Universidade Brasileira Livre's ciencia-da-computacao: a free Computer Science curriculum in Brazilian Portuguese

What Universidade Brasileira Livre's curriculum actually is

This is a repository that holds a curriculum, not a course. The README describes the project as "uma educação completa em Ciência da Computação" built from online materials in Brazilian Portuguese, and the top-level layout confirms that reading: README.md, FAQ.md, HELP.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, plus two content directories, extras/ and specializations/. There is no source tree, no build system, no package manifest. The primary language field is unknown because there is nothing to compile.

The intended reader is explicit in the README: students with discipline, commitment, and good independent study habits who still want the support of a community of other students across Brazil. The project also states plainly what it is not. It is not training in specific technologies and it is not aimed at job-market skills. That framing matters, because a reader arriving from a search for a quick path into software employment will find a fundamentals-first syllabus instead.

The selection criteria for courses are stated in the README and are worth quoting in substance: courses must be free or openly watchable, must have a pedagogical method, must be recognized as quality by the community on the topic, and must fit what is expected of a Computer Science curriculum. Courses that meet the quality bar but do not fit the grid go into extras/courses.md, and extra books go into extras/books.md.

How the curriculum is assembled and where the content lives

The mechanism is editorial, not technical. The README lists two documents the maintainers used as references for building the curriculum: the 2017 Referenciais de Formação para os Cursos de Graduação em Computação from SBC, and the Diretrizes Curriculares de Cursos da Área de Computação e Informática from UFRGS. The README also says the curriculum grids of other Brazilian higher education institutions were used as reference, and admits that the SBC and UFRGS guidelines were not fully implemented as suggested.

That admission is the most useful sentence in the repository. It tells you the ordering is a considered approximation, not a compliance artifact, and that the maintainers expect to keep revising it. The README says they continue to accept suggestions for improvement.

Each discipline in the grid carries a list of recommended readings, and the README puts the choice of methodology on the student. The repository does not host lectures, problem sets, or autograders. Links point outward to courses from Brazilian universities and institutes, and the quality control is the four criteria above plus whatever review happens in issues and pull requests. Practically, that means the repository's value is in sequencing and selection, and its fragility is link and course availability, which no single maintainer controls.

Starting the curriculum: what to do on day one

There is nothing to install. The project is consumed by reading the README and following the links it contains. The fastest way to get a local copy of the whole guide, including the extras and specializations directories, is to clone it.

git clone https://github.com/Universidade-Livre/ciencia-da-computacao.git
cd ciencia-da-computacao

After cloning you get README.md, FAQ.md, HELP.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, LICENSE, and the extras/ and specializations/ directories. Open README.md in any Markdown viewer or on GitHub and read the Sumário, then the Currículo section. That is where the ordered disciplines and their prerequisites live.

The README points to two files for the parts that do not fit the main grid. If a course you want is not in the grid, check here before assuming it was overlooked.

cat extras/courses.md
cat extras/books.md

The other practical step is joining the community, because the README treats the Telegram server as the place where students find and interact with each other. The link is https://t.me/universidadebrasileiralivre. The README also directs course problems, curriculum change proposals, and related discussion to the repository's issues. If you plan to contribute rather than just study, read CONTRIBUTING.md first and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md before posting.

The language barrier and the paid-reading gap

The most obvious limitation is stated in the project's own description: the materials are in Brazilian Portuguese. A reader who is comfortable in English but not in Portuguese gets little from this repository, because its whole proposition is that the courses are in the language the student already reads. The alternative for that reader is a curriculum built from English open courseware, and the README itself links to OSSU's computer-science badge, which signals the relationship between the two projects.

The second limitation is cost. The README says every course can be completed for free, but then notes that some courses have diplomas, certificates, activities, or optional extras that are paid, and points to Coursera's financial aid page. More importantly, it says the recommended books are mostly not free. A curriculum whose reading lists depend on purchased textbooks is not a zero-cost education, even when the lectures are open. Budget for that before you start, or check whether your library or a used copy closes the gap.

The third is that this is a guide with no enforcement layer. Nothing checks that you did the reading, nothing grades you, and the repository cannot verify that a linked course still exists in the form the curriculum assumes. The README's own instruction to respect each course's rules and never plagiarize is a norm, not a control.

How this differs from OSSU and from a Brazilian degree program

The closest comparison is Open Source Society University's computer-science curriculum, which the README links to in its badge block. The structural difference is language and sourcing. OSSU's path is built from English-language open courseware, while this repository selects primarily from the open content of Brazilian universities and institutes and requires Portuguese. If your Portuguese is stronger than your English, the difference is decisive rather than cosmetic, because reading speed on lecture material determines whether you finish.

Against a Brazilian university degree, the difference is everything outside the syllabus. A degree program supplies enrollment, instructors, assessment, a schedule, and a recognized credential. This repository supplies a sequence and a reading list. The README is honest about that boundary, describing the goal as an education founded on fundamental computing concepts rather than professional market training. If a hiring process requires a diploma, no amount of working through this grid substitutes for one.

There is also a third option the README creates itself: the specializations/ directory and extras/courses.md function as a middle path for people who want topic depth without the full grid, though the README does not describe how those extras are curated beyond the four criteria applied to the main curriculum.

Maintenance, licensing, and what a fork costs

The repository is not archived, and its last push was on 2026-05-20. There are no releases, which is expected for a project distributed as Markdown. The topics list includes hacktoberfest, and CONTRIBUTING.md exists at the top level, so the maintainers have set up a contribution path. Those signals describe a project that accepts changes; they do not tell you how quickly a broken course link gets fixed, and the README does not document a review cadence or a link-checking process.

Upgrade cost is low in the technical sense. Pulling the latest changes is a git pull, and there is no dependency graph to reconcile. The real upgrade cost is attention: after a pull you need to reread the Currículo section to see whether disciplines were reordered or readings swapped, because the repository has no changelog file at the top level.

On licensing, the repository carries the MIT License, with the copyright line reading "Copyright (c) 2021 Universidade Brasileira Livre". MIT covers the repository's own text and structure. It does not extend to the third-party courses and books the curriculum links to, each of which carries its own terms. The README reinforces this with an explicit instruction to publish only what your course permits and never to violate a course's rules or plagiarize. Treat the MIT grant as applying to the guide, and check each linked resource separately.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt this repository if you read Brazilian Portuguese, want a sequenced Computer Science syllabus built from free open courseware, and are willing to work largely on your own with the Telegram group as support. Do not adopt it if you need English-language materials, graded assignments, or an accredited credential, and do not expect the repository itself to host video or exercises. Before committing, open the Currículo section, check that each discipline's prerequisite chain is one you can actually follow, and confirm that the recommended readings, which the README notes are mostly not free, are obtainable where you live.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. Universidade-Livre/ciencia-da-computacao on GitHub