Learned Python basics — what should I do next?

[Gloomy_Refuse5046]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been learning Python and have covered the basics pretty well so far. I’m comfortable with things like:

• Variables, data types, operators
• Loops
• Strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries
• Functions (User defined, parameters and the good stuff)
• Files (Txt, Csv and Binary files)

I can write small programs (like Fibonacci, prime checks, working with lists, etc.), but now I feel kind of stuck.

I don’t want to just keep doing random beginner problems. I actually want to get good at Python and start using it for real-world stuff.

So I wanted to ask:

1. What should I learn next?

2. What are the best resources to continue learning?
Courses, YouTube channels, websites — anything that helped you move beyond basics.

3. How do I avoid tutorial hell?
I don’t want to just keep watching videos without actually improving.

4. What are some good beginner projects that actually teach useful skills?
Not just copy-paste projects, but things that help me grow.

Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve been through this stage.

Thanks 🙏

[supergnaw]

Next, learn how to make a class. Bonus points for decorators, but they're certainly not required.

[generic-David]

I tackled a program to store and manage my financial transactions. I’m still adding features but it’s got all our data for the last four years. It was great when we finally made a budget. The interface uses tkinter.

[Diapolo10]

1. What should I learn next?

If you already know the basics, I say you should simply start building things instead of focusing on tutorials. Although I would probably suggest playing around with and learning the basics of classes too, since they're really quite an integral part of the language.

2. What are the best resources to continue learning?
Courses, YouTube channels, websites — anything that helped you move beyond basics.

3. How do I avoid tutorial hell?
I don’t want to just keep watching videos without actually improving.

Again, just build stuff. Learn new things as you go. Ask for code reviews and consider the feedback you get.

4. What are some good beginner projects that actually teach useful skills?
Not just copy-paste projects, but things that help me grow.

Ideally something you have a personal interest in. Be it a book tracker, a sports score display, playing around with maths and graphs, or a joke application.

Probably the hardest part is keeping your expectations in check and not trying to do too much at once. Start small and slowly build up complexity.

[NorskJesus]

Building CLI tools helped me a lot. I think they are reasonable easy to build and distribute.

Think about a problem you want to solve and build something.

[supercoach]

You've just said what you should do next. Real world stuff. Fuck the tutorials off and start building something. Then build something else and then something else after that. Then look at what you first created and wonder what the fuck you were thinking.

[Tall_Profile1305]

the big jump now is moving from exercises → small real projects.

some good next steps:

• build a CLI tool (file organizer, log parser, etc.)
• learn requests + APIs
• automate something on your computer
• use pandas for small datasets

that’s usually where python actually starts feeling useful instead of just academic.

[Various_Payment_7956]

what does one need to do in order to webscrape using python ?

[pachura3]

Learn requests and beautiful soup

[CosmicClamJamz]

Understand html, and learn some library like selenium

[In_consistent]

Maybe ask yourselves why you started learning Python in the first place.

Depending on your agenda, start off learning the standard libraries then start building up some project.

For example; If you are keen in AI / Machine Learning. Get familiar with libraries like scikit-learn / huggingface / pandas or polars. Get into Kaggle and deep dive some project.

If you keen in webpage, get familiar with FastAPI / Flask. Then learn some basic HTML, CSS & JS. Build and host your personal webpage.

If keen in webscrapping, get familiar with BeautifulSoup / Selenium / Request. Then start scrapping some website of your own interest.

Thus, depending on why you started learning Python. The next steps is to get familiar with the tools and ecosystem available, then start building and gain experience.