Coursera

Data Structures and Design Patterns for Game Developers (Coursera)

Offered by University of Colorado System,

This course is the fourth course in the specialization about learning how to develop video games using the C# programming language and the Unity game engine on Windows or Mac. Why use C# and Unity instead of some other language and game engine? Well, C# is a really good language for learning how to program and then programming professionally. Also, the Unity game engine is very popular with indie game developers; Unity games were downloaded 16,000,000,000 times in 2016! Finally, C# is one of the programming languages you can use in the Unity environment.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This course assumes you have the prerequisite knowledge from the previous three courses in the specialization. You should make sure you have that knowledge, either by taking those previous courses or from personal experience, before tackling this course. Throughout this course you'll build on your foundational C# and Unity knowledge by developing more robust games with better object-oriented designs using various data structures and design patterns.
Data structures and design patterns are both general programming and software architecture topics that span all software, not just games. Although we'll discuss these ideas in the game domain, they also apply if you're writing a web app in ASP.NET, building a tool using WinForms, or any other software you decide to build.
Module 1: Explore a Dynamic Array data structure and learn the basics of algorithm analysis
Module 2: Learn about and use the common Linked List and Graph data structures
Module 3: Learn about and use several additional data structures: Stacks, Queues, and Trees
Module 4: Learn why design patterns are so useful and discover a number of design patterns useful in game development
Module 5: Complete final peer review
Course 4 of 4 in the C# Programming for Unity Game Development Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Dynamic Arrays and Algorithm Analysis

WEEK 2
Linked Lists and Graphs

WEEK 3
Stacks, Queues, and Trees

WEEK 4
Design Patterns

Go to Class

MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Coursera

University of California, Irvine

The Raspberry Pi Platform and Python Programming for the Raspberry Pi (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering

The Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable single-board computer that you will use to design and develop fun and practical IoT devices while learning programming and computer hardware. In addition, you will learn how to set up up the Raspberry Pi environment, get a Linux operating system running, and write and execute some basic Python code on the Raspberry Pi. You will also learn how to use Python-based IDE (integrated development environments) for the Raspberry Pi and how to trace and debug Python code on the device.

Jul 6th 2026

4 Weeks

Programming Python Computer Programming

Coursera

University of Michigan

Interactivity with JavaScript (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

If you want to take your website to the next level, the ability to incorporate interactivity is a must. But adding some of these types of capabilities requires a stronger programming language than HTML5 or CSS3, and JavaScript can provide just what you need. With just a basic understanding of the language, you can create a page that will react to common events such as page loads, mouse clicks & movements, and even keyboard input.

Jul 6th 2026

4 Weeks

Programming Javascript DOM

Coursera

University of Maryland, College Park

Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 2 (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

This course introduces you to the design and implementation of Android applications for mobile devices. You will build upon concepts from the prior course, including handling notifications, using multimedia and graphics and incorporating touch and gestures into your apps.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Mobile Interface

Coursera

University of Michigan

Python Data Structures (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

This course will introduce the core data structures of the Python programming language. We will move past the basics of procedural programming and explore how we can use the Python built-in data structures such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples to perform increasingly complex data analysis. This course will cover Chapters 6-10 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. This course covers Python 3.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Python Semantics

Coursera

University of Edinburgh,Universidad ORT Uruguay

Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

Have you ever wished you knew how to program, but had no idea where to start from? This course will teach you how to program in Scratch, an easy to use visual programming language. More importantly, it will introduce you to the fundamental principles of computing and it will help you think like a software engineer.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Algorithms Coding

Coursera

University of Michigan

Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) (Coursera)

CS: Programming

This course aims to teach everyone the basics of programming computers using Python. We cover the basics of how one constructs a program from a series of simple instructions in Python. The course has no pre-requisites and avoids all but the simplest mathematics. Anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this course.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Python Functions

Coursera

University of California, San Diego

Object Oriented Programming in Java (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

Welcome to our course on Object Oriented Programming in Java using data visualization. People come to this course with many different goals -- and we are really excited to work with all of you! Some of you want to be professional software developers, others want to improve your programming skills to implement that cool personal project that you’ve been thinking about, while others of you might not yet know why you’re here and are trying to figure out what this course is all about.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Java Algorithms

Coursera

EIT Digital

Geometric Algorithms (Coursera)

CS: Theory Computer Science

Course Information: In many areas of computer science such as robotics, computer graphics, virtual reality, and geographic information systems, it is necessary to store, analyze, and create or manipulate spatial data. This course deals with the algorithmic aspects of these tasks: we study techniques and concepts needed for the design and analysis of geometric algorithms and data structures. Each technique and concept will be illustrated on the basis of a problem arising in one of the application areas mentioned above.

Jul 10th 2026

3 Weeks

Algorithms Data Structures Geometric Algorithms

Coursera

University of California, San Diego

Graph Analytics for Big Data (Coursera)

Statistics & Data Analysis Data Science

Want to understand your data network structure and how it changes under different conditions? Curious to know how to identify closely interacting clusters within a graph? Have you heard of the fast-growing area of graph analytics and want to learn more? This course gives you a broad overview of the field of graph analytics so you can learn new ways to model, store, retrieve and analyze graph-structured data.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Big Data Data Analysis Graphs

Coursera

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Functional Programming Principles in Scala (Coursera)

CS: Software Engineering CS: Programming

Functional programming is becoming increasingly widespread in industry. This trend is driven by the adoption of Scala as the main programming language for many applications. Scala fuses functional and object-oriented programming in a practical package. It interoperates seamlessly with both Java and Javascript. Scala is the implementation language of many important frameworks, including Apache Spark, Kafka, and Akka. It provides the core infrastructure for sites such as Twitter, Tumblr and also Coursera.

Jul 6th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Scala Object-Oriented Programming

Coursera

Google

Crash Course on Python (Coursera)

CS: Information & Technology Computer Science

This course is designed to teach you the foundations in order to write simple programs in Python using the most common structures. No previous exposure to programming is needed. By the end of this course, you'll understand the benefits of programming in IT roles; be able to write simple programs using Python; figure out how the building blocks of programming fit together; and combine all of this knowledge to solve a complex programming problem.

Jul 7th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Python Data Structures Object-Oriented Programming

Coursera

Google

Using Python to Interact with the Operating System (Coursera)

CS: Information & Technology Computer Science

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to manipulate files and processes on your computer’s operating system. You’ll also have learned about regular expressions -- a very powerful tool for processing text files -- and you’ll get practice using the Linux command line on a virtual machine. And, this might feel like a stretch right now, but you’ll also write a program that processes a bunch of errors in an actual log file and then generates a summary file. That’s a super useful skill for IT Specialists to know.

Jul 7th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Programming Python Regular Expressions