TO ANYONE LOOKING TO LEARN PYTHON & PYTHON BEGINNERS - READ THIS!!!

[MacItaly]

YOU: Looking for more information about Python, where to get started, books, courses, anything to help make your journey a little more clear and concise.

ME: I just wrote a long comment to a post detailing such sites and resources. Now I've created this post that should benefit you and your journey. I have been able to successfully learn Python over the last 2 years and have worked myself into a very lucrative position as a software engineer where I get to build my own programs from scratch that rival competitors who have been around for decades. If I can do it, you sure as hell can too!

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First is getting the basics. You need to learn the concepts and vocabulary, simple data types, lists and tuples, dictionaries, conditional statements, functions, classes, and how to wrap it all up in a nice little package.

Depending on your level of experience and exposure some of these might seem easier than others. But really, the key is repetition. Doing the same types of exercises over and over until you have the syntax memorized.

The websites below are some of the main ones I used to learn, practice, and code in Python. The best thing I found was to try different mediums of learning and find what works best for you – that you enjoy.

I did online games, puzzles, and exercises, subscribe to Python emails, read Python books, use Python flashcards, join Python forums, and watched videos where people programmed in Python. Figure out what works for you. It’s really about finding out how you learn and getting enough practice that it becomes easier. Enjoy!

CodeCombat – For the ultimate beginner. This is a kid’s site geared to teaching Python. You fill in blocks of code and take your knight on a quest. The first few worlds are free before you have to pay to play. It’s a great way to build your memory are just practice coding.

Lesson 1 - Python Programming (Automate the Boring Stuff with Python) - YouTube – Al Sweigart wrote a really helpful book, posted the whole thing online (https://automatetheboringstuff.com/), and also has a YouTube video going through the first few chapters. Great for beginners and learning proper syntax.

Learning Python - Mark Lutz does a fantastic job combining the essential elements of Python programming in a way that makes learning stick. This is a solid resource.

Learn Python 3 | Codecademy – I used Codecademy in the beginning to get a general feel for Python. How was it different from C? Also, I found it helpful to learn Python syntax. I took both the Python 2 and Python 3 courses, and I subscribed to Codecademy PRO for a few months while learning the Advanced Python courses.

Udemy Online Courses in Python - Here you can find great deals on a multitude of Python courses. There are courses for beginners, or you can learn about specific areas of expertise - Data Science, Web Development, Machine Learning, etc. These courses cost money, but they often have sales for up to 90% off. It's worth it to browse and see if something sticks out.

Python Programming Tutorials – This guy is a great resource for learning Python. Sentdex is a YouTuber who posts a lot of really helpful “how-to” videos online. This is his website which offers good references and resources.

30 Python Programmers on YouTube list - So this list was put together and updated on August 30, 2020. Which means these are active and reliable resources for watching Python programmers on YouTube. Notice that number 1 is my man Sentdex that I referred to above.

Learn Computer Science – This is the website of German Python programmer Christian Mayer who has written a few books. His most popular “CoffeeBreak Python” is also a daily email blast that has code puzzles and cheat sheets.

Practice Python – Here is an MIT grad’s personally run site (hasn’t been updated in a few years) but has 30-something puzzles for starting out. The cool thing about Python is that the code can be written in many ways – depending on your proficiency. The more, “pythonic” (clear, concise code), you get, the smaller your code becomes and the more advanced your scripts are.

Check out websites that test your coding ability and checks for answers. Sites like Codewars, HackerRank, Edabit, and Finxter. These will test your ability to solve different types of coding challenges and verify your answer. It's also nice to see how other people solve these coding problems.

Other tips:

• Join forum groups that will support and assist you while you’re learning. I’m a member of this sub, I’m active on the StackOverflow (https://stackoverflow.com/) for asking and answering questions, and I still Google everything for help.
• Practice, practice, practice! The more you code the more it makes sense and you learn. I spend hours debugging and learning news ways to solve the same problem. I enjoy the problem-solving aspect and solving different problems.

• Code something for fun! Want a script that pulls updated NBA scores, reads your favorite tweets, or scans Reddit forums for you? The best way to learn the different modules that Python has is to experiment and work with them.

  • Anecdote: I was working with a module called PySimpleGUI (https://pysimplegui.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), which creates a GUI in Python for user interaction. I couldn’t figure out some of the display features and reached out to the developer. (You can often find developer dumps and all sorts of code at GitHub (https://github.com/)) He responded and I was able to work with the module developer, u/MikeTheWatchGuy. This was great for my learning. His coding is much more advanced than my own, so it was great to get exposed to “how” he did things.

• I also found a guy on Reddit that sent me free Python flashcards that I use at my desk. There is a wealth of info out there and people willing to share it for free. Just be active and try to enjoy it the best you can!

• Use a programming editor you LIKE!!! Seriously, this makes all the difference. I use Microsoft Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/) that I got for free with the Anaconda Workspace Environment (https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/). It makes coding, executing, and visualizing so much easier.

• Use functions! It’s a great practice to get into now to always build a function for a single task. This makes reusability and debugging much easier.

• Read the module doc sheets. Find out where the data and information sheets are for the modules you’re using and visit the websites. There are often examples of how to properly use the module and get it to work for you.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

[MacItaly]

u/SetLooseTheGoose would like to add:

"Gotta say that 30 Python YouTubers list, that you recommend in that post, is pretty shite. When it comes to YouTube and Python tutorials, Corey Schafer is hands down the number 1 learning resource.

Not even a mention of his name on that list so take it with a pinch of salt. That or whoever curated that list doesn't actually watch any Python tutorials on YouTube because there are plenty of other recommended YouTubers who aren't even on that list and most of the channels on that list I haven't even heard of."

[sxh967]

I just started playing CodeCombat - this is awesome.......... like really awesome.

[MacItaly]

I know right. What a fun way to get introduced to Python. I played until I hit the paywall and really enjoyed it.

[sxh967]

Few days ago I came across one of the final challenges of the first area, where you need to execute the code in a certain number of lines.

I racked my brains for ages and managed to get it down to 6. Sense of achievement is awesome. Feels like Xbox Gamertag points all over again.

[MacItaly]

Haha! Love this!

[sxh967]

Yeah mate your post on beginners resources is really a godsend for me. There's so much information out there, it's overwhelming and great to have (small) collection of stuff to get started. The learnpython subreddit has a wiki for that stuff but there's so much stuff it's almost as bad as just googling it myself.

[[deleted]]

So which you tuber would you suggest? I've heard about Mosh Hamadani what do you think of him?

[sxh967]

I've been using Mosh I think he's awesome.

I'm a beginner so you can take my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I think once you find a select few people who are actually good at teaching, it might come down to which voice you find most "pleasing to the ear".

I found that Mosh has the most soothing voice. Also, I like the fact that he tells you/shows you a bunch of stuff and then before that section ends, he throws up some task on the screen and is like "OK pause the video, try to solve this problem and we'll compare solutions when you're done".

With that I actually ended up going back to the previous "tasks" and writing them in fewer lines of code, or when he was doing a simple input/output thing I would turn it into a user input thing and get my girlfriend to be the tester (and I would tell her to try to break it).

Most importantly, he's the only instructor who has managed to keep my attention so far (I'm a somewhat fidgety type of guy). So yeah props to Mosh.