

A brave enterprise that aims high and hits all the right targets (affordability aside).

Satisfied customers have left many positive Udacity reviews on Reddit and other online platforms, including the Udacity site itself. They usually praise its streamlined interface, high-quality nanodegree courses, mentorship programs, real-time feedback features, and student discussion forums.

On the other hand, the free courses are somewhat limited, and pricing might be too high for a large portion of users. Furthermore, the provider doesn’t have any Android or iOS app, so you can study on the go.

All in all, we’d say Udacity is particularly useful for beginners or intermediate-level programmers who want to specialize in promising IT areas, such as digital marketing, product management and design, data science, and machine learning. 

Udacity Alternatives

To give you a wider range of options, we compared Udacity with some of its most prominent competitors.

Here are our thoughts:

Udacity vs Pluralsight

The main similarity between these two is the intensive specialization in tech-related skills, such as programming and data analysis. 

However, Udacity presents a far more intuitive interface and, unlike Pluralsight, provides free courses. That said, Pluralsight’s area of expertise is narrower, and the instructors are more experienced.

Udacity vs Total Training

While Udacity focuses a lot on coding-related knowledge, Total Training specializes in delivering business training and consultation.

Total Training is significantly cheaper than Udacity, but this is largely due to its more restricted offer. In other words, Total Training is great for business know-how but not so helpful for developing programming skills.

Udacity, on the other hand, can give you both.

Udacity vs MasterClass

Now, this can be rightfully considered the ”battle of the giants” among the online learning platforms. Both of these services employ prestigious instructors and offer top-shelf educational content. 

Although MasterClass might charge lower rates, Udacity’s user feedback is slightly more positive. Rest assured, whichever one you choose, you’ll end up enjoying a premium e-learning solution. 

Wrap Up

As our Udacity review comes to an end, it’s time to revisit the highlights of this platform.

With unmatched mentorship programs, convenient nanodegrees with accredited certification, and excellent user experience, Udacity is one of the most robust online learning platforms currently available.

If you want to improve your coding skills or tap into cloud computing from the comfort of your own home, Udacity might just be your best bet.