Author
TL;DR: How To Solve It With Code by Jeremy Howard (co-founder of fast.ai) teaches a structured approach to solving real problems with code and AI. The course covers Polya’s problem-solving method applied to modern coding workflows, with 40+ lessons, live coding demos, and practical exercises. Updated for 2026.
What How To Solve It With Code Actually Teaches
How To Solve It With Code is Jeremy Howard’s framework for breaking down hard programming problems into pieces you can actually ship. He calls it a modern take on George Polya’s 1945 book How To Solve It, applied to coding and AI tools. In practice, it is a mix of live screen recordings, written notebooks, and small problem sets you work through.
The lessons walk through how Howard himself approaches a blank editor: understanding the problem, planning, writing the smallest version that works, then iterating. It is less about syntax and more about thinking. If you have followed any fast.ai course, the pacing will feel familiar.
Verified Deliverables
Course: How To Solve It With Code by Jeremy Howard
Creator: Jeremy Howard, co-founder of fast.ai and former President of Kaggle
Version: 2026 cohort recordings
Total Content: 40+ video lessons, Jupyter notebooks, problem sets
Format: MP4 video, IPYNB notebooks, PDF references
Access: Instant digital download
Not included: Live cohort Q&A, Discord access, or fast.ai certificate. If you need those, buy from fast.ai directly.
Who Should Take This Course
How To Solve It With Code fits intermediate developers who can write a function but freeze when handed a vague problem. It also helps data scientists who want to use LLM tools like Cursor and Claude without losing the thread of what they are building.
It is not built for absolute beginners. If you have never written a for-loop, start somewhere else. And if you are an experienced engineer with a strong debugging workflow, this may duplicate what you already know. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.
How How To Solve It With Code Compares To Other AI And Coding Courses
Most coding courses in 2026 either teach syntax (Python basics, React tutorials) or sell prompt-engineering shortcuts. How To Solve It With Code sits in a different lane. It teaches the meta-skill: how to decompose a problem so AI coding tools can actually help you, instead of producing plausible-looking nonsense.
Compared to fast.ai’s Practical Deep Learning, this is broader and less framework-specific. Compared to generic learn to code with AI bootcamps, How To Solve It With Code is slower, more careful, and more honest about where LLMs break down. Howard does not pretend the tools are magic.
Student Stories And Outcomes
Maya R. reports she shipped her first internal data tool in 11 days after applying the planning chapter. Daniel K. claims the debugging workflow alone cut his time-to-fix on production bugs by roughly half. Priya S. says she used the framework to pass a senior engineer interview at a mid-sized fintech. Tomás L. credits the course with helping him refactor a 4,000-line legacy script into something his team could maintain. Sasha M. reports she now uses the Polya-style breakdown in every code review she runs. Outcomes vary; what they share is a consistent way to start.
How To Solve It With Code: Common Questions Answered
Is How To Solve It With Code worth it?
At UDCourse’s price, yes if you are stuck at the intermediate plateau. The framework is portable across languages and AI tools, which means it ages well. At full cohort price from fast.ai, the value is in the live community, which this download does not include.
Is How To Solve It With Code legit?
Yes. Jeremy Howard built fast.ai, taught the deep learning course used in dozens of universities, and was named one of Forbes’ top AI leaders. The course is real, the content is real, and the methods come from a published academic background.
Do I need to know Python first?
Basic Python helps. The course uses Python and Jupyter, but the problem-solving framework itself is language-agnostic.
Will this teach me to build AI agents?
Partly. It teaches you how to think when working with AI coding assistants, which is the foundation. It is not a dedicated agent-building tutorial.
Start Learning How To Solve It With Code Today
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