Course · Beginner
Neural Networks from First Principles
From a single neuron to your first research write-up.
Build genuine intuition for how neural networks learn, then practise the craft that turns a learner into a scientist: reading papers critically, running rigorous experiments and writing them up in LaTeX. Every chamber mixes video, derivations, living labs and a checkpoint. The Minotaur waits at the centre.
- Chambers
- 8 + boss
- Time
- ~5 hours
- Questions
- 35
- Lab challenges
- 14
- Concept cards
- 31
- XP available
- 2,105+
Cleared You are here Ahead
The path through the labyrinth
Three rings, 8 chambers, one guardian. You can wander ahead, but the thread works best in order: each chamber builds on the last.
Ring I
The Outer Ring
Learning to learn- 1What Does It Mean to Learn?You are hereData, models and loss: the three ingredients hiding inside every machine-learning paper. 20 min 50 XP4 questions
- 2Gradient Descent: Rolling DownhillFollow the slope. Derive the update rule, prove when it converges, then make it explode on purpose. 25 min 50 XP4 questions
- 3The Artificial NeuronWeighted sums, activation functions and the line that divides the world, plus the problem that froze a field. 25 min 50 XP4 questions
Ring II
The Middle Ring
The machinery of learning- 4Backpropagation: The Chain Rule at ScaleHow a network assigns blame to millions of weights, computed first by hand and then by machine. 30 min 60 XP5 questions
- 5Training Your First NetworkStack neurons into layers, conquer XOR and learn why doing well on training data is not the goal. 30 min 60 XP5 questions
Ring III
The Inner Ring
The scientist's craft- 6Reading Papers Like a ScientistThe anatomy of an ML paper and the three-pass method for reading one without drowning. 25 min 50 XP4 questions
- 7Experiments & Scientific RigorBaselines, ablations, seeds and error bars: how to know whether your result is real. Then put on Reviewer #2's hat. 30 min 60 XP4 questions
- 8Writing It Up: LaTeX & the Research PaperStructure a paper, craft an abstract, typeset equations like a pro and file your first research note. 35 min 60 XP5 questions
The centre
The Minotaur's ExamEverything you have learned, against the beast at the centre of the labyrinth. Three wounds and you retreat.8 hits to win · 3 lives+300 XP · +100 flawless bonus · certificate