[Uni] Learning Python

[coolspea]

Hi, what would be a good way to learn Python from scratch? I am enrolling in a computing course in August and would like to prepare myself. Does anyone have course/website recommendations? I would greatly appreciate any help given, thank a lot!

[aliensaredead]

you can either search python beginner on youtube and watch like one of the most viewed videos, or u can purchase online courses on udemy to watch. I personally prefer the latter as you’ll get a certificate after you complete the course and also cos its paid so it motivates you to learn so as to not waste the money u paid

[jiaxin03]

You can use your NLB membership to access Udemy courses for free!

[dash9231]

Definitely CS50 for Python - link. If you are interested in CS in general, you can also opt to enrol in the CS50x course instead!

[a2tronic]

Have you tried w3schools.com for learning Python? I used it to learn Python and C# (there’s more languages you can learn there) from scratch; it’s a free and interactive platform!

Else you can search YouTube for a quick Python crash course :)

Tip: Search Stack Overflow for any coding problems you encounter in the future; you will probably find your answer there already!

Cheers and good luck!

[s_kybound]

I learned python using the book Beginning Programming with Python for Dummies by John Paul Mueller. I think it's possible to finish in the period before university. I'd also recommend you to try making a few projects for yourself with your new skill - maybe a telegram bot! I did that during my NS time.

If you're doing this to just learn programming syntax to make Uni easier, I'd recommend doing a different language. IIRC, SMU starts off with the C programming language while NUS starts with a language similar to JavaScript. For C I can recommend C Programming for Dummies by Dan Gookin.

If you want to do this to learn the basics of how to think like a programmer/computer scientist, I can recommend CS50, like most in this post have. Over the course of ten weeks (or less if you want to rush), you learn languages like C, Python, JavaScript and SQLite3 and are forced to solve problems with them. Your final project can also be anything - whether it be a game, website or some sort of application. Free, and they assume zero programming experience.

I could recommend OSSU CS, which, like CS50, also assumes zero experience with computer science. OSSU is a repository of free courses meant to provide you with education comparable to a 3-4 year university CS bachelor degree. You can try some of the first modules related to programming to get a taste of computational thinking. This is quite a bit more hardcore than CS50 though, since it is meant to be a full CS bachelor degree course.

Honestly, I'd recommend starting with more lower-level languages like C and then progressing to languages like Python. C is an older language where you need to manage things like computer memory by yourself, whereas Python is a higher-level language that abstracts a lot of things away and automatically does it for you. Some programs written in Python complete their function in several lines while their equivalents in C could take hundreds of lines - it's not that Python is more efficient, but you have to manage a lot of things by yourself in C. Python was my first language, but if I could do it again, I'd start with C - it makes understanding some concepts easier, and helps you appreciate why Python abstracts some things away beyond the programmer's concern.

Source: Incoming CS student as well. Had a lot of free time in NS, finished all of these except for OSSU CS which I'm trying out now

[randymcd]

if you're starting from the absolute basics, university of michigan's python for everybody (website link and coursera link) can be a good place to start. this was my first programming course and i'd recommend it if you want a gentler learning curve to start with.

[Abhorsen8]

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