This Course vs. RL Book: What's the Difference?
Learning objectives Understand how this curriculum aligns with (and extends beyond) the classic Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (Sutton & Barto). Know when to use the course vs. the book for depth and exercises. This course vs. the RL book Sutton & Barto (Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction, 2nd ed.) is the standard textbook for RL. It builds from bandits and MDPs through dynamic programming, Monte Carlo, temporal difference, and function approximation, with clear math and many examples (gridworld, blackjack, etc.). This curriculum follows a similar progression for the core topics (bandits → MDPs → DP → MC → TD → approximation) so that if you read the book alongside the course, the order matches. ...