I think this course was too difficult so those 6 weeks became much longer for me - maybe timeconsumption was 12 weeks. So that is my only criticism. This course could in my opinion have been divided into "Cryptography basics" and "Cryptography 1". On the other hand, I know Stanford is a good university, I just wish I had been informed about a course that could more easily have introduced me to the topic. This is/was my first cryptography course, so it was a very hard task for me to go through... But the instructor seems very good in his research field and many people recommend this course, thanks.

I really enjoyed this course!

I was glad to work on prime numbers and RSA, even if it was quite late in the course.

I would not recommend it for everyone, though. It is definitely not for beginners; you need a mathematical mind and a solid maths knowledge. So, overall more difficult than what I expected.

Some things could be improved:

- the description of the course could go into more details (maybe with an entertaining short video?), especially regarding the requirements level mentioned above and the overall difficulty level you can expect

- a *formatted* transcript would be awesome

- sometimes, Dan speaks too fast or his writing is not 'top-notch'

- repeating the major concepts, and repeating them in a different way each time, could be done more frequently

- the audio track has been edited and can be 'bumpy' sometimes + do not hesitate to insert more pauses!!

- the course is a bit theoretical and could use more real-life, very concrete applications

Furthermore, at some stages of the course, it is hard to see the 'big picture'. We get the latter at the very end.

Also, keep in mind that the tests are not way easier than the corresponding lessons... quite the contrary actually.

I must highlight two very useful things during the course: recaps at the beginning of some videos, and 'graphical' explanations.

Finally, I had some good laughs hearing Dan state 'it's not that hard', 'it's not that difficult to see' or 'this is a pretty straightforward proof'... Reminded me of my old advanced maths classes.

There should be examples regarding to assignment questions i.e. there should be examples similar to assignment questions

This course is very well explained and stimulating. I am a third year maths undergraduate in the UK. Although I did find some concepts from computer science very foreign in the very beginning, I soon picked them up. So don't be afraid if you are like me who don't know much about computer science. Staying active and curious is the key. Good luck with the course and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And here I would like to say thank you to Dan Boneh for making the videos and making this course public. I am looking forward to take Cryptography II in this autumn.

The Cryptography I is a very formal course taught by a very accomplished professor, Dr. Dan Boneh of the Stanford University. He explains the inner workings of cryptosystems through mathematical structures and proofs. This way we are able to appreciate and fully understand crypto algorithms and their limitations. He covers topics in cryptography ranging from the ancient ciphers to modern public key cryptography and everything in between. This is cryptography at its core. Thank you, Dr. Dan Boneh!

I'm a software developer - I took this course because I wanted to demystify cryptography, and it delivered 100%. It describes fundamental cryptographic primitives, how to use them (and how not to use them) with real-world examples, as well as the theory behind why they are secure, and what "secure" actually means.

There is a fair amount of mathematics involved - everything is covered in the course, but someone with a background in mathematics will definitely have an easier time.

It's been a great learning experience. My background in math / algebra / calculus is rather weak, so it was a real stretch. But it's so rewarding to understand how the fabric of our daily interactions is protected (or how vulnerable it can be) with modern cryptography. Kudoz to the teacher!

Cutting edge cryptography topics. Good explanations and slides, but pause button is highly recommended. Can be a bit too mathematical for the general public, and not very formal for mathematicians.

I am very happy and satisfied pursuing this course. I love it. Cryptography is one of the very important concepts in Computer Science and just loved to have the course from Stanford University.

This is just a great course. The subject was new to me, and while it was difficult, I learned a lot and actually got a good grade.

Prof. Boneh is engaging and very clear in his explanations.

One of the finest online courses I have attended. Very detailed explanation with examples. Very good and highly recommended for beginners.

Thank you Prof. Dan Boneh

Very good course. Expectant for level II

Very Deep math and at time becomes very confusing!

Professor is very knowledgable but he is fast... Even before i can understand the first line. he is on the fourth line. i find Hard to keep up with him. I am dropping this course.

The best course I have taken so far! Not only it introduces you to the world of cryptography, but gives a mathematical overview of how everything works and many practical experiences. The second part is coming soon, expectations are over the roof! The book covering materials in these courses, that Boneh is still working on, will be the best resource for all cryptography related topics(for me at least), I guess it's set out to be the ultimate cryptography textbook.

As a person with mathematical background I admired every piece of the course and how well everything was put together. It really shows how Maths as a science is not just a theory, it's very much practical as well. Having said that, one doesn't have to have mathematical background to comprehend course materials.

The exercises at each end of week are very well crafted - they make you reuse most important information from the week and stick that deep into your brain. I finished the course 1.5 years ago and still remember what most exercises were about.

I remember some colleagues complained about week 5 being too much theoretical and therefore dropped the course. For me it was one of the most interesting weeks. Anyway, I would say first 4 weeks are a must for any developer who is responsible for any software/hardware that has something to do with encryption/authentication.

TLDR: If you are considering the course, just take it. The information you will get is universal and timeless.

The course is excellent! Exactly what you would expect from a world-class institution like Stanford.

Prof. Boneh masterfully guides you through the core building blocks of cryptography, beautifully weaving the concepts into a logical framework that helps understanding the big picture and the role that each plays. The course is very rigorous but the math is not overwhelming and also discusses very useful practical topics like common cryptographic protocols (TLS, WEP, etc.) and the attacks that were discovered over the years.

The course is challenging and takes quite a bit of effort, but at the end I feel that I learned a lot. While I probably need some more time and practice exercises to fully absorb the material, I feel that from here I could go on and independently dig deeper in some of the topics or tackle more advanced one.

Looking forward to part II!

This is a fabulous course. Professor Boneh did an admirable job teaching the basics of modern Cryptography. Modern Cryptography was born at Stanford University founded by Martin Hellman and two students. It used at first intuitive ideas linking complexity theory to cryptography. The old cryptography, that is cryptography at around the Second World War was a a rigorous theory based on Information Theory and founded by Claude Shannon. Modern cryptography was based on the idea that if a cryptographic system cannot be broken in billions of years, then it is for all practical purposes just as secure as a theoretically unbreakable system. In the last 30 years or so the proper definitions were found to make this intuitive idea precise, making modern cryptography a rigorous science. Professor Boneh presents this rigorous theory in this course.

The course is very interesting and very challenging,

As an firmware engineer who never had the chance to learn Crypto. the course gave me a grate introduction to this field.

It is very fascinating to understand the different Crypto. methods and their vulnerabilities, and it made me more aware and gave me the ability to evaluate strength of Crypto. systems that I encounter.

Before every topic there were a detailed overview on the Math theory required to learn it, the explanations followed by real life examples and it feels like the team put a lot of effort to make the lectures comfortable and easy to follow.

The Homework are challenging and very help-hull to understand the learned topics.

Outstanding coverage, very fast paced.

I enrolled in this course to gain an understanding of cryptography beyond material designed for the consumption of the non-technical audience. The lectures by Prof. Boheh were very clear and well organized, with emphasis on fundamental definitions. The section on basic number theory was most helpful. While taking the course, I was also learning the Python programming language, so I attempted most of the optional programming assignments in Python. This reinforced the material a great deal. I will recomment this course highly and will definitely enroll in Cryptography II when it becomes available.

Thank you for a great learning experience.

Amazing course! Enjoyed it so much! Many thanks to Professor Dan Boneh.

Although the lectures are quite short they contain a lot of useful information. You might want to watch them more then once!

The quizzes are designed in such a way that you have to understand the material in order to pass them - just memorizing won't be enough. That's a sign of high quality.

Don't skip the practice quizzes - they are challenging, thought-provoking and help you understand the topic much better.

Bear in mind that the course requires certain math background in discrete probability and number theory. You'll find some books recommended to fill in the gaps at the beginning of the course.

That was the hardest thing i've ever learned in my whole life, but I'm well satisfied by this course. Thank's to this course I finally understood the way I have to use crypto without risk of being hacked because of simple mistake I made. I also wanna say THANK YOU SO MUCH! to professor Dan Boneh for the best possible explanation of the course's material and THANK YOU SO MUCH! to Coursera for giving me an opportunity to learn this high quality educational material while being in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes there were a tiny problems with sound, but it's not critical. Anyway, it's much better then the education that I could get in my region.

Very interesting and intense course, covers probably more than twice as much material as some other courses in the same time. The lecturer Dan Boneh is very motivated and very competent. It makes a significant difference listening to someone who is an expert than just reading a book about it. That said, having a textbook in addition to the videos is a great help, as it gives you a different perspective, which helps a lot with understanding. The questions and programming exercises are interesting and challenging (unfortunately I did not have the time to do the coding exercises), though some of the questions could be formulated a bit clearer.

Very good introduction for someone who wants to understand cryptography at a level deeper than "This is the Crypto API". After the course it is not only clear "what to (not) do" but also "why". Some mathematical understanding is required (I'd say university entry level).

The pace is just right. The questions dispersed throughout the lectures really help the process of understanding because they force to think about the problem at hand. Also very good is that each session starts with a short summary of the last session. Very helpful, if you watch this course in the evening after a workday.

Really good course. The professor knows what he is talking about and he explains as easy to understand as possible. As engineer it was sometimes difficult but not impossible for me to understand everything right away.

The only thing in my opinion that could make the course way more understandable are step by step examples with real numbers/text/messages. The examples in the course are good but too general to understand without a strong mathematical background.

I would recommend this course and I would say it is one of the best cryptography courses you'll find in internet.

Greetings!

One of the best courses I had so far. This course requires patience, a lot of thinking. It rewards you with great learning experience. This course encouraged me to go further into details of cryptography. I will still be reviewing my notes and what I learned from this course in coming months and enroll to the second course from Prof. Boneh. It definitely worth it. I also strongly recommend investing some more time into number theory (at least first four chapters of Viktor Shoup's book) to feel good about the theory of public key cryptography.