04 — YouTube Channels

YouTube for C is 90% garbage — “learn C in 10 hours” playlists that are transcribed K.N. King without the exercises. The channels below are the exceptions: practicing engineers who explain what they actually do. Subscribe to all six, then be ruthless about what you watch — use search, not the feed.

The six worth subscribing to

Channel

Host

Subs (mid-2026)

Videos

Focus

Link

Why this

Jacob Sorber

Jacob Sorber (Clemson CS prof)

~192K

323

Systems, networking, embedded, pthreads

https://www.youtube.com/@JacobSorber

Best channel for “how do I use select() / fork() / mmap() correctly.” 10-15 min videos, no filler. Active in 2026.

Low Level (formerly Low Level Learning)

Anonymous vuln researcher

~1.13M

372

C, security, kernel internals, exploit basics

https://www.youtube.com/@LowLevel-TV

Renamed but same channel. Best “why do buffer overflows work” content. Very active.

Ben Eater

Ben Eater

~1.7M+

~120

Hardware + assembly, 6502 & breadboard builds

https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater · https://eater.net/8bit

Not strictly C, but the mental model of “what the machine is actually doing” is the model you need. Watch the 8-bit CPU series.

Casey Muratori — Handmade Hero + Computer, Enhance!

Casey Muratori

~85K (Handmade Hero)

600+ episodes

Building a game in C-style C++ from scratch

https://www.youtube.com/@MollyRocket · https://www.computerenhance.com/

The technique — no libraries, no OOP, measure everything — transfers 1:1 to C. computerenhance.com is his paid perf course; the free YT talks are enough to start.

Eskil Steenberg — “How I program C” (one talk)

Eskil Steenberg (WG14 member)

36.5K sub channel; talk 981K views

1 essential talk

Personal C style, hygiene, naming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443UNeGrFoM

Watch this in M4 and again in M10. Two hours that will change how you name functions.

CS50 (Harvard)

David Malan et al.

~2M

1000+

Intro CS incl. C lectures

https://www.youtube.com/@cs50

Lecture reference for weeks 1-4 of CS50x. Malan’s memory diagrams are still the best free visualization of pointers on YouTube.

Honorable mentions (dip in, don’t subscribe)

  • Computerphile — occasional gems (Brian Kernighan studies, Prof. Brailsford on C history). Not focused enough for the feed.

  • NDC Talks / CppCon / Handmade Seattle — search for specific speakers; not a subscribe-and-watch channel.

  • The Cherno — game-engine C++ series. Skip for C purposes.

Channels that slowed or shifted

  • Low Level Learning → Low Level: rename in 2024, unchanged in quality.

  • Handmade Hero: main dev streams tapered post-2022; Casey moved primary output to computerenhance.com. Handmade Hero episodes on YouTube are still the archive to work through.

What most people get wrong about YouTube for C

They watch. C is not a spectator sport. Every video should end with you typing. If you cannot afford 30 minutes of hands-on after a 15-minute video, don’t watch the video. YouTube is your reference, not your curriculum — K.N. King and Gustedt are the curriculum.

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