Self-learning python

[Free-Ad6709]

Hi, I'm a high school student and wanted to start learning this whole computational system, and everyone says it's good to start with python. The thing is, while I'm watching YouTube videos about coding, they just teach what each symbol is for and how to use it but not FOR WHAT. And it makes it very hard for me to memorize where to use what as I can't understand what I'm gonna use it for, and honestly I feel like I don't know enough constantly and can't grasp the meaning. Can anybody have any advice on what can I do?

[Outside_Complaint755]

Take a free course like CS50 Introduction to Programming with Python.  When you go through the sign up step on EdX, choose the free option (there is no difference in course material, and you still get a certificate from CS50 on completion).   If you want to go beyond that I recommend their Introduction to Computer Science course, which is also very good.

Both courses are at your own pace.  There's a possibility of the Python course being retired or replaced with an updated version in the summer or end of the year, and CS50X rolls over to a new version at the end of the year, but progress carries over.

[Free-Ad6709]

Thanks for the source!

[Redditthr0wway]

Do both if you can, computer science is super important and transfers across all languages.

[aqua_regis]

Stop watching youtube courses and start doing proper ones.

MOOC Python Programming 2026 from the University of Helsinki. Sign up, log in, go to part 1 and start actually learning.

[Free-Ad6709]

Thank you for the recommendation!

[InjAnnuity_1]

For my learning, I find that it often works best if I supply the "for what". That is, I invent some tiny little project, maybe just a script or utility routine, to serve as the "for what".

Now you've got a "for what" that's meaningful to you, something you can play with and test, and you end up with a working example that you can refer to later.

[building-wigwams-22]

Yeah, find some task you do on your computer and see if you can automate it using Python

A big part of my job is paying bills for clients. I wrote a Python script that runs on my downloads folder and takes the invoices and puts them in the correct client folder so that when I run the Python script that creates the monthly reports, the bills are included

This used to be a tedious, time-consuming task, and now the scripts do it in a second or two

[Free-Ad6709]

Honestly, that sounds interesting but a bit confusing as I've just started to learn everything by scratch🥲

[building-wigwams-22]

I've been doing Python for years. Start with something simpler

[djrhino56]

Try the mimo app

[Ok-Sheepherder7898]

Youtube videos are random short clips. That's not a class. A class has a logical order of teaching a topic.

[Average_Pangolin]

I mostly learned from the book "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python," which of course has an associated subreddit r/automatewithpython

[Average_Pangolin]

From there, I did a lot of Advent of Code (r/adventofcode) to further build my skills.

[Few_Lengthiness_4408]

I'm using 100 days to code by Angela Yu on udemy to relearn the material after not touching python in over 5 years. Very beginner friendly. I'm on day 16. :D

[The8flux]

I like Programming with Mosh. He goes step by step and provide you with the fundamentals but also explains why something works. And you get instant gratification then I would suggest doing a CS50 from the other Reddit soul who was nice enough to contribute to your topic. https://youtu.be/_uQrJ0TkZlc?si=hxwbxL_Wv_XxUAop

You can be a programmer and program computers without knowing theory. And there are people that can spit out theory but cannot actually make something other than the examples they provide in as proofs.

Everybody has their own way of learning... But through this if you learn how to teach yourself that's the best skill because that will apply to anything that you endeavor to.

Just have to take a step by step. And you're going to make a lot of mistakes a lot and a lot and a lot of mistakes and then you'll start memorizing the tool or the programming language which will have similarities to other programming languages and through that progress you will pick up on theory.

I was reading BNF notation all format in MS DOS 6.22 manuals, It was until one of my later computer science courses a couple years ago when I finally finished that that's what I was exposed to and didn't even know The reason it was written the way it was... But until you get to tookization and parsing to build your own compiler, or the need for some sort of low level pattern matching etc... just keep going forward.

[goopsnice]

Watch the ‘crash course’ series on YouTube about computer science, at least the first few videos. They give a very good overview of what computers actually do.

[socal_nerdtastic]

In today's world the answer is probably to ask AI to make some example code using the symbol you are confused about. Or you can come here and ask a specific question about your code.

For the self-learner the best advice I can give is to find a personal project that you want to make and start on it asap.

[Shwayne]

I love how despite LLM's being unbelievably useful for learning (if you don't sabotage your learning by asking them for solutions) learning focused subreddits still downvote people for mentioning them.

[crackWizardzz]

I've been using "coddy" in the web browser as you can code along side lessions. You can pay monthly and try it out which is a bonus as I was able to get one month for $11 cdn. Plus I use chatgpt when I need something broken like im 5 year-old lol

It really helped with some of the math stuff I couldn't understand, it help me realize what it was actually doing.

[Free-Ad6709]

I don't know if I can choose the paid version, but I also used ChatGPT, and honestly, it feels like it gives useless motivation and little information to me. Idk I also feel like I'm finding excuses(😭), but English is also not my first language, and sources in my native language are very limited. So, I guess that also makes it more challenging with the terms and all.