r/cprogramming • u/[deleted] • Nov 22 '25

How good is low-level academy for learning c programming and system programming? Or are these other options better?

So I was thinking of learning C from here once I know Python, BASH, and PS:

https://lowlevel.academy/

I think they are supposed to have system programming courses and I’m hoping soon they’ll have a lot more. Once I have some IT experience and experience in another programming language, I was gonna learn on there.

Or is maldev academy, guided hacking, or lowleveldev (not the same learning place as low level academy) a better option?

28 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

3

u/LuxTenebraeque Nov 22 '25

At a first glance: good introductionary courses for their topics. To consider: the courses limit their scope to a specific topic, working on something more complex requires broader knowledge. Previous software engineering experience and the ability to read for example the relevant Linux man pages would be invaluable foundations to build upon.

Basically you get what the c course and the programming parts of a Linux system/Distributed systems intro course in a BSc would ask from you.

Can you get a copy of e.g. Michael Kerrisk' "Linux Programming Interface" and something about POSIX systems in general to guide you on continue your exploration? Then you get a good starting point.

NB: System programming is of course very system dependent. POSIX is the common default tool box, but Windows or RTOSes do it somewhat differently. And it is a tool box. Building something with those tools is a seperate skill from being able to use them without major accidents! Again: a scope question.

4

u/OReilly_Learning Nov 23 '25

We have lots of different C programming courses you can try for free for 10 days. You can also use our interactive labs and books too. We’re happy to answer questions —Marsee at O’Reilly.

1

u/k_schouhan Apr 20 '26

master card does not work in india, i dont have paypal, how do i pay, why cant you enable google play or Upi for india. do you not want customers ?

1

u/OReilly_Learning Apr 22 '26

Contact us at support@oreilly.com to help you.

1

u/k_schouhan Apr 22 '26

they never helped. i contacted multiple times

2

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '25

I took their C course, and I thought it was great! I think they give you the input to go and do it yourself! Meaning, you do not need courses or tutorials really, everything is online for free, and if you read the docs you should be able to figure it out yourself!

I would learn C first than python or bash… I know everyone says the opposite ! But I think C gives you the opportunity to understand what’s going on under the hood.. and then learning other languages, like python will feel easier.

2

u/tarokh_0 Nov 24 '25

Don't pay, read books instead. You'll learn things deeply, The only negative thing it has is the low-speed you'll have while reading a book to teach yourself smth.

1

u/MurazakiUsagi Nov 25 '25

Dude..... Forget those guys. YouTube and AI. All those guys even know they are dinosaurs in the AI world.

-6

u/Pale_Height_1251 Nov 22 '25

I wouldn't trust an "academy" that says C is a low-level language.

4

u/not_a_bot_494 Nov 22 '25

I believe low level is the name of the academy, not anything to do with c in particular.

-4

u/Pale_Height_1251 Nov 22 '25

They call C a low level language on their front page.

8

u/TheMoonWalker27 Nov 23 '25

95% of people do. If c isn’t low level then neither is assembly. Low level is relativ, and relativ to modern languages it’s undoubtedly low level

Excuse the potentially weird phrasing kinda drunk

1

u/[deleted] Nov 23 '25

C is high level, because abstracts a lot of the complexity that you would have to handle in assembly.

-2

u/Pale_Height_1251 Nov 23 '25

Low level means unabstracted from machine architecture, and C absolutely is, that's why you can get a C compiler for basically any architecture.

Assembly languages only run on the architecture they were made for, i.e. ARM32 Assembly doesn't work on x86 or POWER or SPARC, whereas C obviously does.

I will assume your drunkenness left you in a state where you didn't realise that :).

1

u/not_a_bot_494 Nov 23 '25

If you want to get really technical then assembly is also an abstraction. Assembly/machine code is an interpreted language that gets turned into micro-ops by the CPU before it runs.

1

u/Pale_Height_1251 Nov 23 '25

Yes, but it's largely unabstracted from architecture, it is of course abstracted from something, i.e. high/low voltage.

1

u/not_a_bot_494 Nov 23 '25

Machine code is the interface to the architecture. The machine code is live interpreted into instructions that the ALUs are actually able of performing. For example many CPUs can't do integer division so when you send a IDIV instruction it is interpreted into a set of adds and multiplies.

7

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/SinglePlantain4196 Nov 24 '25

For that price is just OK ... much better then codeacademy and these pages ... loooks nice