8 Best Solidity Courses and Certifications Online in 2026

Last updated: October 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson. Every course below was opened on its platform on 14 October 2026 to confirm it is still sold and to read its rating, length and last-update date. We also read recent r/solidity threads on which courses learners use. See our review methodology. If you enroll through our links we may earn a commission, which never changes the ranking.

The best Solidity course for most beginners in 2026 is Cyfrin Updraft’s Solidity Smart Contract Development: it is free, it is taught by Patrick Collins, and it leads straight into Foundry, the testing framework most new tutorials now use. If you want a paid, structured path with a certificate of completion, Zero To Mastery’s Blockchain Developer Bootcamp was rebuilt around Foundry and updated in October 2026.

Solidity is the main language for smart contracts on Ethereum and other EVM chains such as Arbitrum, Base and Polygon. The current compiler is Solidity 0.8.37, released on 10 September 2026 according to the Solidity team. Courses recorded before 2023 can still teach the language, but their tooling (Truffle, Ganache, web3.js) has largely been replaced, so the update date matters more here than in most subjects.

What Is Solidity?

Solidity is a statically typed, contract-oriented programming language for writing smart contracts, the programs that run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). A contract holds state (balances, owners, settings) and functions that change it; once deployed, its code is public and very hard to change. Solidity compiles to EVM bytecode, so the same contract can run on Ethereum and on EVM-compatible networks. Its syntax borrows from C++, Python and JavaScript, and the compiler is maintained as open source by the Solidity team. Most token, NFT, lending and exchange contracts on Ethereum are written in it. The main alternative on the EVM is Vyper, a Python-like language; Solana and some other chains use Rust instead.

Best Solidity Courses at a Glance

See the ZTM Blockchain Developer Bootcamp →

How We Picked

We opened every course page on 14 October 2026 and recorded who teaches it, when it was last updated, its rating and how many people rated it, and whether it teaches Foundry or Hardhat (current) or only Truffle and Ganache (retired tools). We favored courses that make you deploy and test contracts, because writing contracts that survive an audit is the actual job. We did not complete every course end to end; where a judgment comes from learners rather than from the course page, we say so. We earn a commission on some links (Udemy, Coursera, Zero To Mastery and Blockchain Council), at no cost to you. Cyfrin Updraft and Alchemy University pay us nothing, and they still rank where they belong.

The Best Solidity Courses, Reviewed

1. Solidity Smart Contract Development (Cyfrin Updraft): best free course

Patrick Collins’s Updraft course is the one r/solidity recommends most often in the threads we read, usually with the same reasoning: it is free, current and made by people who audit smart contracts for a living. The course page lists 62 lessons and 3 projects (Simple Storage, Storage Factory and Fund Me) and covers variables, functions, mappings, memory versus calldata, inheritance, custom errors and gas optimization in the Remix IDE. It then hands you on to Updraft’s Foundry Fundamentals, Advanced Foundry and Smart Contract Security courses, so the free path runs from your first contract to security research.

Watch out for: the later Foundry courses move fast. One learner on r/solidity said it took 40-plus hours to work through the first 14 hours of video. Take notes, pause often, and rebuild each project yourself.

Best for: anyone starting from scratch who wants the modern toolchain without paying. Start the Updraft Solidity course (free).

2. Blockchain Developer Bootcamp (Zero To Mastery): best paid path

ZTM’s bootcamp, taught by Markus Waas, was last updated in October 2026 and runs 13 hours across 190 lessons and 3 projects. It starts with blockchain and Ethereum basics, moves through Solidity, ERC-20 tokens, inheritance and common patterns, and includes a Foundry section (25 lectures). ZTM says most students finish in about 30 days. You can buy it alone for $149 with lifetime access or get it inside a ZTM membership (from $25 a month), which also covers JavaScript and React if you need them for front ends. ZTM offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Best for: learners who want a guided, paid course with a community and a certificate of completion.

View the ZTM Blockchain Developer Bootcamp →

3. Ethereum Blockchain Developer Bootcamp With Solidity (Udemy)

Thomas Wiesner and Ravinder Deol’s course is rated 4.7 from 11,930 ratings, with about 78,000 students, and was last updated in January 2025. It runs about 26 hours across 298 lectures and is built around projects: a blockchain messenger, a smart wallet, an ERC-20 token sale and an NFT. It is our top pick on the best blockchain courses guide too. Some sections, which the course marks as legacy content, still teach Truffle, which has been retired, so check which tool a section uses before you copy its setup steps.

Best for: Udemy learners who want breadth and many projects for one low sale price.

See the Ethereum Blockchain Developer Bootcamp on Udemy →

4. Alchemy University: Learn Solidity and the Ethereum Bootcamp (free)

Alchemy University is free. Its catalog lists a short Learn Solidity course (11 lessons, 12,000-plus enrolled) and a longer Ethereum Bootcamp (91 lessons, 28,000-plus enrolled) that teaches EVM development with JavaScript alongside Solidity. Both are marked intermediate, so they suit developers who already code. r/solidity users often pair Alchemy with Updraft, taking one for structure and the other for practice.

Best for: JavaScript developers who want a free, code-first bootcamp. Alchemy University.

5. Smart Contracts (University at Buffalo on Coursera)

Bina Ramamurthy’s course is the second part of the University at Buffalo Blockchain Specialization. It has 4 modules (about 2 weeks at 10 hours a week), is rated 4.6 from 2,339 reviews and teaches you to design, code and deploy contracts with Solidity in Remix. It is lighter on production tooling than Updraft or ZTM and stronger on the why: the contract model, design and trust. The full Blockchain Specialization (4 courses, 4.6 from 9,151 reviews, 137,000-plus enrolled) adds decentralized apps and platforms. You can enroll for free to preview; the certificate needs a paid enrollment or Coursera Plus.

Preview Smart Contracts on Coursera →

6. Master Ethereum & Solidity Programming From Scratch (Udemy)

Andrei Dumitrescu’s course was updated in June 2026, which makes it the most recently refreshed Udemy option we found. It is rated 4.5 from 3,428 ratings, with about 23,700 students. It is a beginner course built around practical projects, and it suits learners who want a Udemy course that has been kept current.

See Master Ethereum & Solidity on Udemy →

7. Solidity Mastery: Foundations to Advanced Smart Contracts (Packt on Coursera)

Packt’s three-course Specialization is marked intermediate, takes about 4 weeks at 10 hours a week, and is rated 4.8, but only from 12 reviews, so the rating tells you little yet. It covers Solidity syntax, data types, writing and deploying contracts, and more advanced patterns. Choose it mainly if you already pay for Coursera Plus and want your Solidity study to sit inside it.

View Solidity Mastery on Coursera →

8. Ethereum and Solidity: The Complete Developer’s Guide (Udemy, Stephen Grider)

Grider’s course was once the default recommendation and is still clearly taught, with 28,334 ratings and about 157,000 students. Its rating has slipped to 4.2 and it was last updated in April 2025, so it is no longer our first pick. Take it if you like Grider’s teaching style, then learn Foundry separately.

See Grider’s course on Udemy →

Other Solidity Courses Worth Knowing

Udacity Blockchain Developer Nanodegree. A 29-hour beginner program (updated 23 February 2026) whose second half teaches Solidity syntax, design patterns, dApp interactions and Hardhat testing, ending with a collateralized loan contract as the final project. It expects asynchronous JavaScript first. It costs $249 a month or $999 one time, with project reviews included, so it suits learners who want graded projects more than the cheapest route. Our Udacity Blockchain Nanodegree review covers it in full. See the program on Udacity.

RareSkills Advanced Solidity + DeFi Bootcamp. A 13-week, cohort-based course with weekly live sessions, built for experienced engineers and technical founders rather than beginners. It costs $1,950 a month for three months, and the next cohort starts in October 2026. Consider it after you have shipped contracts and want to understand large DeFi systems in depth. We have no affiliate relationship with RareSkills.

The Complete Solidity Course: Zero to Expert (Udemy). Rated 4.5 from 2,328 ratings, but last updated in October 2022. Its basics are fine; its tooling sections are dated, so the courses above are better buys.

Free Solidity Courses

You can learn Solidity to a job-ready level without paying for a course. What you give up is mostly structure, a certificate of completion and someone to answer questions.

• Cyfrin Updraft: free courses from Solidity basics to Foundry, DeFi and security auditing.
• Alchemy University: free Solidity and Ethereum bootcamp lessons.
• CryptoZombies: free, in-browser lessons that teach Solidity by building a game. Good for a first look.
• Speedrun Ethereum: free challenges built on Scaffold-ETH 2 (tokenization, crowdfunding and more) that you deploy to a test network.
• The Solidity documentation: the reference you will keep open once you start writing contracts.
• Coursera courses: enroll for free to preview; the certificate needs a paid enrollment.

Free Solidity course with a certificate? Updraft and Alchemy track your progress for free. A Coursera or Udemy certificate of completion needs a paid enrollment. A certificate of completion is proof you finished a course, not proof of skill; a deployed, tested contract on GitHub says more.

Solidity Courses on Coursera

Searching “Solidity” on Coursera returns mostly Packt courses plus the University at Buffalo specialization. The two worth your time are Buffalo’s Smart Contracts (4.6 from 2,339 reviews) and Packt’s Solidity Mastery Specialization. Several Coursera Solidity listings still teach Truffle and Ganache, which have been retired, so check the syllabus for Foundry or Hardhat before you enroll. Coursera Plus covers all of them if you plan to take more than two.

Solidity Certifications

There is no official Solidity certification from the Solidity team or the Ethereum Foundation. The certificates you can earn come from training companies:

A Blockchain Council certificate can help with recruiters who screen for credentials, and its course modules give you a syllabus to follow. Engineering teams hiring Solidity developers look at deployed contracts, tests and audit write-ups instead. Our Blockchain Council review covers its pricing, refund policy and recognition in detail, and our blockchain developer certification guide compares the wider options.

See the Certified Solidity Developer →

What a Solidity Course Should Teach in 2026

Use this checklist on any course page before you pay:

• Solidity 0.8.x syntax, including custom errors and the checked arithmetic that replaced SafeMath.
• A current framework: Foundry (forge, anvil) or Hardhat. Truffle and Ganache are retired.
• Testing, including fuzz tests, not only deployment.
• Security basics: reentrancy, access control, oracle and front-running risks.
• Gas optimization, storage versus memory versus calldata.
• Token standards (ERC-20, ERC-721) and at least one deployment to a public test network.

Courses that end at “deploy in Remix” teach the language. Jobs expect the testing and security layers too.

How Long Does It Take to Learn Solidity?

If you already program, plan on 4 to 6 weeks of steady study to write and deploy basic contracts, and a few more months of building and testing to reach production-level work. ZTM puts its 13-hour bootcamp at about 30 days for most students; Updraft describes its first course as about an hour a day for five days. From zero programming experience it takes longer. One r/solidity user who tried Solidity and JavaScript at the same time with no coding background dropped Solidity, learned JavaScript first, and found Solidity much easier as a second language.

Is Solidity Hard to Learn?

The syntax is not hard, and it will feel familiar if you know JavaScript or C-style languages. The difficulty is that mistakes are expensive: deployed contracts are hard to change and hold real money, so you have to think about security, gas costs and testing from day one. That is why the courses above that teach testing and security are ranked higher than the ones that stop at writing a contract.

Is Solidity Worth Learning in 2026?

Solidity is still the main language for Ethereum and EVM chains, which is where most decentralized-finance activity runs, so if you want to build smart contracts it is the language to learn. Go in with realistic expectations about jobs. In the r/solidity threads we read, working developers describe a small number of roles and a long road to the level employers hire at, and one advised career changers to learn general software development first. The paths people do describe are protocol development, front-end plus contract work, and security auditing, which is why Updraft’s security courses are popular. Treat Solidity as a specialization on top of general programming skills rather than your only skill.

What You Need Before Starting

• Basic programming in any language. JavaScript or TypeScript helps most, because front ends and scripts use it.
• Blockchain basics: wallets, transactions, gas and accounts. Our best blockchain courses guide lists short introductions.
• A code editor and Git. Updraft and Speedrun Ethereum walk you through installing Foundry or Scaffold-ETH 2.
• A test-network wallet. Never use real funds while learning.

A Simple Learning Path

• Week 1: CryptoZombies or Updraft’s first Solidity course, in the browser.
• Weeks 2 to 4: Updraft Foundry Fundamentals, or the ZTM bootcamp if you prefer a paid course.
• Weeks 5 to 8: Speedrun Ethereum challenges, deployed to a test network, with tests in your GitHub.
• After that: Updraft’s security course, then read public audit reports and try a beginner audit contest.

Tips for Learning Solidity Faster

• Rebuild, do not copy. After each lesson, close the video and write the contract again from memory, with tests.
• Read real code. Read audited contracts such as the OpenZeppelin library and compare them with your own.
• Read audit reports. Public reports from Code4rena and Cyfrin CodeHawks show the bugs that actually get found, and their competitive audits let you practice.
• Join a hackathon. ETHGlobal runs online and in-person hackathons that give you a deadline and a team.
• Ask in public. r/solidity and Ethereum Stack Exchange answer specific questions quickly; post code, not screenshots.
• Use AI with care. One r/solidity learner uses an AI assistant to summarize hard concepts, which helps, but never deploy AI-written contract code you cannot explain line by line.

Courses We Removed From This List

Solidity Smart Contracts: Build DApps in Ethereum Blockchain (Udemy) was last updated in June 2019 and is rated 4.2 from 524 ratings, so we dropped it. We also stopped calling Grider’s course our best overall pick (see course 8) and corrected an earlier version of this page that credited the Coursera Smart Contracts course to the University of Maryland; it is from the University at Buffalo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Solidity course in 2026?

For most beginners, Cyfrin Updraft’s free Solidity Smart Contract Development course, taught by Patrick Collins, because it is current and leads into Foundry and security. For a paid course with a certificate of completion, Zero To Mastery’s Blockchain Developer Bootcamp, updated October 2026.

Is there a free Solidity course?

Yes. Cyfrin Updraft, Alchemy University, CryptoZombies and Speedrun Ethereum are all free. Coursera courses can be previewed for free, but the certificate needs a paid enrollment.

How long does it take to learn Solidity?

With programming experience, about 4 to 6 weeks to write and deploy basic contracts, and a few more months of building and testing to reach production level. Longer if you are new to programming.

Do I need to know JavaScript before learning Solidity?

It is not required, but it helps. Solidity syntax is familiar to JavaScript developers, and the scripts and front ends around contracts are usually JavaScript or TypeScript.

Is there an official Solidity certification?

No. The Solidity team and the Ethereum Foundation do not certify developers. Training companies such as Blockchain Council sell certificates ($299 for Certified Solidity Developer on 14 October 2026), and course platforms issue certificates of completion.

Is Solidity worth learning in 2026?

Yes if you want to build on Ethereum and EVM chains, where it is the main smart contract language. The job market is small, so learn it on top of general programming skills and build a public portfolio of tested contracts.

Should I learn Foundry or Hardhat?

Either is current. Many new tutorials, including Cyfrin Updraft and the ZTM bootcamp, use Foundry. Avoid courses that only teach Truffle and Ganache, which have been retired.

Which Solidity courses are on Coursera?

The University at Buffalo Smart Contracts course (4.6 from 2,339 reviews), part of its Blockchain Specialization, and Packt’s Solidity Mastery Specialization are the strongest. Check any other Coursera listing for Foundry or Hardhat before enrolling.