JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div class="grades-table">
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th class="headcol">students</th>
      <th class="grades-header">01_getting_started</th>
      <th class="grades-header">02_courses</th>
      <th class="grades-header">03_tasks</th>
      <th class="grades-header">04_run_student</th>
      <th class="grades-header">05_fetching_input</th>
      <th class="grades-header">06_feedback</th>
      <th class="grades-header">07_advance_feedback</th>
      <th class="grades-header">08_archive</th>
      <th class="grades-header">09_ssh_debug</th>
      <th class="grades-header">10_environments</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th class="headcol">
        <div class="headcol-text">
          student1
        </div>
      </th>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">01</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">02</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">03</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">04</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">05</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">06</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">07</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">08</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">09</a><br><a href="#">X days ago</a></td>
      <td class="grades-column"><a href="#">10</a><br><a href="#" href="#">X days ago</a></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
</div>

CSS

.grades-table {
    overflow-x:scroll;
    overflow-y:visible;
    margin-left: 5em;
}

.grades-header,
.grades-column {
  min-width: 150px;
  min-height: 38px;
  text-align: center;
}

.headcol {
    position: absolute;
    width: 5em;
    min-height: 38px;
    left: 0;
    top: auto;
    border-top-width: 1px;
    margin-top: -1px;
    background: white;
    border-right: 4px solid black;
}

.headcol-text {
    position: absolute;
    transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
    top: 50%;
    left: 50%;
}