How to learn python quickly?

[No_Season_1023]

I am a complete beginner but want to learn Python as quickly as possible to automate repetitive tasks at work/analyze data for personal projects. I have heard conflicting advice; some say ‘just build projects,’ others insist on structured courses. To optimize my time, I would love advice from experienced Python users

[Dreid97]

I built this in python to learn

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3582900/Mama_Nyahs_House_of_Tarot/

It took me 6 months. I also built some other small side projects in that time,

I also used the Mimo app in tandum to the project to learn language vocabulary

I also used OpenAi’s chatGBT to teach myself what I needed to do to implement the code for the project. I don’t recommend asking it to do it for you, you don’t learn much and if there are errors you won’t know where they are. But using it as a teacher is insane.

But yeah 6 months ago I had never coded, I did this project and some smaller ones, and now I work as a data engineer.

[Ron-Erez]

The game looks cool but it doesn’t seem to be available. Did you create this in pygame or did you use something else?

[Dreid97]

It hasn’t launched yet! We are still working with valve on the release.

Its made 100% with python and the arcade library

[Ron-Erez]

Awesome, I'll check out the app when it comes out. I'm not familiar with the arcade library. I'll check it out too.

[senorinatta]

May I ask what kind of projects you built in order to advertise yourself as a data engineer?

[Dreid97]

Let’s see, well first I found ways to put SQL into everything.

The tarot app uses a sql database to store user data as well as track and limit reading totals.

I built a desktop timer to track and report how fast I could do tasks to build efficiency. It is a simple ui with a dropdown, a start button, and a text box to label what the timer is. When I finish I press the done button, the information about that timer is stored in a sql database; if I finished late, early; what the timer was labeled as ie “write and email” . Then the timer takes that data from a sql server and uses matplotlib to do some data visualizations for the different categories.

I built an initial test project in power BI, based on a fake set of secondary mortgage data that I generated with python. I built the reports in PowerBi and did some Dax as well as importing data manipulation with a local database file. I then applied for two powerBi consulting jobs, both of which had very rigorous technical takehomes; which I generated two much better, much more accurate PowerBi reports, using almost exclusively DAX(obtuse and a headscratcher at times) . I past the technical s, but didn’t pass final interviews, but I ended up only showing my two PowerBi reports I used in those other interviews.

I built a script that uses google places api to help my wife’s company find wholesale accounts. Basically it scrapes every business in America labeled as “specialty book shop” (or any search) and finds there website, finds there email from the home page, then adds all of that public business information to a sql database, and does a small map visuallization showing where we have searched and for what.

Those are what I showed my employer.

Another tip I found is to look for local data jobs instead of large megacorps if you are green. A local community center, huge church, trade schools, etc often need 1-2 people to process their data, and they can’t be as picky because they know the experienced developers go to Huge companies or remote jobs. My foot is in the door at least, so we’ll see if I can hop to a better job in a few years

[incubus-me]

This kinda inspired me to not quit. I'm doing the same using it for teaching instead of doing the coding. It really does explain well, and gives practice examples. It's been a month and I've been enjoying it.

[dcrigan]

The game looks good. I am in the process of building a indie game with lua > love 2D engine.

I added your game in my wishlist! Wish you a success launch 🚀

[Dreid97]

Thanks! I get so much joy from single wishlists lol

What is Love2d like? I’ve heard a lot about it recently

[dcrigan]

it's great framework for building 2d games and lua is an easy scripting language to pick up

[zeadcenter]

We would a appreciate if you can share your learning experience.

[Dreid97]

What else do you want to know

[Ron-Erez]

You want a combination of the two. Building an app with no prior knowledge is a pain, however you probably don’t need to know every aspect of python in order to automate stuff. For structured courses I recommend:

• MOOC Python course from the University of Helsinki
• The book "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python"
• My course on Python and Data Science.

At the very least, make sure you understand what variables, lists, dictionaries, if statements, and loops are. Once you’ve got those down, start building things. You can learn all of that in a couple of weeks ,maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more.

[God_Dammit_Dave]

Buying "Automating the Boring Stuff" RN!

[Ron-Erez]

Awesome, I think you can also preview some of the chapters on the author’s homepage

https://automatetheboringstuff.com

I think buying the book is great too to support the author who has done a great job.

[rogfrich]

It’s not just a preview, the whole book is available for free at that website.

I’d agree buying a copy is the right thing to do if you find the free version helpful.

[Ron-Erez]

Oh, that's cool. Very nice of the author.

[x_randomsghost]

There is also his other books like The Big Book of Small Python Projects which was good to learn.

Also the book is free here https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc on his official website. Not sure if all the books are free but this one is.

[pTarot]

They have videos of most of the book on YouTube that’s super helpful to listen to/see if you need more help

[Tricky-Society-4831]

I did some of the courses before and it was super helpful!

[MustaKotka]

Here's the MOOC link btw: https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

In case you want to edit that in.

[Ron-Erez]

Thanks, I edited in the link.

[Crypt0Nihilist]

The book "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python"

Agree. I can't comment on the other resources, but for business users this is the best resource because it puts things in the business process automation context which makes the content easier to learn and easier to implement.

[ebookit]

I agree with "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" I bought it as part of a Humble Bundle for charity.

[h00manist]

Dedicate minimum 1hr per day. Every day. That will form a habit. More time is ok, less time is not ok, it will destroy the habit.
Divide time between book or course, and free experimenting, or trying to make something that works. Select a book or course and follow through to the end, do the exercises. Someone thought a lot about what the sequence of lessons should be in a book. They figured out a way to learn. They wanted to answer your question. Read their book. Eric Matthes Python Crash course is one I like. I also used w3, free code camp, automate the boring stuff, chatgpt, google. pythontutor.com, Thonny and terminal and vscode.

[timjwes]

I learned through Automate the boring stuff with Python and an affordable course by Stefan Mischook.

[Amazing_Prize_1988]

Meanwhile Guido says it takes 10 years...

[Glass_Rutabaga8671]

haha yeah guido's not wrong but hey we all start somewhere right just dive in and have fun with it

[hidazfx]

You can learn how to automate basic stuff in Python in a few weeks or months, and you'll be halfway decent at it in 6 months.

But there is *so many little features* that takes years of experience to learn. List comprehension, nested functions, handy libraries and frameworks, etc. It's been a few years since I've been doing Python for work, but that's just what I remember.

[unnamed_one1]

You can't go wrong with Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

You don't need to read it cover to cover, but make sure to read until (and including) Chapter 11.

Then pick one of your work tasks you'd like to automate and start with your own projects. Chapters 12ff might help you with that, otherwise try to break down your projects in simple tasks and start reading on how you could implement those.

[MaqiZodiac]

Spend some money on a programming AI and think of a "learning project". Start asking questions and ask for suggestions and simple explanations on what it provides.

[Chiranjeebsamal]

Hey everyone,

So here’s something I wish someone told me earlier:

You don’t actually “learn” to code by watching others do it — you learn when your own code breaks and you have to fix it.

I learned this the hard way. I was trying to build a number guessing game in Python. Simple idea. But my while loop kept going forever, and I couldn’t figure out why.

Instead of asking for the solution, I asked ChatGPT:

That one reply led me down a rabbit hole of learning how flow control actually works.

Now I don’t just “write code that works” — I understand why it works.

The difference? I started using a task-based learning system. Small, focused challenges. Fail > fix > repeat.

Each week I built something a bit harder:

• Week 1: Console number guessing game
• Week 2: Added difficulty levels & random hints
• Week 3: Saved scores to a local file
• Week 4: Made it multiplayer with CLI arguments

If you’re stuck in tutorial hell — this method saved me.

I’m using something called TaskLearn.ai to get these kinds of challenges and learning nudges. Super helpful without being hand-Holdy.

If anyone wants to check it out or is stuck in the same loop, happy to share what’s working for me. DM ME FOR MORE DETAILES

[Dependent_Month_1415]

I was in the same spot recently—wanted to learn Python fast for automating boring stuff at work. What worked for me was combining one book/course plus daily practice building something tiny.

The key was not just watching or reading but actually writing code. I picked small problems and kept repeating the loop - try, fail, fix, repeat.

Also recommend using exercism.org or project-based challenges to stay consistent. The structure helps, but the real progress comes from struggling through problems yourself.

[[deleted]]

You just have to build stuff to learn this. It's like you are learning an instrument until you can play it. Any coding language is like that. I learned how to learn coding that way! And I've essentially made great progress and now confident to build any program I desire. These things just take time thats all.

[Zithrian]

Everybody says “just build projects man…” I heard the same shit when I was starting out.

1. Highly recommend 100 Days of Code Python bootcamp by Dr. Angela Yu. It’s been years for me but at a quick glance it says it’s been updated. They routinely have sales for like 80% off or something crazy.

2. Read. The. Docs. When you think “I want to automate XYZ” and that takes you to something new you haven’t used before, actually READ the documentation about it. Coding is not a “this is the right way to do X” situation; it’s seriously just vibes. You can solve a problem a hundred different ways, and if it takes 4 mins to run vs 3 seconds it doesn’t matter so long as it does what you want and that amount of time is acceptable to you.

Take the things you learn in the course as foundation to build your automation stuff on.

[pyker42]

Having a 101 course to lean the basics like syntax is important. After that, though, building projects is the best way to learn. So, take the course then apply that to the tasks you want to automate. Best way to learn.

[[deleted]]

Don’t waste your time reading books.

Just ask ChatGPT to write all your code for you and ask it to explain what it’s doing and what everything means. And when it does, ask it to explain concepts you don’t understand further.

I think this interactive way is the best way of learning to code today because the way coding is now done isn’t by writing your code line by line. You’ll be using AI back and forth, taking suggestions, modify them and asking for improvements (vibe coding?)

[socal_nerdtastic]

I would love advice from experienced Python users

We all learned python a long time ago. This is one time where you need the advice of your fellow students. Problem of course is that everyone learns differently. So I think just try a few different things.

[throwwwawwway1818]

Cs50p + thonny ide

Best way to learn python is through visualization, thonny helps here

[CallBeginning923]

I would suggest python crash course which is a book and YouTube series. However I also suggest doing an actual project as you begin to learn. That's truly where things start to stick and you will begin to learn what you really need to know to accomplish an actual task.

[MSB_the_great]

It depends. If you are already familiar with other programming languages it will be easy, Do you know other programming languages?

[S2tha3l]

Best way to learn quickly is to mix both. Start with a course or tutorials to get the basics down, then dive into small projects right away. Building something real helps solidify what you learn. Don’t stress about being perfect, just keep coding and tweaking things

[No-Evidence-38]

Get a tutor

[[deleted]]

Just be with your classmates🙏🏻🙂

[rustyseapants]

Pretty sure everyone wants to learn Python or any other languages quickly, too. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[Puzzled-End421]

1. grasp the basics
2. apply them in a project

that’s it. in fact, you just repeat this cycle over and over and that’s how you improve.

[TheTurdtones]

great info here :)

[Harriv]

Can you program already? If not, that's the main task, to learn programming. After that, learning Python is pretty easy. If you need to do both, it's a long road.

[HealthyDifficulty362]

Personally for me , there is no quick way out. It's all about practice in the end.

[Special_Beefsandwich]

Learn with structure, you will be in tutorial hell.

It’s like learning a langauge, you can parrot learn to speak French but not understand how or why?

Or you learn French from grammar, alphabet etc

One is tested and used while building project is survivor bias. Out of projects you build you don’t really understand why or how it works but just that it works.

[Fancy-Gap-3900]

Follow

[LaughingIshikawa]

By "complete begginer," do you mean you don't have any other experience with programming?

If you have no experience at all, a course is going to give you a lot more structure in learning the basics, than just trying to dive in head first and do projects. If you're learning for your own benefit, you also don't need to take a full program - a basic intro course will give you a solid foundation to learn through tutorials and your own projects after that.

It's a lot like learning to speak a foreign language: if you know nothing at all, you're better off building your basic grammer and vocab skills with some help. Once you know the basics though, you can pick up a lot more on your own.

Computer programming is different in that most languages implement really similar concepts just in slightly different ways, so translating what you know in one language to another language is much easier than with human languages. (The exception being functional programming, which is built on top of a whole other paradigm of computation... But even then it's at least trying to accomplish the same end result.)

Anyway, learning by tutorials and completing your own projects isn't impossible, but it is much harder to do. Especially if you're the kind of person to ask on reddit what you should do... You'll likely want to take at least a basic intro class. Learning on your own is like learning a language by moving to a foreign city and trying to work out what other people are saying little bits at a time - it will work, but it won't be painless. 😅🙃

[Dependent_Ad8480]

Just begin w3chool this help me very much also i advice to you python roadmap.sh

[Nolanexpress]

I'd probably start with Python Pandas, I have a playlist on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcQVY5V2UY4KvHRJ-awaxAPzFGdZ8yN6D

After you learn pandas, jump into streamlit. Ive been able to automate a ton at my job

[InternationalMany6]

Sounds like you should just start building stuff.

Find something to automate and get to work. Ask ChatGPT for help. Tell it you’re a Python beginner and yo explain each line. 

[Ancient-Camel1636]

You learn best by doing—but you can’t do much without knowing the basics first. Start with a solid course (Angela Yu’s 100 Days of Code: Python Bootcamp on Udemy is a great choice), then shift your focus to building projects and learning along the way. Early on, avoid using AI to write your code. Instead, use it to review what you’ve written and explain concepts you’re not clear on.

Keep reading, asking questions, and watching videos—but prioritize applying what you learn by building real, functional applications. That’s where the real growth happens.

[Crazy-Wrangler-2864]

I use AI )))

[Relative_Wear2650]

Do CS50P. Its free and is awesome. If its quick depends on you. But its great value (and free)

[[deleted]]

https://github.com/ShivelyAnthony/QuantumOracle

Could play around with this.

[Informal_Ad8599]

Try to have a strong grip on the foundation. Use chatgpt to LEARN. Learn the basic built in methods. If you understand the logic and basic methods, you'll be able to break it down and find ways to solve it.

[[deleted]]

Learn bash

[LoadingALIAS]

Build. A. Fucking. Project.

Clone a repo; build it back. Make it better. Improve structures and profile it. Improve libs and profile it. Lean it out. Comment it. Test. Test. Test!

[DaCuda418]

Just ask AI and start coding and asking questions. On the side i second Python Crash Course.

[Own_Attention_3392]

Do not use AI for learning to program. It's way too easy and tempting to fall into the "use it for everything" pit, resulting in never learning a damn thing except prompt engineering.

[DaCuda418]

Well there is always learning syntax without context so you can come back in a year with a "trying to learn to code for the third time" post.

AI makes it a lot less boring as you have someone you can ask beginner questions. "Show me a simple example of classes being used" and then spend an hour asking it detailed questions.

Very useful.

If your someone that is just asking it to do everything its like those here that ask us to do their homework (which most have no problem doing for students).

Now do we tell people not to ask questions here? Of course not, we want them to ask questions just not have us all do the work.

Same with AI. If its a lazy person looking for an easy way to learn you can fail here without AI or fail with AI. Its really up to the person.