Learning

Mathematics & Statistics

The foundations under everything else in this directory.

Where to start

If you are here because machine learning needs it, the order is linear algebra, then calculus, then probability — and 3Blue1Brown before any of them, for the intuition. Khan Academy is the right choice if you need to rebuild school mathematics properly; there is no shame in starting there and it is the fastest route.

Rebuild the foundations3

Khan Academy: MathematicsStart hereFree
Complete school and early university mathematics with practice and mastery tracking. The best place to fill a gap you are embarrassed about.
Khan Academykhanacademy.org
Paul’s Online Math NotesStart hereFree
Algebra through differential equations, written for students who are stuck. Worked examples rather than proofs.
Lamar Universitytutorial.math.lamar.edu
OpenStax MathematicsStart hereFree
Peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks. Real books, free, with exercises and answers.
Rice Universityopenstax.org

Intuition first3

3Blue1BrownStart hereFree
Visual intuition for linear algebra, calculus and neural networks. Watch Essence of Linear Algebra before any ML course.
Grant Sanderson3blue1brown.com
Immersive MathCoreFree
A linear algebra textbook where every figure is interactive. Good alongside a more formal course.
Immersive Mathimmersivemath.com
Seeing TheoryStart hereFree
Probability and statistics as interactive visualisations.
Brown Universityseeing-theory.brown.edu

Do it properly3

MIT OpenCourseWare: MathematicsAdvancedFree
Full lecture courses with notes, assignments and exams. 18.06 Linear Algebra is the famous one and deserves to be.
MITocw.mit.edu
Mathematics for Machine LearningAdvancedFree
Exactly the mathematics ML needs and none of what it does not. Free PDF, and the right book for this purpose.
Deisenroth, Faisal & Ongmml-book.github.io
LibreTexts StatisticsCoreFree
An open statistics library covering introductory through graduate level, useful as a reference.
LibreTextsstats.libretexts.org

About this list

9 resources, checked automatically every week so dead links do not sit here unnoticed. Nothing on this page is sponsored and none of these links pay us — which is the only reason a recommendation on it is worth anything. Every link goes to the original source, and we take nothing with you when you leave.