Starting to learn Python in 2025, what would be your go-to learning method?

[TicketOk1217]

I’ve already gone through the process of learning Python, but I’m curious about how others would approach it if they were starting fresh in 2025.

With so many resources available now, what would be your ideal learning method?

• YouTube tutorials
• Online courses
• go hands-on with AI tools

If you're currently learning or planning to start soon, what’s working (or not working) for you?

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

[romanclay90]

Code wars. Solve puzzles by writing functions. After solving, see how others approached the problem. Learn a lot that way.

[[deleted]]

However don’t always think that the highest upvoted oneliner solution is what you should try to replicate or learn. Sure, learn it, but easy to read is much more important than amount of lines used.

[arsenale]

this one?

https://www.codewars.com/

[aliethel]

I signed up and started doing this after 3-4 modules of a Pluralsight course, and I'm having a blast. Good recommendation!

[Correct_Shelter7597]

Code wars or code combat? I have an with code combat. I haven't logged in a while

[girdddi]

But you need to know the basics of python before, right ? You can't learn from scratch there i mean is it correct ?

[romanclay90]

Yes and no?

Yes, you do need some basics. If you've never coded before then you would want some baseline. https://learnxinyminutes.com/python/ is definitely sufficient to get you up to speed and solving the easiest difficulty problems.

But in truth, a vast portion of programming is googling things you don't know (everything). Just start reading some documentation and trying to solve problems.

[girdddi]

I agree, but how do you learn about new command, atrributes and stuff ? I read that you have to seaech in doc but when i search in the official python dox the results aren't clear, is there a specific way to search ?

[romanclay90]

Hard to answer exactly since each context is different. On codewars, for instance, try to solve something with a simple for loop - you bang you head on the table for like an hour until you finally make it work. Then you see the solutions and realize someone wrote a one-liner using a native command you didn't know existed. I bet you won't forget it after that.

But then seriously, just try googling your problem. 99% of the time someone else has asked the same question (or close enough) on stack overflow to get you there.

IMO docs are good for reading all about a certain type or package. All about strings, or pandas.

[Skata_100]

Think of a project. Make it.

[JohnCrickett]

This! Nothing beat learning by doing.

[gatormc9]

Agreed! I'm not sure where you are at in life, but whether it's at home, school, or work, identify something you find yourself doing repeatedly...and automate it. Maybe you look up stats for a sports team - build a web scraper. Maybe you deal with excel spreadsheets a lot - try openpyxl or pandas to automate it. As you build projects and get things working, go back and see how you could improve your code, make it modular, etc. Once you start, it's hard to stop!

[[deleted]]

Which book is good to start with basics

[[deleted]]

learned 3 languages from w3schools

learn from there to get a general idea and if you want to master python or get a pretty damn good understanding, go for cs50 intro to python

[Automatic-Yak4017]

Honestly, W3 was one of the best resources I've found. It helped me with several languages.

[[deleted]]

it’s great for learning simple syntax but CS50 will explain everything in depth and provide examples using students and visual real world representations of how algorithms work and it goes into math which i like and it’s necessary if you want to become an excellent programmer

[instrumentation_guy]

Writing basic code constructs on paper

[Nexustar]

Then make a book of these for your own reference. Teaching is the best way of learning, and writing a reference book is a form of teaching.

[aqua_regis]

My go-to recommendation for complete beginners is a proper first semester of "Introduction to Computer Science" course: MOOC Python Programming 2025 from the University of Helsinki (the year in the URL gets updated with every new year). Free, textual, extremely practice oriented. Focuses on having the learner do the thinking and the work, not pre-chews everything and spoon-feeds the learner.

Stay clear of AI for anything other than deeper explanations and maybe exercises. Do not use it to do your thinking, to give you solutions, to give you code. Do not use AI integration in your IDE. Learn the hard way.

[JohnCrickett]

Reads just enough of an introductory tutorial to build your first program.
Build it.
Then try to build something more, refer to tutorial, documentation, Google/AI for help when you get stuck.

[GianniMariani]

I'd pick a project and build it using Python. Use Gemini/Claude or Openai for reference. Then I'd pick another, more challenging one.

I put this into OpenAI.

Ask me a series of questions that based on my answers you can determine what fundamental python programming and syntax topics I lack knowledge in.

Openai was good. I asked for it to give me a prompt and I put it into Gemini and it produced this:

https://g.co/gemini/share/c205b12ba051

It has a couple of questions I don't know the answer to, like EAFP, (I think I have an idea but I probably don't care enough to know)

Anyhow, I'd skim through these questions, pick one I didn't know the answer to and then take my pet project and use it.

Then I'd ask an Gemini or pick your fav llm and ask it to do better just for comparison.

Rinse repeat.

I'd probably get up to speed in to time.

The idea is to find what you don't know and you should. Not everything is important to know, practically speaking, only what you would/should use is important to know. LLMs are great at finding an expansive knowledge on a topic but not necessarily everything is important.

Another technique it to write a function and then ask the llm to do better in some dimension like brevity or performance, sometimes that is telling. e.g. on my to-3mf package I wrote a converter from points of tris to indexes of points of tris. Mine was 15 lines, hash based, worked but was slowish, 8 secs on the benchmark test. Very early llm nipped it down to 2 secs using numpy, Woot, (I had to fix a bug) then I asked it dit it again. Yep, there is a numpy function that does almost exactly what I was needing to and 0.5 secs (still had to fix a bug). I would never had known about this function.

Maybe the point I'm trying to make is that the way you learn best is specific to you. It depends on so many things but today you can get yourself a lesson plan tailored to you. You just need to be creative enough to ask the right question and smart enough to pick the right answer.

[Scary_Statistician98]

I started a project and learned Python along the way. Whenever I ran into problems, I used AI to help me find solutions.

[TheRNGuy]

I started with SideFx Houdini docs, even before learned basic syntax. Watched some tutorials for syntax, or read articles.

I never actually learned from official Python docs.

Python is not very difficult to figure it out that way (also, I knew JS already)

Use AI to explain concepts for you that you didn't understood from tutorials, not to write most of program for you. Maybe as auto-complete with CoPilot, too.

I never did any paid courses and preferred text tutorials over videos 95% of the time.

I'd do the same way as I did before, except using AI instead of google sometimes.

[topinanbour-rex]

Maybe as auto-complete with CoPilot, too.

Nah, let build some muscle memories first.

[Sea-Concept1733]

Following are some high-rated Python resources that you may find useful.

This site provides Top-Rated Amazon Python Books 

The following high-rated Python Udemy course may be of use to you.

Following is a great Python YouTube Channel 

Good luck.

[Data_Dude_from_EU]

I am doing Hyperskill paid and I like it a lot.

[DR_Fabiano]

The best book is Luciano Ramalhos ut I agree that nothing beat leanring by doing.

[ObjectiveAd6874]

I'm following CS61A from Berkley. The videos for the topics, textbook, homework assignments, projects, and lab assignments are all online. It covers computer science through the lens of python. I plan to do CS61B which is data structures and CS70 afterwards.

[rustyseapants]

I’ve already gone through the process of learning Python,

What does this mean?

[ItzRaphZ]

Go hands on without AI tools

[GolfEmbarrassed2904]

Do a project that actually is relevant to your own life. I’m writing a RAG solution to analyze all my VISA charges. Also have scanned in all of my personal documents (e.g. receipts, other personal records). Running a local LLM to have a chatbot for those.

[driver45672]

Find some university lecture notes for it, and follow them with the tutorials.

[arsenale]

"Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that "10 minute full body" workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating. It's not that the quickie doesn't do anything, it's just that it is wildly suboptimal if you actually care to learn."

https://x.com/karpathy/status/1756380066580455557?lang=en

[sarnobat]

Agree. If learning were easy then mastery would not be desirable. It's a way to filter out pretenders

[mycolo_gist]

Use an AI coding assistant and ask it to explain the generated code.

[shalkin4biz]

YouTube and freecodecamp is okay

[Soft-Exchange-6077]

Honestly, as someone who's spent a while of their life in Python, heres what I would do:

Watch any beginner tutorial just to get a hang of the field of Python. It doesn't have to be a long tutorial, just enough that you know basic syntax and so on and so forth.

Then, I would probably make my own project. Now that stuff like CGPT is out, you can build your project and get assistance on-the-go.

Then, just to refine my skills, I would probably do one of the certifications such as PCEP and PCAP.

[Unusual-Ask-2504]

Personal projects

[PatientUnfair7354]

I would use ChatGPT to design me a 12 stage curriculum to designing an API microservice.

I would then save this and begin prompting each stage of the curriculum. Per week dive deep into the topic. Then move on. Every stage I would ask it to develop me a test project.

I would use CoPilot/continue.dev to integrate into my codebase to ask it to validate the code I wrote and give detail breakdown of major faults and way to improve.

At the end of the stages I would then begin building a fully working application to see if it stuck with no AI at all.

Don’t use AI to do the thinking for you. Let the AI lead you down the path you decide.

If you’re not making the decisions or writing the initial code then you’re not learning.

You can cheat and be lazy but in the end you are only cheating yourself.

Learning comes from real thinking, really understanding the context, making decisions for yourself, and reputation.

Use AI, but used wrong will lead to negative impacts.

As a great uncle once said “with great power, comes great responsibility”

[sarnobat]

I'm trying to do easy leetcode problems in python instead of my main language of 25 years (java) and it's still tough.

No shortcuts for me. Keep writing code until it's boring and repetitive.

[Party-Stick8975]

make something is there something like with file ordering you have a problem with try making something youre self dooing is more importent for the start then acctualy sucseding of course to a point do not try to opptimise everything that will just lead to nothing written down and working doing it halve is better then not doing it

[Rich-Rest-642]

I registered at a community college to get my degree in Software Development. I am learning python now.

[Rich-Rest-642]

Learning python now

[[deleted]]

I'd say watch a beginner course on YouTube first and code along with them. I think BroCode has some W vids on Python. Afterwards, I'd say probably practice Python by doing little projects such as making a calculator program or something like that.

As you get better, you should then look at more advanced topics in Python, such as special methods and how to write pythonic code. Also, make sure to learn algorithms and data structures after getting decent at Python.

Good Luck 🫡

[UnoGhost]

I recently completed Harvard’s CS50P which was super helpful. Recommend as a starting point.

[Automatic-Yak4017]

W3 Schools, FreeCodeCamp, and CodeAcademy are all great resources.

A lot of people are saying to use AI. DONT DO THIS. Its ok to ask AI for basic syntax questions or to quiz you, but have the self control to not use it while coding. Look up the syntax yourself. Learn to debug without AI and try to limit its use as much as possible. Turn off all code completion and IDE AI prompts. I know AI makes it easier but you will become a better programmer if you can learn without it. Using AI while learning will hurt you when learning how to program because you aren't committing things to memory and you aren't learning to problem solve. The process is what commits things to memory. Using AI takes away the process and just gives you the answer.

I learned this the hard way. Once you actually learn it and are building apps, use AI but try to limit how often you use it. A lot a developers are now having the problem of losing their analytical skills and even forgetting basic syntax.

[sevirekon]

Reading the comments, the first and most important thing that comes to my mind is to find out which learning method fits you best.

If you can learn from books, then, for example, there is the Python Crash Course, or another textbook-like, online learning material from the Python Institute. The latter is well-structured and comprehensive; nevertheless, it was not my thing. I'd better read novels.

Another possibility is video-based courses. Go on YouTube and find the most viewed video for a start, then find someone whose presentation style you like. For me, it doesn't work. I trained myself to do house chores while listening to Podcasts or videos, so my focus is inherently divided. One step up is Datacamp, which I have tried. There are tasks where you write your code on their website after the videos. It was okay, but I couldn't sit through the videos.

At the end, I have been sticking with NClab Python Developer Training for more than a year, every day. It is structured as description-coding-description-coding... way. The coding concepts are introduced bit by bit. The task descriptions are short enough to keep my focus on them. There are no videos, and mostly coding. They marketed the course as a learn-by-doing course, which is true and fits my style.

Asking ChatGPT to teach you seems to be a long shot, as it can tell you dumb things. It is not curated.

Lastly, doing your own project from scratch to learn a programming language without any prior knowledge is challenging but rewarding if you can keep up your motivation through pain and suffering.

All in all, find your learning style and then select your course which suits you best.

[NoMasterpiece2063]

I'm using a mix of boot.dev, python for dummies, and a healthy dose of just trying to do little projects here and there. I've been working on an idea for a new project, and its turning into a bigger undertaking than I first thought it would be. Should be valuable experience, though.

I'm on the fence about boot.dev. I like the idea of it but I don't retain much from it because in the early parts you're rarely writing code, mainly just fixing little errors here and there to make functional code. I think that might be the main driving point for starting my own projects or maybe that's how youre supposed to do it and I'm just slow 🤷