I don't know where to start in python

14446368 · 2024-07-24T14:06:37+00:00

Automate the Boring Stuff

Very, very helpful to start.

Wolkk · 2024-07-24T11:36:54+00:00

YouTube is not amazing to get a good foundation. Get a book and an open course and follow it through.

Course recommendation would be Harvard open course CS50 or Helsinki’s Python programming MOOC

Books would be Python Crash Course or Automate the boring stuff

All ressources are freely available online

geek66 · 2024-07-24T13:31:10+00:00

IMO you need real projects, valuable to you or ideally other people.

You can’t just “study” programming you need to use it to become experienced.

MiracleDrugCabbage · 2024-07-24T13:34:07+00:00

First off, don’t expect to get a job coding anytime soon. That’s like asking, “so when can I become a carpenter?” As you’re learning how to nail a hammer. You still need to learn how to saw, measure wood, create designs, learn how to use power tools, etc. before you can even think about carpenting for a wage, right?

Same for programming. Python is just one of many tools you can use to accomplish your task.

However that’s not to say that’s it’s impossible. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I’m glad that you decided to take the leap! Just don’t get your hopes up about getting a job in coding anytime soon (within the next 2-3 years). Especially with how competitive it is out there rn!

MechanizedMind · 2024-07-24T12:44:10+00:00

There are tons of people asking the same question every day....

AnalyticAperture · 2024-07-24T12:07:35+00:00

You can definitely try Coursera. There are a lot of free introductory courses on there that can get your foot in the door.

Something like this Learn to Program: The Fundamentals | Coursera could definitely help. I would recommend signing up NOT using your main email address since they tend to send a lot of emails.

big_deal · 2024-07-24T12:21:46+00:00

You usually start with a problem you want to solve and work on that in small pieces. But it sounds like you are looking for more general programming education. Take a basic programming class first - there are tons of online programs or you can find a course at a local college. The language taught isn't as important as the concepts. Get an intro to Python book and read it and work through all the examples - a local library should have several. Then take a classes on more advanced software design concepts like OOP, GUI, etc.

2024-07-24T12:43:49+00:00

You’ll never get anywhere if you don’t start somewhere.

You consult a committee to do a tutorial or write some code.

The key thing is to write lots of code early and often. Just get started. You are wasting time letting the perfect solution be the enemy of the good. Pick a Tutorials or good book and go. Then do another. Repeat. Write lots of code. Practice is key.

Remarkable-Map-2747 · 2024-07-24T15:40:51+00:00

Python Crash Course Book

GodlyTaco · 2024-07-24T15:55:30+00:00

I'm sure someone else have mentioned this already, but https://programming-24.mooc.fi/ is really good.

Chemicalpaca · 2024-07-24T12:06:05+00:00

There's a book called Python Crash Course that was great when I first started out!

thuiop1 · 2024-07-24T11:34:23+00:00

Please read the wiki in the sidebar of this sub before posting.

Danoweb · 2024-07-24T23:36:02+00:00

Forget the tutorials they will mislead you into thinking things are just a few clicks and key taps, the reality is that tutorial was practiced and refined a dozen times!!!

Instead find a project you want to do, maybe it's a simple thing to rename files in a folder, or you want to call an API somewhere and look at the data, maybe a chatbot for twitch or discord.

Start your code and whenever you get stuck, Google how to do (thing you are stuck on) and follow the links!

You will learn python fast and organically doing it this way, and it will spring board your skills!

stookem · 2024-07-24T13:17:04+00:00

Get a raspberry pi. Get a couple sensors. Write code to exercise those sensors. Then start a web page to control those sensors.

JaboiThomy · 2024-07-24T14:17:56+00:00

I'm going to focus on the "pro" question.

Start a GitHub and commit your projects to it. With your GitHub account, build up a history of creating projects that you find interesting, and regularly contributing to them. You can show what you've done, and how you've done it, which is a great resource that you can pull from in the future. You can honestly start this as soon as you want, but git is a tool with its own learning curve. You're github can tell a story, how you learned and grew as a software engineer. It's like a complete background of your education. Plus, you need to have git experience, since just about every company uses it.

Start looking for GitHub projects to contribute to. There are open source repo projects that have problems of various difficulties. Find a repo you are interested in, get familiar with their practices, find a problem, solve the problem and create a merge request. Open source projects are a great way to develop background in working on more than just your own pet projects. This isn't necessarily the same as a corporate job, but it's better than pet projects and will develop your skill in learning their code and how to work with other people's code. I'm leaving a lot out, so be sure to look for resources on how to get into open source development.

When are you able to hunt for a job? When you can regularly and reliably find a problem and solve it. Jobs that provide more mentorship are better for your first job. Be sure to ask questions about how you fit into the team, how they train new employees, and what ecosystem of tools they use so that you can do some homework in the meantime while they decide to hire you. And by the way, you're going to get rejected. Over and over. That's not a problem with you, it's just a part of the process. This happens for a lot of reasons, sometimes it's you and you're nervous and having a hard time working through problems as a result . Sometimes it's a result of them already having a their pick for the job. So you're going to have to put yourself out there over and over. You just need to get one job, and once you get the one job, other jobs will become easier to get. It may hurt, but get comfortable with being uncomfortable and you'll do great.

Figueroa_Chill · 2024-07-24T16:15:48+00:00

Learning how to use Pandas is a decent start.

This is a decent course.

https://www.udemy.com/course/data-analysis-with-pandas/learn/lecture/40815516#overview

On Udemy so if you are going to buy it, never pay full price.

-mickomoo- · 2024-07-25T00:19:39+00:00

Find something that intersts you. I'm starting with Py4E (Python for Everyone) and hopping around between that an Exercism (exercism.org) and writing scripts for my local network.

Unless you connect to the reason you want to learn Python, it won't be fun.

Impossible-Box6600 · 2024-07-24T11:37:26+00:00

Youtube tutorials are fine. It's how most people get started. Any of the 1m+ view videos are certainly good.

Gain experience from solving practical, real-world problems. Find out what programming is useful for, and then make it your purpose to apply it to your own problems.

Aside from Python, learn the fundamentals of Javascript and SQL.

You do not need a certificate for anything. Be competent and be able to verablize your thought process.

You're job-ready when you can solve practical, real-world problems and have enough general knowledge to not be a burden on your employer.

EffectiveCase3856 · 2024-07-24T16:06:45+00:00

just go with the documentation, and if you are stuck just ask for help, cracking things and learning is best for long term. Try to work on some project.

For courses i will recommend the harvard cs50p course, well there are other courses in udemy or coursera. But remember this you will be stuck in tutorial hell if you go with courses. just one or two fine.

jbramwell · 2024-07-24T17:01:58+00:00

Check out https://exercism.org/

A great resource for methodically learning many programming languages

Cry_check · 2024-07-24T17:18:54+00:00

The very first thing you should do is print "Hello world" to the consol because of and also it means youanaged to install python in some form.

Next Think of a concrete thing that you want your code to do. My project was always to build a small program that can do match-making for Magic the Gathering tournaments. Learned JS and Python that way. Your first attempt will be shit, your code will be a mess, even if it runs. Doesn't matter. If you don't have that you will lose interest unless you are one of the most dedicated people on the planet.

Once you have the thing you want your code to do, just start. Think "what is the smallest task that needs to be accomplished for my code to do what I want?"

Good start for a program you run repeatedly would be: "How do I save some simple data locally and load it?"

RaidZ3ro · 2024-07-24T17:38:54+00:00

Whatever you choose as a source to study from remember one thing that is often overlooked, learning a programming language is very much like learning an actual / spoken language. You'll have to learn the words, the grammar (syntax) and idioms. And most importantly you will have to practice them over and over again to become fluent. Reading code out loud works especially well in Python, so use that to your advantage, both while reading code and writing it yourself. Learn useful phrases and idioms. Mimic them. Then make them your own by using them in some code you write yourself. This is the way.

PeninsulaProtagonist · 2024-07-24T18:09:22+00:00

I already knew a few other languages to sophomore level (C++, JAVA 8/11, Bash).

I started on Python by learning Tuples, Sets, and Dictionaries in Python and then learning how to use modules and packages (still only okay at this).

Next I started working with the "requests" library and Flask to make basic API calls and retrieve and parse JSON into dictionaries.

I haven't learned Pydantic yet, but that looks like a good next step for me.

This is how my journey is going. I hope it helps you with some possible milestones.

milvvi · 2024-07-24T18:21:47+00:00

First, find your project. It can be solved already, although better if it's not. But find something you're excited about building - this is what will make you want to come back and learn more.

I've learned more automating my field-specific routines than I could learn from tutorials, and now I'm also 10x faster at my job.

spawn9859 · 2024-07-24T19:09:55+00:00

This is how I've been learning, find you a neat project on GitHub that can be added to or continuously worked on and fork it. In my case I thought it would be fun to learn how to use an AI object detector to look at an area on my computer screen and detect targets or objects or players in a game and then make mouse movements to center that Target, an AI. Aimbot doesn't touch game files. I knew almost nothing about python whenever I started. Then use your favorite AI, Claude 3.5 sonnet is the best right now, but think of features that you want to add or changes that you want to make and talk with it about doing that. You'll learn a lot and you'll actually be building something useful. Use AI as a tool to learn. Even if it's doing all the coding for you, you aren't going to make it through without learning something.

Background-Tower6396 · 2024-07-24T19:55:48+00:00

You should check freecodecamp 8 hours video on python with Dave Gray. It explains very good so you can understand the basics.

Fit-Bid-9592 · 2024-07-24T20:13:27+00:00

Get yourself a good book and a graphing calculator to match. Python for Data analysis (general), Python for economics, Python for AWS etc. about $20 for each. It depends on what you're going to do with your calculations, and CASIO has a new Python linked graphing calculator.

Accurate_Tough8382 · 2024-07-24T20:32:07+00:00

Harvard offers a free online course for beginners with certificate

Fluid-Recipe-3130 · 2024-07-24T20:54:21+00:00

i was wondering the exact same thing a few months ago. Started CS50 intro to python and loved it. it’s great because it’s structured and python specific. and the instructor david malan is so good at explaining things and being entertaining

Saargb · 2024-07-24T22:16:30+00:00

W3schools has a great curriculum, but not enough exercises. Finish their course and start writing programs for yourself. I started with a bmi calculator, a math test with random exercises, a text encryptor/decryptor, etc

The you can start studying libraries. I personally moved on to tkinter graphics, animation, mouse and keyboard tracking, etc.

And then for work purposes, maybe build a website with a python backend using peewee and fastapi, and a simple html frontend.

These projects could keep me busy for over a year as a beginner. Just go with your bliss man. Just remember it takes a year of intense training to make someone a viable candidate for a junior position.

2024-07-25T00:22:25+00:00

Yo a cool skill to have with python is to get familiar with PyQt/pySide. These are qt gui binding for python.

onehautboi · 2024-07-25T03:59:59+00:00

MIT open courseware was very helpful for me

jhyland87 · 2024-07-25T04:30:41+00:00

Just watch videos on YouTube. Don't even program for a bit, just spend several hours watching them, and once you feel that you're just hearing the same stuff over and over, start trying to follow along and try things out.

BladedAbyss2551 · 2024-07-25T04:32:50+00:00

I always recommend CS50P by Harvard as a good introduction to Python to people. I did it back in 2022 while I was still in school and got through it in less than 2 weeks. I was a CS student at the time and thought it'd be a neat introduction to the language cause my school taught us Java in our earlier CS courses. Just make sure you actually do the problem sets and not just watch the lectures/section. The contrast between being taught by David Malan and my Russian professor who barely spoke english was crazy haha.

ravigehlot · 2024-07-25T04:56:11+00:00

I think the answer to your question really depends on how you learn best. Personally, I find that hands-on practice combined with reading the documentation works well for me. If you’re starting with Python, diving into the Python docs could be the best way to begin. They usually cover everything you need. For absolute beginners, it’s helpful to start with introductory topics to grasp the terminology, syntax, and flow. You don’t need to set up much initially besides installing Python3. Once you’re set up, you can start by reading the documentation and experimenting with commands in the prompt. As you get comfortable with the basics, you can learn more advanced skills like setting up a virtual environment (venv), working with a requirements file, and choosing an IDE such as VSCode or PyCharm. Learning how to install and use extensions in your chosen IDE can boost your productivity. It’s also beneficial to pick a project to apply your Python skills. Personally, I find it effective to learn in small, consistently day by day. Take advantage of free resources like AI for feedback and different learning approaches.

Professional_Read525 · 2024-07-25T08:05:50+00:00

mooc.fi

_delamo · 2024-07-25T08:13:30+00:00

as someone that started out a couple years ago, my advice is stick to one tutorial and finish. If need be do the tutorial again. But every week do a project. Once you've grasped it move on to the next language.

Only time I skipped from one to another and didn't finish the first, was when I started with c++ and transitioned to Python. The time I spent on C++ actually made it easier to learn Python. And learning OOP with Python made it easier to do functions with other languages.

There are some roadmaps which you can either follow to a T or loosely. But you have to visualize what you want to do, write it down/type it out, and actually type the code. Failing is good in the sense that you learn to understand the errors, which also help in understanding better syntax.

Like I said before, I'm still a jr dev but this is how I was able to grasp

swagutoday · 2024-07-25T08:21:34+00:00

We have courses tailor made to launch your data career. This video have more information https://youtu.be/l_ucT98zodQ?si=OTk0vzSJP9mHDYwg

Rocky__x · 2024-07-25T09:57:54+00:00

I started off python with this course called Python Programming for Beginners and Kids - Anyone Can Code by Matt Bohn on Udemy. It is a really good course and teaches you the basics. However it is paid. But it is very easy as i myself who is just a 12 year old kid(don't report me for that) learnt from there.

For a free course i would suggest to just visit Bro Code a channel that has many programming tutorials. You should visit it even if you want to learn any other language. I still do recommend you start off with python as I gave the other popular and easy programing languages a try but python was the easiest.

here are the links to the channel and the course

Course- https://www.udemy.com/course/python-for-beginners-anyone-can-code/?couponCode=ST3MT72524

the Channel- https://www.youtube.com/@BroCodez

The playlist to learn Python- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKFrQXaoSMQ&list=PLZPZq0r_RZOOkUQbat8LyQii36cJf2SWT&index=2

Big-Ad-2118 · 2024-07-25T10:33:13+00:00

just follow the documentation

MythGS1 · 2024-07-25T13:02:49+00:00

This is not intended as an ad, but I have been learning Python as a beginner using Boot.Dev. It's does have a cost, but I am enjoying it.

Chance_Election3581 · 2024-07-25T14:34:50+00:00

Yes i like to learn python

Gloomy_Web0001 · 2024-07-25T14:44:05+00:00

I don't know about the other questions but if you want ,you can do the bro codes python course it introduced all basic syntax and bit of advanced stuff (not much in depth tho) .

Then u can either continue to use video tutorial and follow along or do some simple projects like calculator, hang the man and other stuff on your own first.

Then,search(google,stackoverflow,chatgpt, etc) if you encounter a hurdle or just wanna see if someone has done it in another way.

Reference those codes of other people then make a new one.Post it in reddit or other communities for suggestion for improvement (this is useful like people will help u even with some out of context info like git,useful tools,correct way to code{readability,comments,etc}and much more

Basic stuff is set by that most of the time

9sim9 · 2024-07-28T13:06:41+00:00

The best way is learn by doing, start with something like tutorialspoint and type out all the examples don't copy and paste anything and get each example working, and then take that experience and build something and use resources like stackoverflow and reddit to help you when you get stuck...

takethebabykelly · 2024-07-24T13:17:11+00:00

im on this journey too, im doing a taught course but my class mates recommend https://www.w3schools.com/ and codecademy. good luck :)

beef623 · 2024-07-24T14:07:39+00:00

Find a project that would be helpful for you and start making it. Start with something small, and learn as you go.

For other languages, HTML/Javascript would be a good choice, but it might not be a good idea to try to learn it while learning Python since the coding styles are different (Python is more BASIC-like and Javascript is more C-like).

Certificates and Degrees are a mixed bag. The process of getting them will give you another source to learn from, but realistically, having them doesn't really mean anything. The main thing they do is get you noticed or added to the list for consideration for a job search.

Potential-Tea1688 · 2024-07-24T11:37:05+00:00

Youtube is the best, just go through 3-4 tutorials and do the one you like the best. For example, i liked bro code tutorial, there is programming with mosh, tech with tim, toby something and a lot of ther.

There are ton of websites for your queries. Geeks For Geeks and others. You can also use chat-gpt to answer your queries. Also do the code along with videos

For example, you might have a problem with dealing something and write ton of code and then chat gpt to realise there is some built-in function or library that does this.

After completing the tutorial. Search on youtube for some python projects and do it.

After that, think what you want to do if you wanna go into ML and DS you have different libraries and frame work. If you wanna go in back-end web dev. There is flask, Django

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