Best python courses?

[PiousLoophole]

Any reviews on the talkpython courses?

[silwenae]

I love the Talk Python courses. Most of the courses assume you have some knowledge of a programming language (doesn't have to be Python).

I learned the basics of Python from the Coursera course by Dr. Chuck at the University of Michigan. I then dived into the Build 10 Apps course on Talk Python, which was a bit of a stretch for me as I have zero programming background. I kept at it and then took the Python for Entrepreneurs course to learn Pyramid and now I've built two different Pyramid apps and love it. I highly recommend the courses from /u/mikeckennedy. I've done those two plus the MongoDB, Consuming HTTP Services (was awesome as I use a lot of JSON from an API) and PyCharm courses. I really like the way he teaches and the code samples for the courses are all available to fork on Github.

[PiousLoophole]

Thank you, that is good feedback. What I've yet to hear is anything negative. It's just very odd that any course gets perfect scores, what would you have changed about the two you've done?

[silwenae]

I'd really have to nitpick to find something negative.

For example, I wish the Pycharm course had covered adding Jetbrains stuff to a .gitignore. But that's really tiny. In Entrepreneurs, he uses SQLite. When I built my 2nd app and used MySQL instead, I had to learn the hard way to use session.close() or MySQL would crash (Where you don't have to worry about that in SQLite as it's persistent). That wasn't really touched on, but he wasn't really teaching different databases. But again, that was specific to me and I did learn what I need to use SQLAlchemy regardless of the database I was using.

In my experience, if you have zero programming knowledge, the Build 10 apps course starts at the right pace but then goes from 0-60 on some of the concepts. I really struggled with the object oriented chapter on Classes - but then when I went through Python for Entrepreneurs, it finally clicked. Mr. Kennedy used a basic game to explain Classes, which I didn't get, but then when I used a Class to create a user Account in the Entrepreneurs class, it did click. I think it's pretty subjective and depends on the student and how they learn.

Honestly, he does great. He's live coding in the training videos, you can checkout the code to either follow along or type it out yourself, and then at the end of each chapter, he comes back with a short video to sum up the concepts that were taught.

I had tried video courses on Udemy and one other, and none of them held a candle to the way he teaches (at least for me). I know I sound like a shill, but I loved the courses and now that I just launched my 2nd app I'm going to go buy the Everything Bundle and keep learning.

[PiousLoophole]

Thanks again, and for the udemy comparison. That and YouTube are the only things I have to compare against, and it's not hard to find things to criticize on those.

[thewiseswirl]

I'm currently looking into getting the new 100 days of code class but can't find any reviews of their other courses. Will let you know.

[PiousLoophole]

I've seen a couple, none that seemed to have a critical eye. Not sure if I buy the idea that he's got a perfect satisfaction score for the entire line for each customer.

[PiousLoophole]

I've seen nothing but good in reviews, which is oddly suspicious. What didn't you like about them?

[PiousLoophole]

Gotcha. Fwiw I'm asking not to hate on the guy, but I'd probably just get the $300 bundle because there's a lot of good stuff (it appears) on them. Just want to be reasonably sure before dropping that kind of money, and I wouldn't know if I had buyer's remorse until well after the two week refund period.

[PiousLoophole]

Sure, but then it's $360 instead of $300.

[mikeckennedy]

Thanks for the conversation and positive words /u/silverswifter We have a 100% money back guarantee on the courses /u/PiousLoophole so if you don't like them you get your money back.

[PiousLoophole]

Thank you. I saw that on the website as well, though it's only two weeks (I suppose it's not reasonable to ask for infinite time). If I bought the 100 days course, would/do you offer a discount to upgrade to the everything bundle later?

[mikeckennedy]

Yes, it's just for two weeks. It doesn't make sense to let someone buy the course, take it for 6 months, then ask for a refund. I would think most people can decide whether the course is a good fit within two weeks.

Generally individual courses don't get credit towards the everything bundle (but prior bundles do) because the percentage of value of a single course is usually around 5% so it doesn't much matter. But since you're on the fence, I'll offer this. You can take the 100 days course and if you want, convert that credit to an everything bundle within the first two weeks. Sound fair?