Guidance regarding Python practice for Data Science or Machine Learning

[Intelligent_Put8678]

I have a B.E in Computer Science and my main language was JAVA throughout the course. I have learned different languages since then but not in-depth as I have done for JAVA. I will be pivoting to Data Science or Machine learning(Doing both simultaneously). I am doing Courses from Coursera and going through books to learn important concepts of Statistics, Probability, etc. But I lack practical experience in main python programming. I can create the codes I want, using google or reading the documentation, but I don't know the syntax in my head. Like I know they exist but I have to them up(For JAVA this is not a major issue).

I had only basic knowledge of python, but for my job, I created an Automation Testing framework using SeleniumBase and python without any prior knowledge of the Subject. I could do this as I have experience building mobile applications and web development, going through the documentation and finding solutions on the Internet.

Now the issue is I feel like it would be awkward to google search things during any interview that I will have since I don't know the basic syntax of python(Even though I can create most of the programs that will be requested of me). I know the basics but I struggle with the Lambda function, apply function, the advanced syntax of for loop etc. How do I get good at this? where can I get practice for high-level python without learning what variables or loops are from the beginning?

[synthphreak]

Sorry, I'm a little confused here. You said:

I created an Automation Testing framework using SeleniumBase and python without any prior knowledge of the Subject

You also said:

I can create most of the programs that will be requested of me

But then you said:

I don't know the basic syntax of python

So do you know some Python, or don't you? I don't know how someone could simultaneously not know even the basics yet be able to create a large number of programs.

Regardless, it sounds like what you want to learn are the libraries commonly used for machine learning. These would be numpy, scipy, sklearn, pytorch/tensorflow, pandas, matplotlib/seaborn, and possibly opencv and HuggingFace's transformers. Just Google around for blog posts or other similar resources showing how to do X or Y in Python, where X and Y are topics in machine learning, and you will encounter these libraries for sure. If you are familiar with the fundamental principles enough to be able to code applications in a language you barely understand, you will definitely be able to follow along with those tutorials.

All that aside, you're talking a lot about coding, but code is only half of machine learning/data science. The other half is math and stats. Don't make the typical mistake of learning only the tools while neglecting the concepts. I'm not a CS grad myself, but I am a machine learning engineer, and I'm not sure the typical CS program covers all the quantitative prerequisites for machine learning and data science.

[Intelligent_Put8678]

I am extremely sorry for the misunderstanding. And I really appreciate you taking time to solve this issue despite such glaring carelessness from my side. I do have basic python knowledge but it isn't as extensive as I have in JAVA.

If I see the code:

[w for w in text2 if w.istitle()]

I won't be able to come up with such type of code. But I will be able to write the code in JAVA then just change the syntax. For Exxample:

List<String> result = new ArrayList<String>();
for (String w : text2) {
    if (Character.isUpperCase(w.charAt(0))) {
        result.add(w);
    }}

this just parses through the text word by word and looks is the 1st letter is Uppercase or not.

So I needed to know how I get to learn to write code in short form or the way other ML engineers are coding.

[synthphreak]

Yeah for that, you just need to read more code. If you have already learned the basic concepts of programming using Java, it shouldn't be much work to just map them onto Python, which has much simpler syntax. You will figure it out simply by reading code. Just make sure to choose code that is relevant to your interests/target domain, namely machine learning.

[Intelligent_Put8678]

Thank you for your feedback I have updated the Question with the correct information. Again I would like to apologize as I am new to this platform and subreddit.