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Everything you need before Lesson 1 — in about 10 minutes

Install R and an editor, install the course packages, and learn how lessons and interactive exercises work.

1. Two ways to use this course

In the browser — nothing to install

Most lessons in Levels 1–3 contain interactive exercises: code boxes you can edit and run directly on the page (powered by webR, R compiled for the browser). Click Run Code, use Hint when you are stuck and Show Solution to compare.

The first exercise on a page can take a few seconds while R starts in your browser.

2. Install R (version 4.5 or newer)

Download R from CRAN, the official repository: https://cran.r-project.org. Choose your operating system and follow the installer.

NoteWhy R ≥ 4.5?

The course uses the penguins dataset that ships with R since version 4.5.0. Check your version by typing R.version.string in the R console.

3. Install an editor (IDE)

You can use either:

Both are free. Lesson 1 gives a short tour of the RStudio panes; Positron is organised in a similar way.

4. Install the course packages

Open R (or your IDE) and run this single line. It installs every package used in the course (it may take 10–20 minutes the first time):

source("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gianluca-sottile/An-R-Tutorial-for-Beginners/master/scripts/install-packages.R")

The optional deep-learning track needs additional software; Lesson 61 explains how to install it.

5. How a lesson is organised

Level 2 · Describe & explore⏱ ~60 minPrerequisites: …

Every lesson starts with its level, an estimated time and its prerequisites, then:

Block What it is for
🎯 Learning objectives What you will be able to do at the end
💡 Why…? The real problem the method solves
▶️ Code + explanation Short chunks, each explained
🔎 How to read this output Line-by-line guide to R’s results
🔬 Going deeper (collapsed) Formulas and theory for those who want them
⚠️ Common pitfalls Frequent mistakes and misconceptions
✅ Check your understanding Quick questions with hidden answers
✍️ Exercises ★ / ★★ / ★★★ Increasing difficulty, solutions included
📋 Summary Key functions and ideas at a glance

Code you can copy has a copy button in its top-right corner. Output lines start with #>.

6. Suggested routes

You are… Suggested route
Completely new to R and statistics All lessons in order, Level 1 → 4
Comfortable with R, rusty on statistics Skim Level 1, then Levels 2–3 carefully
Know statistics, new to R Level 1, then lessons 24–27 (graphics), then Level 4
Need machine learning quickly 08–10, 18, 24, 38–41, then 44–49

See the full learning path for the map of prerequisites.

7. For instructors and contributors: working with the source

The website is a Quarto project. To build it locally:

  1. Install Quarto (≥ 1.6) and the course packages (step 4).
  2. Clone the repository and open An-R-Tutorial-for-Beginners.Rproj.
  3. In the terminal, once: quarto add r-wasm/quarto-live (installs the interactive-exercise extension; commit the _extensions/ folder).
  4. Preview with quarto preview; build everything with quarto render.

All R results are stored in _freeze/ (Quarto’s freeze feature), which is committed to git. GitHub Actions then publishes the site without running R, so heavy computations (including deep learning) only ever run on your own computer.

Found an error? Use the “Report an issue” link at the bottom of the table of contents on any page.

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