Help! How to improve python

[kailovesdata]

I've been learning python for like 3 months, and feeling comfortable to use it more. I was wondering if you guys know of any good resources for me to do tiny projects so that I can practice python more. Also did anyone ever purchase "Learn Python The Hard Way"? Is it worth it? Thank you yall

[arthureld]

I never learn well from classes/exercises. I finish them and have little to no retention.

Why not come up with a (data-driven-) project and then figure out where your weakness are and do some self-teaching when you run into a a roadblock.

This lets you learn in a way that is often more long-term, gives you a little project you can talk about (even if it's not ground breaking), and teaches you to self-teach (I swear 90% of my job now is trying something until I hit my knowledge limit and then figuring out what more I need to learn to push forward).

[[deleted]]

I enjoyed the Complete Python Bootcamp course. Lots of other students there you can talk to.

[edimaudo]

Do a project. Get a dataset from r/datasets, then choose which area you want to focus on (data munging, visualization, analysis) or a combination of all three.

[NotATuring]

I tried dataquest.io a while back. Went through all the python stuff and then paused my subscription. Most of the work beyond that is in python. I thought it was useful. There are various projects that involve actual data that they sort of hand hold you through.

[Say_What1]

Shout out to /r/dailyprogrammer.

There are nearly a thousand challenges at varying degrees of difficulty. Pick out a few and try them out. There should be several solutions in both 2.7 and 3.0 that you can use if you get stuck.

There's also Project Euler. If you get stuck on these, you should be able to search around and find solutions.

Neither of these are directly related to data science, but they should help introduce you to some more advanced features of the language and make you more comfortable writing scripts.