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Course Review
Here is our in-depth review of Web Security and Authentication, based on hours of rigorous testing and evaluation.
Updated: August 25, 2023
Tremendous free resource for learning the foundations of web application security.
Fast Facts
App Academy Open
By Various Authors
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
This course consists of readings, quizzes, exercises, and a guided project where you build an Express backend with authentication.
Each section contains quizzes to ensure you’ve grasped the material, along with hands-on practice executing an attack on vulnerable code, along with step by step instructions to mitigate the attack. This frequent practice is incredibly valuable for making your knowledge more tangible.
The topic coverage is just thorough enough to get you started working with these technologies. Often in the curriculum, the authors provide links to supplemental materials -- these are important for gaining a deep understanding of web application security. After taking this course, you'll have a solid understanding of some of the common application risks, how to mitigate them, and best practices for authenticating users in a full stack JavaScript application.
It's important to be aware that App Academy Open's curriculum was written with the assumption that students would take the entire program sequentially. So if you jump into this section of the course, you'll notice the course references other sections and assumes a lot of prerequisite knowledge.
SQL Injection is covered elsewhere in the App Academy Open curriculum, so if you decide to take Web Application Security on App Academy Open, you'll definitely want to review that section.
The course doesn't really dive into using HTTPS, session management, and how to test for security vulnerabilities. You'll want to learn about these and other advanced security topics like handling file uploads and security compliance as well.
Pluralsight
By Gavin Johnson-Lynn, Peter Mosmans, others
#2 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
#2 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
Great option for learning security best practices for enterprise-grade applications.
Codecademy
By Various Authors
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
Solid coverage of the core web security concepts that fullstack web developers need to be aware of, with hands-on practice implementing security in Node, Express, and Postgres.
Frontend Masters
By Mike North
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
#3 in The Best Online Courses for Learning Web Application Security in 2023
Solid video-based introduction to securing web applications, with some hands-on examples.
Our course reviews are conducted by a team of technical professionals, course developers, and lifelong learners.
The lead of this project, Brian Green, has worked in developer education since 2009. He built the content development teams at Pluralsight and Udacity, implementing quality standards and tutorials to improve course quality and working with hundreds of authors to create courseware. Most recently, he built the product team at App Academy. As of writing, he estimates he has spent nearly a year of his life taking or reviewing online courses, on topics ranging from Web Development, Networking, Server Administration, DevOps, Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.
We reviewed this course using the following criteria:
