Client-Server Communication (Udacity)

Offered by Udacity, Google,
Client-Server Communication (Udacity)

HTTP/1 to HTTP/2 and all things Security. We use websites all the time, but how does clicking a link in your browser or typing in a URL in the address bar get you to a website? How does the server know what information you're looking for or how to send you that information once it's figured that out? How can you protect your users from attackers? Dig into this course and you'll be able to answer these questions!

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

This course will guide you through how a client communicates with a server. You'll learn about HTTP's request and response cycle, dig into HTTP headers and verbs, distinguish HTTP/1 from HTTP/2 capabilities, all while experiencing the importance of security by digging into the details of HTTPS. Throughout the course, you'll learn both security best practices, as well as ways to improve the performance of your web apps. We'll provide you with handcrafted servers where you'll diagnose problematic server setups, issues with SSL certificates, and even have a chance to hack an example bank website to transfer funds.
Typically, web developers do not work directly with underlying platform of HTTP. But knowing how information is transferred across the wire is vital to creating efficient and professional apps. This course will dig into the ins and outs of application performance as well as cover common security pitfalls and how to prevent them.

What You Will Learn

Lesson 1
HTTP’s Request Response Cycle

  • Learn about HTTP's request and response cycle.
  • What makes up an HTTP requests and response?
  • What originates an HTTP request and how do they relate to one another?

Lesson 2
HTTP/1

  • Find out how HTTP/1 is used in practice.
  • Map the requests and response types from lesson 1 into HTTP verbs and response codes & headers.

Lesson 3
HTTPS

  • How does HTTPS differ from HTTP?
  • TLS, cryptography, and Certificate Authorities.
  • HTTP Mixed Content issues.

Lesson 4
HTTP/2

  • Learn how HTTP/2 improves on and extends HTTP/1.
  • Look at optimizations for HTTP/1 that are now anti-patterns in HTTP/2.

Lesson 5
Security

  • Look at and resolve common security problems like CORS, CSRF, XSS, and more!

Prerequisites and Requirements
We expect that you are comfortable reading and writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Knowledge of JavaScript's Fetch API is not required but will be beneficial. Check out our JavaScript Promises course to learn about Fetch.
Other Requirements:
comfort with command line tools

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

Related Courses

Network Security (Udacity) Udacity
Georgia Institute of Technology,Udacity

Network Security (Udacity)

This course provides an introduction to computer and network security. Students successfully completing this class will be able to evaluate works in academic and commercial security, and will have rudimentary skills in security research. The course begins with a tutorial of the basic elements of cryptography, cryptanalysis, and systems security, and continues by covering a number of seminal papers and monographs in a wide range of security areas.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Introduction to Applied Cryptography (Coursera) Coursera
University of London

Introduction to Applied Cryptography (Coursera)

This course is a non-mathematical introduction to the role that cryptography plays in providing digital security for everyday applications such as the internet, mobile phones, wireless networks and cryptocurrency. In this introductory course you will develop an understanding of the functionality and purpose of the main cryptographic tools we use today. You will learn how to make decisions about which cryptographic tools are most appropriate to deploy in specific settings. You will also explore the wider infrastructure surrounding cryptography and how this impacts the overall security of systems deploying cryptography.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Capstone: Autonomous Runway Detection for IoT (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Capstone: Autonomous Runway Detection for IoT (Coursera)

The students will develop a larger system using the learning outcomes from these courses, and the students will evaluate the developed system in a real-world programming environment. This course is a true engineering task in which the student must, not only implement the algorithm code, but also handle the interfaces between many different actors and hardware platforms.

Sep 7th 2026
3 Weeks
Intro to Progressive Web Apps (Udacity) Udacity
Udacity,Google

Intro to Progressive Web Apps (Udacity)

In this course you’ll get started working on your very first Progressive Web App (PWA) - a web app that can take advantage of many of the features native applications have enjoyed. You’ll also get more experience in creating a web app that works offline using Service Workers. Finally, you’ll make your app installable to the user’s home screen with the Web App Manifest file.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Cyber Threat Hunting (Coursera) Coursera
Infosec

Cyber Threat Hunting (Coursera)

Learn repeatable, documentable cyber threat hunting methodologies and types of tools that will make your threat hunting more effective. This learning path progresses through six courses, in which you will build core hunting skills such as intelligence gathering, investigation techniques and remediation methods. Upon completion, you'll have the knowledge and skills to carry out cyber threat hunting activities with an organization that will ultimately deliver proactive defenses against possible debilitating data compromise.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Tencent Cloud Solutions Architect Associate (Coursera) Coursera
Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud Solutions Architect Associate (Coursera)

This course is primarily aimed at cloud professionals that are interested in learning about Tencent Cloud‘s cloud architectures. The course equips learners with a foundational knowledge in cloud architecture design and prepares them to take the Tencent Cloud Solutions Architect Associate examination. After completing this course, learners will be able to design cloud solutions that incorporate the principles of high availability, high security, high scalability, and cost optimization.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
IBM Data Privacy for Information Architecture (Coursera) Coursera
IBM

IBM Data Privacy for Information Architecture (Coursera)

Data privacy controls how information is collected, used, shared, and disposed of, in accordance with policies or external laws and regulations. In this course, students will gain an understanding of what data privacy is along with how to identify and understand typical data protection and privatization objectives that an enterprise may have, and how to choose a data protection approach.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Cybersecurity Job Search and Interviews: Getting Started (Coursera) Coursera
University System of Georgia

Cybersecurity Job Search and Interviews: Getting Started (Coursera)

Are you planning to have a career in cybersecurity? This course can help you plan your preparation for such a career as well as give some advice on finding positions and landing a position. What you will learn: the process and resources for finding the perfect cybersecurity job; the cybersecurity professional’s role in an organization’s cybersecurity effort; the knowledge preparation for the cybersecurity professional from an education versus training perspective.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Cloud Computing Security (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado System

Cloud Computing Security (Coursera)

In this MOOC, we will learn Cloud Computing basics using AWS as an example, We will guide you to create AWS account, planning AWS resources for your cloud systems, create AWS EC2 instances, access them and configure the popular LAMP web services with MySQL database. We will guide you to create user accounts for your programmer or operators using AWS Identify and Access management GUI, Register your domain name and setup DNS entry for your servers using AWS Route 53 in 22 mintues! and show you how to use AWS Command Line interface to create and managing instances and services programmatically.

Sep 7th 2026
4 Weeks
SQL for Security Specialist (Coursera) Coursera
Codio

SQL for Security Specialist (Coursera)

This course is designed specifically for SQL Security Specialists with a focus on PostgreSQL. It assumes a solid foundation in SQL and guides learners through advanced topics specific to PostgreSQL. You'll explore crucial concepts, such as complex queries, performance optimization, and database administration tasks unique to PostgreSQL.

Sep 14th 2026
3 Weeks