10 Best Scala Courses and Tutorials to Learn Functional Programming in 2024
My favorite courses to learn and master Scala programming language from Udemy, Coursera, and Pluralsight, including best Akka, and Spark online courses for beginners.
If you want to learn Scala and Functional Programming along with key Scala frameworks like Akka and Apache Spark, and looking for the best courses to start your journey then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best Scala books and free Scala courses for Java developers, and today, I am going to share the best Scala courses for Programmers and Java developers.
Disclosure — Btw, some of these links are affiliate links and I may get paid if you join these courses using my links.
These are the truly best Scala and Functional Programming courses from websites like Udemy, Coursera, Pluralsight, and Educative, and created by experts like Martin Oderskey, the creator of Scala himself, you will get a chance to learn Scala from the creator himself.
They are also very affordable as Coursera courses are free for learning and Udemy courses can be bought in just $10 on Udemy sales.
If you don’t know, Scala is one of the modern programming languages for server-side development. It’s both an object-oriented programming language as well as a functional language developed by Martin Odersky at EPFL and is considered as a new and modern multi-paradigm programming language created to express general programming language designs concisely and elegantly.
The Scala terms is an acronym of the word Scalable Language and it is a statically typed language which means that a variable needs to assign a type for it like an integer and so on and the variable can only hold that type another good thing about Scala is that can be runs on the Java virtual machine as well as the most used IDE such as NetBeans and more.
Java libraries are interoperable with Scala code. Like Java, Scala is object-oriented and uses a curly-brace syntax reminiscent of the C programming language.
Scala also has many advanced features of functional programming languages, like currying, type inference, immutability, lazy evaluation, and pattern matching. It also has an advanced type system supporting algebraic data types, anonymous types, covariance, contravariance, and higher-order types.
Other features of Scala not present in Java include operator overloading, optional parameters, named parameters, raw strings, and no checked exceptions. Many of these flexible features are covered in this course.
More importantly, Scala provides you the tools to build scalable programs easily and effectively. It’s a statically typed, high-level language that combines functional programming and object-oriented programming into one flexible package.
This article will show you the best Scala and Functional Programming courses that can help you master this language in a very short time and exploring all of its features so you leverage the power of this language.
So make every use of these best courses to learn Scala and Functional programming in 2024 and give your career a boost. Learn how to program in Scala, one of the most popular programming languages in the world right now — not just amongst developers, but even amongst massive companies like Twitter and LinkedIn.
10 Best Scala Online Courses to Learn Functional Programming for Beginners in 2024
Here is the list of the best online courses to learn Scala and Functional Programming. The list contains both beginners and intermediate-level Scala courses. It also has the best courses from Udemy, Coursera, Pluralsight, and Educative, a couple of best websites to learn online.
1. Scala & Functional Programming for Beginners [Udemy]
For anyone having some programming experience in languages such as python or C++ and you want to scale your knowledge to earn Scala then this class is the right for you since it will teach you how to use this language in some fields and leverage its power.
You will learn in this course:
- Understanding how Scala works.
- Developing powerful tools.
- Working with the files system.
Starting with the basics of this language such as expressions and functions then moving to the object-oriented programming and inheritance as well as anonymous classes and objects and finally working with small file systems such as creating and removing files and many more commands.
Here is the link to join this Scala course — Scala & Functional Programming for Beginners
2. Scala: The Big Picture [Pluralsight]
If you want to learn the Scala functional programming language in a pretty short amount of time and as a beginner with no prior experience in this technology then you can enroll in this Pluralsight course that covers all this language and much more.
Starting first with the basics of this functional language that it will stick with you throughout the course such as variables and values then moving to some advanced topic such as anonymous function classes as well as collections and patterns and finally, you will see how to do a special kind of programming called concurrent programming using Scala.
Here are things you will learn in this course:
- The basics of Scala language.
- The pattern matching in Scala.
- The concurrent programming in Scala.
Here is the link to join this best Scala course — Scala: The Big Picture
By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.
3. Functional Programming in Scala Specialization [Coursera]
The best and most comprehensive specialization on Coursera teaching you the Scala programming language from scratch and write programs very effectively with some frameworks such as Apache Spark and other technologies and more.
Starting with the basics as usual like the variables as well as the data types and loops and more then you will apply what you have learned in Scala to build larger applications so you will get hands-on experience throughout the course and finally apply all of this in the Big data industry.
You will learn in this course:
- The basics of this language.
- Some technologies such as Spark.
- Using Scala in Big data.
Overall a comprehensive and well-structured course to learn Scala and Functional Programming.
Here is the link to join this course — Functional Programming in Scala Specialization
By the way, If you are planning to join multiple Coursera courses or specializations then consider taking the Coursera Plus subscription which provides you unlimited access to their most popular courses, specialization, professional certificate, and guided projects. It cost around $399/year but it’s completely worth your money as you get unlimited certificates.
4. Advanced Scala and Functional Programming [Udemy]
The last course suggestion in this article is for advanced people in Scala who have some experience in the basics or maybe intermediate users and want to expand their knowledge in this functional programming language and be in the top developers level.
You will learn in this course:
- Advanced programming with Scala.
- Hight-Level functional programming.
- The Scala tools.
Starting with the advanced pattern matching then moving to some high-level functional programming as well as the lazy evaluation with some exercises to get some experience then you will move to the functional concurrent programming such as parallel programming and JVM thread.
Here is the link to join this Scala course — Advanced Scala and Functional Programming
5. Scala and Spark for Big Data and ML [Udemy]
If you are interested to learn the Big data topic as well as machine learning using the modern programming language called Scala then this course is the right for you since you learn these technologies from a beginner to an advanced level in one course.
You will learn in this course:
- How to code using Scala.
- Scala for Big data.
- Scala for machine learning.
You will start by installing the environment of the Scala in different machines such as Linux and so on then learn how to code using Scala as a beginner such as variables and data types with some projects you will make in this course and finally jump to using this language to create machine learning models.
Here is the link to in this course — Scala and Spark for Big Data and ML
6. Learn Scala from Scratch [Educative]
This is another awesome online course to learn Scala for Beginners in 2024. The USP of this course is that it's a text-based, interactive course from Educative, a new learning platform that allows you to run code right from your browser.
This means you can execute Scala programs without installing or setting up your environment.
This course will help you stay ahead of the curve, make awesome, scalable apps, and learn a highly coveted new programming language. Another good thing about this course is that you can audit this course for free. This means if you are looking for a free Scala programming course then you can check out this one.
Here is the link to join this course — Learn Scala from Scratch
And, if you find the Educative platform and their interactive courses useful then you can also get an Educative Subscription that provides access to not just this course but their 100+ courses at just $14.99 per month. It’s very cost-effective and great for preparing for coding interviews and learning new tech skills.
7. Essential Scala Training [LinkedIn Learning]
This is another great course to learn Scala from scratch, excellent for beginners and Java developers who want to learn Scala in their spare time.
This course will help you get started with Scala, so you can leverage the unique capabilities it offers. You will first learn the basics of type inference, variables, loops, functions, and operators.
After that, you will find out how to read files using a console, perform pattern matching, handle exceptions, and more. Finally, learn how to use classes, fields, methods, and objects.
Here is the link to join this course — Essential Scala Training
8. Akka Essentials with Scala | Rock the JVM
So far, we have seen basic and advanced course to learn Scala and Functional programming but if you want to become a professional Scala developer then you also need to learn frameworks like Akka and Spark and this course will teach you Akka, one of the best Concurrency frameworks for Java and Scala developers.
This course is for Scala programmers who need to design complex and scalable concurrent applications. In this course, you will learn the Akka actor model with Scala and write parallel, concurrent and fault-tolerant systems
Here are things you will learn in this course:
- How to create concurrent applications with actors instead of threads and locks
- How to design fault-tolerant systems with supervision
- How to configure Akka for various scenarios
- How to test actor systems
- How to use Akka patterns and best practice
This course is for experienced programmers with experience with Scala and with functional programming and not for beginners. If you are a beginner it’s better to learn Scala first with one of the above courses and then start with this.
Here is the link to join this course — Akka Essentials with Scala
9. Akka HTTP with Scala | Rock the JVM
If you want to write Reactive Microservices and REST APIs using Scala Programming language then this is the best Udemy course for Scala developers.
In this course, you will learn how to write reactive microservices, backends, and REST APIs using the powerful Akka HTTP. You’ll also write 2000+ lines of Akka code yourself, with guidance, and you will become a master Scala developer.
Here are the topics covered in this course —
- Reactive microservices
- REST APIs in minutes
- Server and Client-side HTTP
- JSON integration
- Websockets
- JSON Web Tokens (JWT) authorization
- Seamless interaction with Akka Actors and Akka Streams
In short, an advanced course for Scala/Akka programmers who need to design large-scale reactive HTTP backends and microservices.
Here is the link to join this Akka course — Akka HTTP with Scala
10. Apache Spark with Scala — Hands On with Big Data!
Spark is one of the important reasons for many Java developers learning Scala. If you don’t know, Apache Spark is a distributed, open-source, general-purpose, cluster-computing framework. It is the largest open-source project in the data processing.
Spark promises excellent performance and comes packaged with higher-level libraries including support for SQL queries, streaming data, machine learning, and graph processing.
Spark works best when using the Scala programming language, and this course includes a crash-course in Scala to get you up to speed quickly.
This course is very hands-on; you’ll spend most of your time following along with the instructor as we write, analyze, and run real code together — both on your own system, and in the cloud using Amazon’s Elastic MapReduce service.
It has over 8 hours of video content is included, with over 20 real examples of increasing complexity you can build, run and study yourself. Move through them at your own pace, on your own schedule. The course wraps up with an overview of other Spark-based technologies, including Spark SQL, Spark Streaming, and GraphX.
Here is the link to join this awesome course — Apache Spark with Scala
That’s all about the best online courses to learn Scala Programming language in 2024. Scala is a widely used functional language in Big data as well as machine learning and some studies have shown that employees who have Scala language in their resume will have more salary than others so now this article will change your mind about Scala and consider learn this fabulous language.
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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these best Scala and Functional programming courses, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, please drop a note.
P. S. — If you are serious about learning Scala Programming language and frameworks like Akka but looking for free online courses to start with then you can also check out Scala Programming Mini Bootcamp for Beginners free course on Udemy. This 1 hour 30 minutes free course is a nice one to learn Scala online.
