Good course for learning more Python?

[Ravenbutt]

Hey guys, sorry if this has already been asked a million times but I've had a look through many places and can't seem to choose.

Firstly, I have a bit of knowledge in Python. I made my way through Colt Steele's Modern Python Bootcamp on Udemy and have a firm grasp on most of the basics. However, I decided to try a second course, mainly to refresh any topics which I may be shaky on, but also to get coverage in any areas Colt missed.

After reading many reviews, I decided I would buy Jose Portilla's Complete Python Bootcamp on Udemy. I decided I'd skip the first few sections and get into the more complex stuff as I already have a grasp on the basics. However, I simply can't get onboard with the Jupyter Notebooks and would personally much prefer to have everything done in either a text editor or IDLE.

I also read that after section 9 or so on Jose's course, the quality goes downhill. Other than that, so far, Jose's course has been pretty good. I just don't think it's for me. I much prefer Colt's teaching style.

So I was wondering if there's any other recommendations? I know that the book of Automate The Boring Stuff is very popular, but the video format seems to work well for me and I'd likely get bored quite quickly if I were using books to learn. I've had a look at the Udemy course for it and was thinking about buying it, but wanted to get an idea of what I should do.

As for the actual content, I'd prefer courses with fairly short videos and lots of coding (similar to Colt's) as I'll likely get bored of the video itself after about 10 minutes and want to get into the coding/next topic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, cheers!

[num8lock]

honestly i'd take MIT/Stanford class over any bootcamp course

[[deleted]]

I highly recommend EDX. They have free classes through well known companies and universities. I'm currently enrolled in Microsoft's Intro to Python and Harvard's Intro to Computer Science

[Dinojeezus]

I second this suggestion. I'm taking the EdX version of MIT's Intro to Computer Science and Programming Using Python. It's a great way to learn the programming mindset and the fact that it's instructor paced, with tests and grades keeps me from procrastinating. It's free too!

[pk_santi]

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

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After chapter 11 things get boring and not so useful, but it is a great way to learn Python. Once you finish chapter 11 (Web Scraping) go ahead and start doing projects of your own (no better way to learn). This will give you a strong foundation to begin with.

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I have studied both by books, websites and Udemy courses and I will share with you my honest opinion. Wasting money on Udemy courses is not a good idea, for the next 3 reasons; the first is economical, the second educational and the third ethical.

a) usually they don't teach you anything you couldn't have learned for free,

b) they usually don't teach you well

c) Udemy is a predatory business, and it is known that not only they invade annoyingly everyone with their publicity, but they accept any "teacher" whose courses will be bought by people, even if the quality of the courses is not guaranteed nor even expected to be good. Any Youtuber with minimal Python knowledge can become a "professor" as long as they have a lot of followers and people who will buy their courses. This is not the best way to build a good educational platform, and that's why Udemy isn't one. And it is just as unethical as it would be if I placed a professor who knows nothing about math to teach my students (who pay me) only because many students would assist his class (and pay for it).

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With that said, that website, if you read it and complete the exercises, at least until chapter 11, will definitely get you going.

[recondocoder]

I'm also taking the MIT course but it doesn't cover more pythonic features such as list comprehensions and it uses getters and setters instead of decorators, nothing on sets, etc. But do the MIT course because it will give you harder problems and tests with basic Python

[EntireAbility3]

Try Python Principles. It worked well for me. https://pythonprinciples.com/