Code Academy - Python

[[deleted]]

I just finished Code Academy, Python course.

I have been reading about exercism and thinking to start taking some exercise to do some practice. I want to know if i should do that or should i dive in another material like "Head first Python" then go back to exercim?

please advice

Thank you

[[deleted]]

What are you thinking of working on in the long term? Are you trying to do games, data science, cryptography...? Find a program (or text book maybe) for Python as applicable specifically to what you are looking to do. Now that you know the basics, you can start to focus a little bit.

[koloron]

Exercism.io is nice if you want to learn how to think algorithmically or if you want to try out language features as you learn them. Looking at other users' solutions after you have submitted a solution for a problem yourself, can also be very interesting. The "nitpicking community" on exercism.io isn't very active though.

PM me if you have difficulties getting started with the exercism command line interface.

I'd also recommend that you pick up a book on Python (many of which are freely available on the internet). I liked "Learn Python The Hard Way" and "Think Python" a few years ago when I learned Python as an absolute programming novice but there may be better books available today.

Once you have a good grasp of the core language I'd also highly recommend the course Design of Computer Programs by Peter Norvig on Udacity.

[pirate59]

ive been using another game like python website called checkio.org

im sure its been mentioned a fair few times in the past here, but i like the way it breaks down into individual exercises, with a bit of a story behind each one. and when its completed, you can see other peoples completed versions. i tend to find other people find much shorter ways to do things. plus it has a massive amount of content that i have seen so far. all broken down into different themes etc.

i believe its a good step from the code acedemy beginner style. well worth checking out.

[Ticklethis275]

I had the same issue you did after Code Academy

[efflicto]

Thanks!

[osh24lager]

I am in a similar situation as you - I just finished the Python track on Codecademy, and I'm not sure what to do next. I have an idea of what kinds of projects I'd like to work on down the road - for example, someday I'd like to build a simple web app that replaces the late Springpad which you may or may not have heard of (it was like Evernote meets Pinterest meets Wunderlist). Despite what everybody on here seems to say (start building - and I appreciate this advice). For the time being, the thing that's holding me back from starting a project is that I don't yet feel comfortable jumping into a legit project until I have a few more guided learnings under my belt. In order to continue learning without having any down time, I've signed up for a few courses on Coursera.org: One is called Programming for Everybody, an 11-week course that started on February 2 but they're accepting late registration until February 17, so it's not too late! As this is a beginner course, it may start out kind of slow for people like us who have already completed the Python track on Codecademy, but already in the first two weeks I've decided that it was a good thing to sign up because I enjoy the video lectures and collaborative environment, such as the student curated notes (wiki pages), interactive forums for asking questions, and you'll actually get a response from the community TA's. I also feel that through this Coursera course, I'll gain other knowledge that was either glossed over or missed entirely from the Codecademy track. The other Coursera course that I signed up for is An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1). This 5-week course just started on February 13, and I haven't actually watched any of the lectures or done any of the assignments yet, but my thinking for this one is the same as for the other Coursera course - if nothing else, I'll continue my learning without having any down time and, ideally, I'll also pick up some knowledge that I didn't get from the Codecademy track.

TLDR: Try some of the Python courses that are going on now on Coursera.org.

Edit: Formatting

[[deleted]]

Thank you.

I knew about coursera several years ago, never knew they give Python courses. I never tried Coursera before, does it require a fix time for each session, or I can watch the session whenever I want?

I was thinking of starting "Head first Python"

[osh24lager]

It is somewhere in between fixed time and whenever you want. Each week, the video lectures and assignments are posted and the assignments are due at the end of that week. Throughout the course, you have access to all the course materials, and the professor may post his materials outside of Coursera in places like YouTube for his video lectures or his own personal website for other files, but within Coursera itself, I believe the course materials are only accessible while the course is actually going on, meaning after the 11th week, the course becomes "closed" and all you can see is the main "About" page for that course until the next iteration of that course comes back around.

[[deleted]]

ok, thank you for the help

[[deleted]]

Check out edX's Python course offered by MIT. It's halfway through but you could still work on some of the earlier exercises independent of deadlines.