What it is
Machine Learning Crash Course (MLCC) is a free, self-paced online course from Google that teaches machine learning fundamentals through short video explainers, interactive visualisations and hands-on coding exercises. It was first released publicly in 2018, built from a course Google's own engineering education team had already delivered internally to more than 18,000 Googlers. In 2024 Google relaunched it as, in its own words, "a free, online 15-hour self-study course."
Who it's for and what they learn
The course states it "does not presume or require any prior knowledge in machine learning," but it does assume comfortable programming ability (ideally Python) and maths up to algebra, basic linear algebra and statistics (calculus is optional, for advanced neural network topics). Google recommends completing its separate "Introduction to Machine Learning" course plus NumPy and pandas ultraquick tutorials first.
Learners work through modules on linear and logistic regression, classification, working with numerical and categorical data, overfitting and generalisation, neural networks, embeddings, and — added in the 2024 relaunch — large language models (tokens through to Transformers) and AutoML, plus expanded coverage of data and responsible AI. Google says the refreshed course includes "more than 130 exercise questions," with quiz-based badges available per module.
Format and cost
It's entirely self-paced, browser-based, and free with no sign-in or payment required to start. Content is offered in more than 20 languages. There's no fixed schedule or cohort — learners can follow the recommended sequence or jump to specific topics if they already have ML experience.
