Best Coding Classes in Portsmouth

Course picks for Portsmouth

Four courses for the island city

Pick by what the learner enjoys most. Every course begins with a live lesson that costs nothing, and we never ask for a card to book it.

Ages 7 to 12

Problem Solving and Computational Thinking for Kids

Maps, mazes and puzzles about getting from one place to another, including which single path, if blocked, would stop the journey.

See the syllabus

Ages 13 to 18

Problem Solving for Teens

Graphs, searches and flows built from scratch, the toolkit this page uses on Portsmouth's roads.

See the syllabus

Ages 13 to 18

Competitive Programming for Teens

Contest-style problems for teenagers who like hard algorithms, where max-flow and min-cut are standard weapons.

See the syllabus

University and adult

Data Structures & Algorithms Course

Interview-level data structures and algorithms for adults, from graph representation to network flow.

See the syllabus

Browse the course atlas for more than one hundred options and use the coding roadmap to check prerequisites.

The four we are known for

Python, AI, vibe coding and agentic coding

These run underneath everything above. Every one is live and online, placed by ability rather than by age, and the first class is free.

Vibe codingAges 13 to 17

Vibe Coding for Teens

Python, web and AI projects where the learner still owns the thinking.

See the syllabus

Python and AICollege and adult

Python Automation Course

Automate the work you already do, then let AI carry part of it.

See the syllabus

AI and MLAges 14 to 18

AI and Machine Learning for Teens

Train a model, read what it learned, and be able to say why it is wrong.

See the syllabus

Agentic codingProfessionals

Codex & Claude Code

Run AI coding agents on real work without losing control of the codebase.

See the syllabus

Portsmouth today

A crowded island with a young population

The numbers below come straight from the Office for National Statistics' 2021 census tables for Portsmouth, downloaded through Nomis and left exactly as released.

Portsmouth, Census 2021
Measure	Portsmouth	England
Usual residents	208,003	56,490,048
Living in households	201,362	Not compared
Living in communal establishments	6,641	Not compared
Aged 15 to 19	14,494 (7.0%)	5.7%
Aged 20 to 24	20,042 (9.6%)	6.0%
Aged 25 to 29	15,368 (7.4%)	6.6%
Students among residents aged 5 and over	49,106 (25.0%)	20.4%
Usual residents per square kilometre	5,149.8	433.5

Tightly packed

Only Luton, at 5,196.0 per square kilometre, is denser among English council areas outside the London boroughs, on the published 2021 figures.

A quarter studying

Of 196,723 residents aged five and over, 49,106 were schoolchildren or full-time students, 25.0% against 20.4% for England.

Young adults

People aged 20 to 24 were 9.6% of the city's residents in 2021, and those aged 15 to 19 were 7.0%, both above the English shares.

Those learners appear in our groups at every stage. A Year 5 child in Copnor might be solving a first maze in code, a Year 12 student in Southsea taking A level Computer Science, and an adult in Paulsgrove learning Python for a new role, each placed with five to ten learners at the same level.

A Tudor warship

The Mary Rose, lost in sight of Southsea Castle

From the Mary Rose Trust's history of the ship.

1510

The Mary Rose Trust dates the ship's building to 1510, early in the reign of Henry VIII, whose navy she served for more than three decades.

19 July 1545

She sank during the Battle of the Solent, when the Trust says 200 French ships attempted to invade England. Henry VIII watched from Southsea Castle.

1982

After John Deane explored the wreck in the 1830s, the Mary Rose was finally raised in 1982, more than four centuries after she sank.

We have no connection with the Mary Rose Trust. The Mary Rose begins this page because Portsmouth has always been a city shaped by water: a naval port on an island, reached across narrow creeks. That geography is exactly what makes the question below worth asking, and a computer network, a supply chain or a power grid faces the same question in a different form.

Where the roads come from

Ordnance Survey publishes Open Roads as free open data: every public road in Great Britain as a network of links and junctions. In a box around Portsmouth, from Fareham to Havant, it holds 17,738 links, most of them single carriageway, with dual carriageways shown as one collapsed link.

Signature project

Three roads hold Portsea Island to the mainland

A minimum cut is the smallest set of links whose loss separates two parts of a network. Maximum flow counts the separate routes between them. The two numbers are always equal.

Cuts and routes in the Open Roads network around Portsmouth
Question	Answer	What it means
Links whose removal cuts any part off	6,544	Graph bridges, most of them at the end of a cul-de-sac
Dead-end junctions	4,589	Each hangs off one of those bridges
Separate routes, island centre to Cosham	3	Maximum flow with each link used once
Links that separate them	3: M275, London Road, Eastern Road	The minimum cut, equal to the flow
Separate routes, Fareham side to Havant side	5	The mainland is harder to cut

1. Build the graph

Every junction becomes a node and every road link an edge. Around Portsmouth that is 14,863 connected nodes and 17,357 edges.

2. Push flow

Treat each road as a pipe that carries one unit. Keep finding a route from the island centre to Cosham that still has room, and send one more unit along it.

3. Read off the cut

When no route has room left, the links that are full and lead out of the reachable part form the minimum cut. Here they are the three road links onto the island.

Why most bridges are not interesting

A standard algorithm finds every link whose loss disconnects the network, and around Portsmouth it finds 6,544. That sounds alarming until you notice that 4,589 junctions are dead ends: every cul-de-sac is joined by a link that is, technically, a bridge. The question worth asking is not which single link matters, but how many links separate two places we care about, and that needs a cut between them.

Once the three island links are removed, the island side holds 2,534 junctions and 256.6 kilometres of road. The count covers roads only: the railway and any foot or cycle crossings are not in the Open Roads network, and a road closed for works still counts as a link. Learners are expected to say so whenever they quote the number three.

Thinking in networks

Five questions to ask of any network

Learned on the roads of an island city, then used on computer networks, power grids, supply chains, water pipes and the links between web pages.

Reading a network result honestly
Question	For Portsea Island	Why it matters
Between which two places?	Central island against Cosham, Drayton and Farlington	A cut only means something between named sides
What counts as a link?	Public roads in Open Roads; dual carriageways as one link	Adding rail or footpaths changes the answer
Links or junctions?	Three separate links, and three separate junction routes	Losing one roundabout can close several links at once
Is the answer stable?	Three for all seven pairs of island and mainland areas we tested	A cut that changes with small choices is fragile
What does the theorem save?	No need to test combinations of 17,357 links	The flow finds the cut in seconds

The last row is the reason the theorem matters. Checking every set of three links out of seventeen thousand would take longer than anyone could wait. A flow algorithm reaches the same certainty by growing routes one at a time, and when it stops, the bottleneck is written in the result.

Younger learners

A paper map of an island, counters for cars, and the game of closing roads until nobody can cross.

Teenagers

Open Roads read in Python, a graph built from links and junctions, and a max-flow algorithm that finds the three crossings.

Adults

Resilience analysis at work, from office networks to delivery routes, using cuts rather than guesses.

We have no connection with Ordnance Survey, the Mary Rose Trust or Portsmouth City Council. Open Roads is published under the Open Government Licence and the census figures are public; the graphs, cuts and flows on this page are our own analysis.

Learning ladder

From closing roads on a map to max flow

The age bands are a rough guide, and the free lesson finds the proper starting point.

Ages 6 to 10

Ways across

Counting the routes between two places on a simple map and finding which roads, if closed, would stop the trip.

Problem Solving and Computational Thinking for Kids Coding for Kids

Ages 11 to 13

Graphs in code

Storing a map as nodes and edges, walking it with a search, and spotting the links that everything depends on.

Python and AI for Kids Maths Through Coding

Ages 14 to 18

Flows and cuts

Augmenting paths, the max-flow min-cut theorem and graph bridges on the real Portsmouth road network.

Problem Solving for Teens Competitive Programming for Teens

Ages 18 to 67

Network resilience

Flow algorithms for adults working with networks, logistics and infrastructure, and how to explain a bottleneck.

Data Structures & Algorithms Course Python Masterclass

Coding and AI

A graph library finds a minimum cut in one call. Why should a Portsmouth teenager learn how?

Because the call returns a number, and only understanding says what the number is worth.

An AI assistant can import a library and print three. A learner who has pushed flow along real routes knows that three depends on the two areas chosen, on whether dual carriageways count once or twice, and on what the data leaves out. That learner can defend the answer, or change it deliberately when the question changes.

Flows and cuts sit underneath a surprising amount of modern computing: routing traffic across the internet, splitting an image into foreground and background, matching students to places or tasks to machines. Photo editing tools have used graph cuts to separate an object from its background. The ideas are old, precise and still in daily use, which makes them worth learning properly.

So a Portsmouth teenager should still learn to program in 2026, in a city that has always depended on a few crossings to the mainland: the software can find the bottleneck, but people decide what to do about it. The longer argument is in why coding is worth learning in 2026.

Delivery

Southsea, North End or Drayton, from home

With only three road links off the island, a trip across Portsmouth depends on a few busy roads. A live online lesson needs none of them.

Island and mainland

A learner in Eastney and another in Paulsgrove can share one lesson without either of them using the M275.

English stages throughout

Reception, Key Stages 1 to 4, GCSEs and A levels, named as Portsmouth schools name them, and every lesson taught in English.

The free lesson teaches

The first session covers a real task and ends by suggesting a level, a course and a weekly slot. No card details are taken.

Right-level classmates

Groups of five to ten learners at the same stage, from Portsmouth, elsewhere in the UK and overseas, so every level can find a sensible hour.

Twice every week

Two fixed lessons a week, around eight a month, with holidays and exam dates planned with the teacher in advance.

Late afternoon in Southsea

When it is late afternoon in Portsmouth it is already evening in India, where our teachers are: four and a half hours ahead in the British summer, five and a half in winter. They teach through their evening so that UK learners can join after school or work.

Around the harbour

Families in Gosport, Fareham, Havant or Waterlooville join exactly the same classes, since lessons are online and groups are built around level.

Fees

Portsmouth lesson fees

A free lesson to start, then one monthly fee.

First classUSD 0

A full lesson with no charge, ending with a suggested level, course and weekly time.

Group tuitionUSD 100

Roughly eight live lessons a month in a group of five to ten learners at the same level.

Private tuitionUSD 150

Roughly eight live lessons a month, with the teacher working only with your learner.

A household in Milton pays the same as one in Hilsea or anywhere else outside India: a single fee in US dollars, with no pound prices shown. You pay nothing until after the free lesson, when a course and a time have been agreed; pausing, missed lessons and switching formats are all explained on the pricing page.

Request placement Check availability

Reviews

Six Google reviews from families, quoted in full

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews. These are real reviews, reproduced as written.

★★★★★

"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

Ria Mukherjee

Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

Samriddha Mondal

Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

Free placement class

Book a free lesson for a Portsmouth learner

We choose the first task by level: a close-the-roads map game for a young child, a short Python program that stores a map as a graph for a beginner, or Open Roads and a max-flow search for a teenager ready for real data.

FAQ

Portsmouth coding class questions

What Portsmouth families most often ask us.

How many people live in Portsmouth?

The 2021 census counted 208,003 usual residents in the Portsmouth council area, of whom 201,362 lived in households and 6,641 in communal establishments such as student halls and care homes.

How does Portsmouth compare with England?

In 2021, 9.6% of residents were aged 20 to 24 against 6.0% in England, 25.0% of those aged five and over were students against 20.4%, and there were 5,149.8 residents per square kilometre against 433.5.

What is a minimum cut?

The smallest set of links in a network whose removal separates two chosen parts of it. The max-flow min-cut theorem says its size always equals the largest number of separate routes between those parts.

Which roads connect Portsea Island to the mainland?

In Ordnance Survey's Open Roads network, the minimum cut between the island centre and Cosham is three links: the M275, London Road (A3) and Eastern Road (A2030). Rail and foot crossings are not in that dataset.

Where does the road data come from?

Ordnance Survey Open Roads, free data under the Open Government Licence. Our study area around Portsmouth, from Fareham to Havant, contains 17,738 road links.

When did the Mary Rose sink?

The Mary Rose Trust says she sank on 19 July 1545 during the Battle of the Solent, watched by Henry VIII from Southsea Castle, and was raised in 1982. We are not connected with the Trust.

When are Portsmouth lessons held?

Lessons run after school, in the evening or at the weekend, and your slot is chosen with the teacher at the end of the free lesson. India is four and a half hours ahead of Portsmouth in summer and five and a half in winter.

Is there a Modern Age Coders centre in Portsmouth?

No. There is no Portsmouth centre and we have no premises anywhere in the UK, as every lesson is taught live online. Learners need a computer with sound and a steady connection, and our phone number is Indian.

How much do Portsmouth lessons cost?

The first lesson is free. After it, a group place is USD 100 a month for two live lessons a week, about eight a month, with five to ten learners, and one-to-one lessons on the same pattern are USD 150 a month. Course, format and time are agreed before any charge.

How are Portsmouth groups put together?

By level, pace and goals rather than age or postcode, with five to ten learners at one stage. If no group suits the learner's timetable, we offer one-to-one lessons instead.

Explore England and the UK

The south coast and beyond

Along the Solent, the Southampton page builds a hash table from postcodes, and further east Brighton and Hove slides an eight-hour window over ozone readings. Hull runs a flood fill from the Humber. The England guide explains the school stages, and the UK coding page gathers every city we cover.

Book the free class Message us on WhatsApp

Four courses for the island city

Problem Solving and Computational Thinking for Kids

Problem Solving for Teens

Competitive Programming for Teens

Data Structures & Algorithms Course

Python, AI, vibe coding and agentic coding

Vibe Coding for Teens

Python Automation Course

AI and Machine Learning for Teens

Codex & Claude Code

A crowded island with a young population

Tightly packed

A quarter studying

Young adults

The Mary Rose, lost in sight of Southsea Castle

1510

19 July 1545

1982

Three roads hold Portsea Island to the mainland

1. Build the graph

2. Push flow

3. Read off the cut

Why most bridges are not interesting

Five questions to ask of any network

Younger learners

Teenagers

Adults

From closing roads on a map to max flow

Ways across

Graphs in code

Flows and cuts

Network resilience

A graph library finds a minimum cut in one call. Why should a Portsmouth teenager learn how?

Southsea, North End or Drayton, from home

Island and mainland

English stages throughout

The free lesson teaches

Right-level classmates

Twice every week

Late afternoon in Southsea

Portsmouth lesson fees

Six Google reviews from families, quoted in full

Book a free lesson for a Portsmouth learner

Portsmouth coding class questions

How many people live in Portsmouth?

How does Portsmouth compare with England?

What is a minimum cut?

Which roads connect Portsea Island to the mainland?

Where does the road data come from?

When did the Mary Rose sink?

When are Portsmouth lessons held?

Is there a Modern Age Coders centre in Portsmouth?

How much do Portsmouth lessons cost?

How are Portsmouth groups put together?

The south coast and beyond

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

Coding classes in nearby cities

Free resources

From the blog

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