L∞-algebras and their cohomology

We give an overview of different characterisations of L∞-structures in terms of symmetric brackets and (co)differentials on the symmetric (co)algebra. We then do the same for their representations (up to homotopy) and approach L∞-algebra cohomology using the commutator bracket on the space of coderivations of the symmetric coalgebra. This leads to abelian extensions of L∞-algebras by 2-cocycles.