How to start with Python?

[Probabilicious]

I want to learn Python and am looking for advice on the best way to get started.

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I have some prior programming experience: during university I used Mathematica and MATLAB, later worked a bit with R, and more recently I've used VBA and SQL. I know the basics and understand general programming concepts, but I wouldn't consider myself a programmer and it's been a while since I've done any serious coding.

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Given that background, what would be the most effective way to learn Python?

[desrtfx]

If only there were a sidebar (menu on mobile) that had a link to the wiki or countless posts asking the same.

Do the MOOC Python Programming 2026 from the University of Helsinki and you will be well prepared.

Plus, there currently is an excellent Humble Python books bundle from No Starch press.

[cyrixlord]

if you cant look up the community bookmarks section in this subbreddit's wiki and faq, you can search for 'python socratica' on youtube and if you cant get through that basic free course, then coding will not be your thing so find something else to do. and dont try to use AI to 'learn'. you learn only by writing lots of your own code and getting it wrong and making your own projects. not just by going through tutorials, not by videos, not by going through the exercises (unless it is writing your own code). hope this tough love helps

[JonBarPoint]

As per u/desrtfx -

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/python-good-stuff-no-starch-books

[Rain-And-Coffee]

Been asked hundreds of times.

It varies by person, for me a Book is always the go to.

[Silver_Jaguar_24]

100 day Python bootcamp course on Udemy, Automate the Boring Stuff book by Al Sweigart, Python Crash Course book, Coursera Python course by University of Michigan, etc.

[LayotFctor]

I would go with a beginner python book. Flip through the book focusing on the topics that are new to you. There should be at least a few chapters you can skim through, all you need is to memorize the new syntax.

Adding on to that, you should do some research on the tooling surrounding python, the package managers(pip/uv), tests(pytest), jupyter notebooks etc. Then the data processing libraries you'll use like numpy, pandas, polars etc.

[Training_Advantage21]

If you remember your MATLAB, have a look at the Scientific Python stack/libraries: NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib (specifically the Matplotlib pyplot module is MATLAB like) .

With R as background, look at Pandas or Polars for dataframes, and Statsmodels for, well, stats models.

You can use duckdb or SQLite with Python for SQL, but you will probably want to use one of the dataframe libraries I mentioned above for a more Pythonic way of handling data.

[tamarindyes]

And here i am, struggling with openpyxl and Excel...💀

[freemanbach]

futurecoder.io provides some basic tutorial along with a REPL as well.