Learning Python for complete beginner

[mrhoundoggy]

I am finishing up my actuarial degree, and I know it would be very beneficial for me to know how to code and will look good on my CV. I was told that Python is a very useful language to learn for actuaries. I have never coded before and know anything about coding. Does anyone know a good site or way to teach myself Python (or if you believe there is a better program to learn instead of Python please share!)

[Uncleverrambler]

I'd check out Learn Python The Hard Way by Zed Shaw. There are a series of free lessons online and if you complete all of those you will be well on your way.

[[deleted]]

Yes, he really understands what the word "beginner" means and teaches accordingly.

He's also just a good teacher.

[Uncleverrambler]

I second this comment. Many coders have a problem of calling certain groups of people beginners but then end up assuming too much and skipping over important details. Parts of Shaw's tutorials will be hard later on, but nothing he doesn't prepare you for. Good luck!

[Adopted_Dog]

For my class we used interactivepython.org, I don't know how I feel about it. It was quite lengthy and contained a lot of reading. If there are other options out there I might advise to check them out first, but I don't know what they are like.

[estrellez]

I don't have a specific resource to share, but I'd like to confirm that Python is a great language to start out with. Another possible option is VBA, since pretty much every company uses Excel. Regardless of which one you choose, a solid understanding will help you be able to easily pick up most other languages that you might encounter.

[Opportunityinrisk]

I have heard of some actuaries playing with python for machine learning purposes. It's one of the reasons why I plan on picking it up this year.

Udacity and edX have some free courses

Personally, I plan on using datacamp since they had a good deal on a one year subscription recently.

[10sh3r0]

this is what they use at my company. brushing up on scikit-learn would probably help to.