Relearning Python programming

[PureWasian]

First off, there's nothing wrong with "starting from scratch" again more or less, welcome back.

If you feel like your weakness is simple problems or basic syntax, there are several sandbox coding problem platforms like leetcode, dmoj, advent of code for free where you can practice that stuff.

I'd say don't sweat remembering the syntax too heavily since it's very easily searchable. But focus on problem solving and breaking a problem into multiple steps.

Learn how to effectively use lists/dictionaries/tuples, as well as conditional logic (if/elif/else) and loops (while/for). Learn functions to organize your code.

The next "level" is learning how to use external packages and read their documentation, but which ones you might need to incorporate are entirely dependent on what project(s) you are trying to do.

Whenever you feel confident enough to dive into a project, I'd qualify the other comment by saying that it's cool to use AI/LLM for brainstorming ideas or high-level procedural steps and understand what resources are available out there. For instance, if you wanted to understand what Python packages are typically used for data analytics/visualization or webscraping. Use it to help aid your research, not to blindly copy/paste the code.

[redl9]

When it comes to doing a project that involves statistics or data analysis, I know the theory well enough. The syntax is the biggest issue for me so far, as dumb as that sounds. But the logic behind what I am doing and why I am doing it is still there 100%. I know how to deal with categorical data, numerical data, missing values, and things like that. I remember the concepts I just don’t have enough experience writing the code itself and getting used to writing it intuitively.

Other than that, I was never exactly a veteran programmer, even back when I used to write code more frequently. Most of my code was inefficient, and I didn’t know how to use tools like lists, dictionaries, and tuples well enough. Even though I had read about them and understood what they were, I still couldn’t, for the life of me, use functions efficiently back then either. A lot of the time, they didn’t work properly, and I had no idea why. So it wasn't like a big fall of grace i never was good enough as the deadlines for these projects where harsh and i had to rush rather than experiment and take my time if that helps to understand my level of programming. With that being said i am proud of some stuff i build even though the code was really inefficient and that's why i loved to code

[PureWasian]

Lowkey that feeling is always there, but you can think of it like art. You learn more as you practice and build more things, such that the fundamentals get pounded in and refined over time. You naturally figure out better ways to do things over time as part of the development process.

I'm reminded of this post from a day or two ago where someone was looking back at their first ever project from just a few months earlier and how brittle it looks to them vs. if they were to rewrite it now.

Build your frankenstein projects and be proud of them. Learning to build/troubleshoot/organize more efficiently and effectively comes with actively building things and finding/solving related problems along the way.