Up to this point, I am able to understand all the concepts in the videos. However, I find it very hard to do the assignments given in this course. The number one reason I find it so hard is because I don’t really know how to write this type of code.
So I am wondering if tensorflow is a pre-requisite for this course? Are there any neccessary coding courses I need to take before this course?
In order to succeed here, you need solid competence as a python programmer and it helps to have seen an introduction to TensorFlow. These courses are designed as a series, so they assume in Course 4 that you have previously taken Course 2 of this series. The DLS introduction to TensorFlow is in Week 3 of Course 2 and then the Week 3 programming assignment there.
It sounds like you are starting out here in Course 4. You can probably just go watch the lectures in Course 2 Week 3 on TF and see if that helps or not. If you are already paying for a subscription to the whole specialization, it would be worth doing the programming exercise in C2W3 as well, although depending on your background you might also need to watch some of the other lectures in Week 3 (e.g. if you’re not familiar with softmax and multiclass classifiers).
There are tutorials on the TF website and there’s also a TF specialization from Deeplearning.AI, but that’s probably overkill to take that first.
I did watch course 2, but their introduction to tensorflow is very brief, it does not go into details on how to actually write the code. I think right now I probably need to learn a bit more about python. Do you have any suggestions for me?
Yes, the TF introduction is just discussing the concepts and then you get to see the code in the C2W3 Assignment.
How much programming have you done in other languages and how much in python? If you are an experienced programmer in other languages, you can probably just look at some of the python tutorials online. Just google “python tutorial”. Here’s the “official” tutorial on the python website and it looks good. If that seems too basic, you can also just look up specific topics when you hit them. E.g. google “python dictionary” and read an article on the topic.
But if python is your first programming language, you probably want to actually take a python course. There are a number of them available on Coursera. I haven’t actually looked at any of them, so I’m not sure which one would be the best fit for your situation. Sorry I can’t give more specific guidance on that front.
@zhuz11 If you believe the data on the top level page, 1.2 million people have enrolled in this course from the University of Michigan: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/python?page=2
I’m one of them. It will definitely cover parts of the language not required for this class, but if you’re new to programming, or new to programming in Python, you might find it helpful. There are 5 courses in the Specialization but really only the first 2, Getting Started with Python and Python Data Structures would apply directly to tasks here in the Deep Learning courses.
Thank you all for your helpful advice.