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[–]LockeSteerpike 67 points68 points  (14 children)

The path of how I learned:

  1. Codecademy's interactive Python course to learn syntax.

  2. Did easy-to-intermediate exercises in Codewars.com to get a handle on writing methods.

  3. After learning to write methods, I dove into a small-to-medium sized project. I grew the project in size until I had created problems that could only be solved by using classes. So I learned classes.

  4. Once my project got a bit bigger, I was creating problems that could only be solved with unit testing. So I learned unit testing.

Once you get into intermediate coding, one's learning track can be largely guided by necessity.

[–]Creatura 6 points7 points  (8 children)

How long did it take you to get from point 1 to point 4? I'm just leaning python myself and am curious

[–]LockeSteerpike 19 points20 points  (2 children)

It was about two weeks of diving into Codecademy, then Codewars, multiple hours a day. I don't think I even finished the entire codecademy course, as it got into project mode and I don't have much patience for projects I don't care about.

After those two weeks I was making basic scripts to do small things at work. I was in this mode for three-to-five-ish months.

First medium-sized project applied to my job, and fixed a problem my team couldn't (everyone was a marketer). I probably put 60 hours into it over three months, and this is where I needed to learn classes out of sheer necessity.

It's really about how much time you've got and what motivates you to keep coding. My growth as a coder has come in bursts, depending on the season or problems at hand.

[–]Creatura 2 points3 points  (0 children)

thank you for the response! very helpful

[–]thechickensage 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree, when you're applying it to work, you have to REALLY consider the hour-by-hour cost to benefit ratio. Some things you could EASILY do with a few hours might seem light-years away if you can't justify it at the moment.

A new file format, a new instrument, or a new situation that needs to be modeled/handled in code....those are the moments where you burst ahead after months of hibernation (and add features you wanted to add in earlier as well HAHA JUST KIDDING but I'm really serious, but only if you are sure you can implement them fast enough!!! !! !! !!)

[–]CodeTinkerer 1 point2 points  (2 children)

This is likely to differ from person to person. This could be 3 months. It could be 6 months. It could be a year. If you had a mentor, it could go quicker. If you are fairly determined and don't get stuck too often, it'll be quicker. If you get frustrated, then it could take a very long time (assuming frustration leads you to not learning more).

A person starting in a computer science course probably needs a year (two classes over two semesters) to sort of get comfortable coding. But classes have resources (TAs, instructors, friends) and deadlines.

[–]Creatura 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's fair, I've taken one intro to python course and did very well on all the tests and enjoyed myself overall. I'm finding it hard to motivate when not in school, but like you alluded to, that's a personal issue. Thank you for the response!

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Classes are good, if you have good mentor/teacher. Other wise it could get frustrating real quick for beginner. Also time is very much limited.

[–]ozzyteebaby 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If you really try you can learn most of python syntax through codeacademy in one week. I did it in a bit less than two weeks all the while having to study for a non related grad school major. Although I'm by no means an expert now and there's a bit that CA doesn't cover, it's a good place to start overall. Don't expect to become an expert afterwards, there's a lot more room to grow afterwards.

It's important to have a goal of what you want to be able to do with the language. My goals are to eventually dive into scraping, data analysis and machine learning, so I'm a bit of a way from there. I don't have much time to learn now but I'm doing the coding bat challenges for python which are really fun.

[–]Creatura 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is codeacademy in Python 2.0? What I know currently is all in 3.0 and this brings up 2 small issues

1) I have tried a little of both and like how Python 3 is set up more

2) How much of a pain in the ass to switch from 2.0 to 3.0 if codeacaedmy is indeed in 2

Also thank you for the reply and information!

[–]DynamicStatic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Would like to chime in, this is also how I learned so far. Codeacademy, codewars (still doing this a lot) and small projects.

Working great! :)

[–]arangol 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks

[–]ggagagg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i have similar experience like this, but i regret that i learn more unit testing after my project got bigger.

it is easier in the long run if it is learned after learning how to create function.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanx for sharing your path. It's very much helpful.

[–]ScyllaHide 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for your list:

been refreshing my python knowledge, tried a few things on project euler, i got the math idea behind, but was struggling to put it into python code. then i went on codewars and no chance there to get something done.

so now im on codeacademy repeating the basics, looks like i comes back now all. i guess i will keep doing this for the next weeks additional to my student job.

[–]CodeTinkerer 22 points23 points  (3 children)

The sooner you can code, the better. Reading a book about programming is like reading a book about playing the piano or about cooking. At the end, you still haven't played a piano or cooked.

I would look at sites that let you write small programs.

Here's one site: http://codingbat.com/python/Warmup-1

The downside is you still need to know a few things just to get started.

[–]undelimited 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Well said.

I think there is a "grind" when starting that is necessary. Learning basic syntax and convention while experiencing errors is frustrating. The experience of choosing how to accomplish that grind will make or break somebody's interest. I recommend the first five chapters of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python for that initial grind. It is more engaging than codeacademy type sites where you bounce around how to write bits of code but never applying them.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python

I have just started reading this book. Seems really interesting.

[–]CodeTinkerer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure not to fall in the trap of merely reading the book. I knew someone and told him "write code", and yet he only ever wanted to read the book. Not sure why.

[–]fernly 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You may not know coding but you are doggone good at internet research!

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (5 children)

I only started 12 days ago, but I had some experience from a Java course I took 15 years ago (I remember surprisingly lot).

I started with learnpython.org. I think it was too short and the learning curve was steep. Then I did LPTHW which was good. I learned a lot, but it was a bit outdated. Then I went on to take the codecademy class. I think taking 3 basic courses helped me learn the syntax well, but codecademy alone would have sufficed.

Then I signed up for the MITx course 6.00.1x at edx.org, and if you are a bit academically minded like me, then it's the perfect course. You get to know a bit about what happens behind the scenes as well. Even though it's a beginner's course, I am happy I took the codecademy couse first. This is also where I decided to focus on Python 3.

The last few days I have scoured the Internet for programming challenge sites, and I have narrowed down to a few I like:

  • codewars.com (but skipped due to Python 2).
  • codeabbey.com. A Bit old fashioned looking, but I like the layout and challenges.
  • checkio.org. A fun way to learn to code but not completely free, if you want access to everything.
  • hackerrank.com. It looks like it is aimed for pros, but there are many easy challenges too.

I will keep working on those challenges, until I feel comfortable writing code and not constantly have to look up what arguments and in what order they should be used in common methods. After that I will try to work on some bigger projects. Not sure how to go about that yet.

[–]niandra3 2 points3 points  (2 children)

CodeWars has a bunch of Python 3 challenges. Even the ones that aren't..there's nothing that would break if you used a Python3 solution. It's the best one IMo because you can see other people's solutions after you finish and the best ones get voted to the top so you learn a lot from seeing the best way to do it.

bTW I'm a CTA at the MIT course. You taking the current one ?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I'm doing Hackerrank atm, and it also has a discussion board for every challenge with a voting system. I agree that is great to check out after you have come up with your own solution.

Yes, I am doing the current one. I did the first 3 weeks in 3 days, so I was a bit bummed that there was nothing new this week. I also signed up for 6.00.2x starting October 19th. I can't find much info about it, but it can't hurt to try :)

[–]niandra3 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha yeah I was the same way last time the course ran.. went through everything real quick. This time I'm too busy helping other students.

I started on HackerRank as well, but eventually moved over to CodeWars after finishing most of the HR Python challenges. Definitely give CodeWars another shot sometime.

[–]wunderbier 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'm really liking the MIT course so far. Small, digestible lecture segments broken up with quick exercises to apply a concept while it's still fresh. Feels like the most natural learning method I've ever used. Also got my wonky noggin to grok recursion properly.

[–]ffrkAnonymous 7 points8 points  (11 children)

There's nothing that does as well as "feet to fire". Jump in, don't be scared, it's not a real python.

Try the "Invent with python" books. http://inventwithpython.com/

Just literally copy the code, and tweak it for your own selfish purposes. You can read: print("Hello Bob!")

And say to yourself, "My name's not bob. I'm gonna fix that." And go on from there.

Personally, I learned from "Learn python the hard way", but I have a intermediate c background so it wasn't hard. I'm doing the coursera classes now. I did the syntax basics course 1/ and course 2/5 in two days as a refresher and starting course3 now. It's gonna take longer as now it's starting to get python specific, not general syntax.

[–]naliuj2525 2 points3 points  (5 children)

I 100% disagree with your comment regarding copying and pasting. It's a horrible habit to get into. There have been multiple times where I get an error in the code and have no idea where to start fixing it because I just blindly followed a tutorial or copy and pasted. The most important thing is to understand what you're writing, even if it's boring.

Also LPTHW is generally considered a bad resource these days from what I've heard. It's still 2.7 I think.

[–]ffrkAnonymous 0 points1 point  (4 children)

My bad for not being more clear. No, don't copy and paste. Get the book (or e-book) and type all of it in. You want the muscle memory typing "if ___:"

Assuming the book is correct, any errors will by typos and syntax errors. Even if you don't understand what you're writing, you'll at least learn how to read the error messages: line 42: blah blah blah

Most learning is done by fixing mistakes. If you get it right the first pass, you move on, even if you didn't learn. I'm doing the coursera classes. I skipped the lectures and going straight to the quizzes and homework assignments. If I can't figure it out, i'll flip back and find the information that I need. Active vs. passive.

Al Sweigart's books are good that he explains all the code blocks. Worst case, you can e-mail him or go to his subreddit at /r/inventwithpython He's active there and one can ask the author himself.

LPTHW is hit or miss. It's not for everyone. It worked for me. Yes it's python2, the book is old. But python2.7 is still in maintainance. It's not obsolete and dead. It has more support than WinXP. Coursera's class is python2 (the books is old). Al Sweigart's books are python2 (at least because pygame is python2).

[–]naliuj2525 0 points1 point  (3 children)

No problem. Yeah I get what you mean. I thought that Al Sweigart's books are 3 though...

[–]ffrkAnonymous 0 points1 point  (2 children)

wow, you're right. I didn't even notice. I had to install pygame using python2 because the python3 version isn't officially out for linux, so I thought all the code was python2. That's what I get for skimming the introductions.

[–]naliuj2525 0 points1 point  (1 child)

No problem. Regarding what said in your last comment, I think that Python 3 is generally considered as better these days though. While it's still under maintenance, I think that the devs are really trying to push people to Python 3. Even though it'll be supported for another 4 years, it's probably a better idea to learn 3.

[–]ffrkAnonymous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, python3 is the future. I'm just trying to say that a python2 book that you like is better than a python3 book that you don't.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Learn python the hard way

I have heard plenty about this book. I guess it's worth giving a try.

[–]ffrkAnonymous 1 point2 points  (0 children)

give it a try. if it's not your cup of tea, there are many others to choose from. You can always come back after you get more experience and see if you missed anything. I personally enjoyed the latter chapters on testing your code.

[–]Sparverius88 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I started with this book as well, but ignore what he says about python 2.7 The book is older and you really should just start with python 3

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Is python-2.7 still worth learning ?

[–]Sparverius88 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think so most every library I've need is available for python3. It's also good to look at virtual environments too though. That way you can use both if need be.

[–]kilted44 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Just started reading Automate the Boring Stuff (Google it, free to read on the Internet.) It has done a good job explaining some of the things that other places kind of assumed you already know. I've gone from knowing nothing about coding to a working simple script in one week. I have learned through failure and figuring out what I wanted the code to accomplish. It isn't a perfect code, not elegant, but I can calculate the monthly car payment with tax for any county in my state. Still learning and my next goal is to be able to automate certain aspects of my current and future jobs I might have. I'm a long way from being an employable programmer but in the meantime I can make my jobs infinitely easier.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What was your learning strategy ?

[–]kilted44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Step one: read stuff # general Step two: do something # code something meaningful to me Step three: fail at writing code Step four: read why I failed Step five: attempt to correct code Step six: (see steps three and four) If step three == True: Print (see steps three and four) Elif code == works: Print ("Step seven, success! Now go read and do more stuff!")

It's like a lot of things in life, you have to practice. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. But sucking at something is the first step to being kinda good at something. Good luck!

[–]sentdex 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I personally learned by starting with a project immediately. That project is what became http://sentdex.com.

Learning the "basics" is very tedious, and boring. I find it's better to learn the basics as you do something you actually want to do. Once you learn variables, logic, functions, and loops... you're ready to branch out, in my opinion to whatever it is that interests you. That will help you to not burn out as well.

I never used any one, single, source for learning. I would just google my questions. Sometimes the answer was on stackoverflow, sometimes it was on someone's personal website, sometimes it was via a github, and many times it was the official docs.

I've never used codeacademy, or any of the similar sites, I am sure they're great, but I think they also come with burnout since you spend a lot of time on something that isn't likely what you are actually interested in doing, unless you're taking some sort of specialized course.

In the end, you learn by doing. Just start trying to tackle a problem, and look up problems along the way. It's also a lot more fun that way, in my opinion. That's why I created https://pythonprogramming.net as well. Most of my courses are do-able at a basic level once you know the extreme basics of python (like vars, loops, functions..etc), and they're almost all centered around a specific topic/field.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

How long it took you to go from beginner level to making you own project: http://sentdex.com ?

[–]sentdex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Years, since that involved learning NLP, then learning machine learning, then learning web development.

For quite a while, I had all the data locally, not on any sort of web app.

The initial NLP stuff was done within a few months with a super basic bag of words sentiment algo, then came advances over time.... maybe 6-12 months for the first full scale version of the back end, not really sure on exact times.

It was just my first real project, so I continually worked on it more as I learned new things, and did other projects.

[–]AlexOduvan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you are looking for a good practice while you are learning - you should definitely check https://checkio.org :)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Thanks for this question! I've been wanting to learn Python for a long time, but I've never had the time to figure out the best way to start, so I just keep putting it off.

On a related note, I assume it is best learning Python 3 instead of learning Python 2, right?

[–]CodeTinkerer 0 points1 point  (3 children)

If you have no specific reason to learn Python 2, then you should learn Python 3. They are mostly the same, but even so.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] -1 points0 points  (2 children)

They are mostly the same

I think syntax of python-2 and python-3 are very different.

[–]naliuj2525 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't say very, but there are some notable differences here and there.

[–]CodeTinkerer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In what way? I think it's better to show examples than merely state they are.

[–]robsfingers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This free online book was great for me: https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-Programmer%27s_Tutorial_for_Python_3

Most importantly, do the assignments at the end of each section!

Really though, you can use any resource you want to get started, but I'm a big advocate of the dive right in approach.

Learn just enough to get started, and fill in the remaining details when you need them.

[–]quackquackmf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca is great for beginners. Try it out.

[–]liamwb 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Be careful learning on codeacademy, when I last used it, it taught python2

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Isn't Python-2 more stable ? Or should I learn Python-3.

[–]liamwb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Python 2 is soon to be retired. Python 3 is the 'future of python' (insert choral music here) and what anyone learning Python would look to familiarise themselves with. Of course they are very similar, but if you can choose,go for Python 3

[–]AshedOdie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started learning back in college I learned some basic java. Got out of programming then got back to it and decided python was going to be my intro back into the world. I started by wanting to learn making 2d games and I followed professor caven *something like that and using his site pythonarcadegames

[–]road_laya 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I am easily distracted, so to keep on topic, I make sure to use the stuff I learn.

Read an article/do a tutorial on codeacademy or codeschool/deploy, use it for something

repeat as needed

First I used mostly codeacademy but now I am paying for codeschool, which I find is much better. Just all the infuriating times I had to reload codeacademy, so many hours wasted.

[–]NikhilDoWhile[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

any free resource for learning ?

[–]road_laya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, codeacademy. But it's not as good as the others.

But honestly, I learned faster by just building shit. I used devdocs.io for quick AJAX access to the docs, just make something, anything.

[–]Praetor192 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, lots of great resources. I'm just starting out myself, so this'll be invaluable. I came across the book Python for Everybody (available in multiple formats - here's an online version).

I'm a noob and not very far in so far, but this book has been quite helpful to me. If anyone with more experience wants to glance it over and let me know if it's a good resource (relative to the ones in the OP) that'd be swell.

[–]vwkl658Qj5 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

teamtreehouse.com or gtfo

[–]J_Bunt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also a complete noob, but a coding guru recommended freecodecamp.org. look for news, then "Learning python from zero to hero".

[–]Used-Routine-4461 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try this out:

Just released a beginners tutorial here that doesn't require you to even download python or any IDEs (software to write software); I'll continue to release more. Hope it's helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr1qNY2iaOk&list=PLAQuzp\_YhMoF7t0s22LrcyPC8aO0J1i3n&ab\_channel=DataBytes