ossu/math: the OSSU curriculum for a free self-taught mathematics education

What ossu/math actually is, and who the curriculum is written for

ossu/math is not software you run. It is a repository whose main artifact is a README containing course tables, and its homepage at math.ossu.dev renders that same material. The README describes it as a "complete education in mathematics using online materials", designed against the degree requirements of undergraduate math majors but stripped of general education requirements, on the assumption that most people following it are already educated outside mathematics.

The intended reader is therefore narrow. You need the discipline to work through material without an instructor, and the README says so directly: it is for those who have "the discipline, will, and good habits to obtain this education largely on their own". A learner who needs weekly deadlines, a cohort, or a transcript is not the target. The worldwide Discord community is offered as support, but the curriculum itself imposes no schedule.

The scope is undergraduate mathematics: calculus, differential equations, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, probability and statistics, analysis, and abstract algebra in the core, with advanced topics branching into mathematical logic, geometry and topology, and deeper work in analysis and algebra. That is a real degree-shaped sequence, not a list of interesting videos.

How the curriculum is structured: core requirements and advanced electives

The README splits the curriculum into two parts. Core Mathematics is required, with one stated exception clause ("unless stated otherwise"), and covers eight areas: Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, Calculus, Introduction to Differential Equations, Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Probability & Statistics, Introduction to Analysis, and Introduction to Abstract Algebra. Advanced Topics is elective and covers Differential Equations, Mathematical Logic, Geometry and Topology, Probability and Statistics, Mathematical Analysis, and Abstract Algebra.

The selection rules matter more than the topic list. For Advanced Topics the README instructs students to take one course in each topic area, then pick one topic to specialise in and take every course under that heading. It also permits a custom subject, with the recommendation to get validation from the community on whatever you choose. That is a deliberate design decision: the core is fixed, the specialisation is yours.

Ordering is handled by the tables. Each course row carries Duration, Effort and Prerequisites columns, and the README recommends working top to bottom because "they have already been sorted by their prerequisites". The prerequisite graph is enforced socially rather than technically. Nothing stops you from opening Multivariable Calculus first, but the table lists Calculus 1C as its prerequisite, and Calculus 1C in turn lists Calculus 1B, which lists Calculus 1A, which lists high school math via ossu.dev/precollege-math. If you have not done that background, the curriculum tells you where the on-ramp is.

The admission criteria every linked course has to satisfy

The interesting part of ossu/math is the filter, not the course list. The README states four requirements a course must meet before it appears: it must match the curricular guidelines, specifically the 2015 CUPM Guide as recorded in CURRICULAR_GUIDELINES.md in the repository; it must be open for enrollment; it must run regularly, ideally self-paced, otherwise running multiple times per year; and it must be of high quality in teaching materials and pedagogical practice.

The third criterion is the one that ages badly. A course that runs multiple times per year can stop running, and the README offers no mechanism for detecting that automatically. There is no test suite, no CI job that pings course URLs, and no release process. The repository's top level holds .github/, CNAME, CONTRIBUTING.md, CURRICULAR_GUIDELINES.md, FAQ.md, HELP.md, LICENSE, README.md and documents/. Maintenance is human: someone notices a dead link or a retired course and opens a pull request, which is exactly what CONTRIBUTING.md is for.

When no course satisfies all four criteria, the README says the coursework is supplemented with a book. That fallback is worth knowing about, because it means parts of the path may be reading rather than lectures, and the effort estimates in the tables are calibrated to whichever format was chosen.

Starting the ossu/math curriculum: install nothing, clone the plan

There is no package to install. The curriculum is a document, and the practical first step is to get a local copy so you can annotate it or track your own progress in a fork. The repository's default branch is master.

git clone https://github.com/ossu/math.git
cd math

After cloning you have README.md, CURRICULAR_GUIDELINES.md, FAQ.md, HELP.md and CONTRIBUTING.md locally. The README is the curriculum itself, so that is the file to read first.

A realistic first use is to work the Introduction to Mathematical Thinking block, which the README places at the top of Core Mathematics. It lists two rows: a 10-week Coursera course at 4 hours per week with no prerequisites, and a LaTeX resource at 1 week and 30 minutes per week, also with no prerequisites. The README's own framing for this block is that school destroys most people's view of mathematics by focusing on memorisation, and that this class covers how to think like a mathematician.

If you would rather read the rendered version, the homepage is the same content:

# rendered curriculum, same tables as README.md
# https://math.ossu.dev

Before committing two years, check the FAQ.md and HELP.md files that ship in the repository. The README points to HELP.md for "details about our FAQ and chatroom", which is where the project puts the operational questions the curriculum tables do not answer.

Where ossu/math breaks down as a study plan

The curriculum's biggest weakness is that it cannot guarantee its own links. The README requires courses to be open for enrollment and to run regularly, but enrollment windows, platform migrations and course retirements happen outside this repository. The MIT Open Learning Library URLs in the Calculus block carry term codes in their paths, and those are the kind of identifiers that change when a course is re-run. Nothing in the repository layout suggests automated link checking.

The second limitation is cost, which is easy to miss given the project's framing. The README is explicit: "some courses may charge money for assignments/tests/projects to be graded". Free access to lecture material and free grading are different things, and the curriculum does not label which rows fall on which side. If your goal requires proof of completion, budget for that before you start, not after.

The third is the two-year estimate. The README says it is possible to finish in about 2 years at roughly 18-22 hours per week. That is a full-time-adjacent load sustained across two years, and it assumes you plan carefully. Anyone treating ossu/math as a light self-study hobby should read that number twice. The curriculum also assumes prior education outside mathematics, so a learner starting from scratch needs the precollege math path first, which extends the timeline beyond the quoted figure.

ossu/math versus a university degree or a single MOOC platform

The honest comparison is with a bricks-and-mortar undergraduate degree. A degree gives you a registrar, transcripts, graded assessments, deadlines and a credential employers recognise. ossu/math gives you none of those. What it gives instead is the prerequisite ordering and the coverage map: the README states the design target is the degree requirements of undergraduate math majors minus general education, and the courses are drawn from Harvard, MIT, Stanford and similar institutions. You are assembling the content of a degree without the institution.

The second comparison is with simply browsing Coursera or MIT OCW yourself. The difference is the filter and the sequence. On a course marketplace you pick by ratings and curiosity; here, a course only enters the list if it matches CURRICULAR_GUIDELINES.md, is open for enrollment, runs regularly, and meets the quality bar, with a book substituted when nothing qualifies. That editorial layer is the product. If you already know exactly which analysis text you want to work through, ossu/math adds little. If you do not know whether analysis comes before abstract algebra, the ordered tables answer that in one screen.

Maintenance, licensing and what a fork obliges you to do

The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-08-08, so the project is still receiving changes. There are no retrieved releases, which is consistent with a curriculum repository: there is no versioned artifact to upgrade, no dependency to bump, and no migration path to plan. Your upgrade cost is re-reading the tables when courses change, and re-checking any link you depend on.

The licence is MIT. That is permissive: you can fork the curriculum, adapt the ordering, and redistribute your version, provided you carry the licence and copyright notice. What MIT does not cover is the course material itself. The README's content policy addresses this from the learner's side, telling students who plan to show coursework publicly to share only files they are allowed to and to respect the code of conduct signed at the beginning of each course. The repository's own code of conduct is a separate document at github.com/ossu/code-of-conduct. If you fork the curriculum and publish it, the course links and any embedded excerpts are a separate question from the MIT grant on this repository.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt ossu/math if you want a prerequisite-ordered reading list built from open courses and you can commit the 18 to 22 hours a week the README estimates for a two-year finish. Do not adopt it if you need graded credentials, a syllabus with deadlines, or a single platform that hosts every lecture, because the curriculum links out to Coursera, MIT Open Learning Library and MIT OCW, and the README notes that some courses charge for graded assignments. Before starting, open the Core Mathematics table and check that every course link still resolves, since the README does not document a rollback or archival process for links that die.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. ossu/math on GitHub
4. Project website
5. README