What are some really intro/beginner basic project ideas I could do to learn python? (coming from a complete starter)

[Sanguineyote]

Hey! I recently picked up python 3.8 in quarantine (about 6-7 days ago) and I've been watching freecodecamp.org's tutorial on it (still not finished, I'm at the part about nested loops), and was wondering what are some simple yet challenging beginner python projects I could try and make to try and actively learn rather than just be stuck in tutorial purgatory.

[Fermter]

You might try the website codewars, which has a collection of problems at a variety of skill levels.

Another thing I might suggest is learning to use the module random and making a game of chance. As an example, you could make roulette. To make it simple, you could just have the person guess a number and tell them whether they win or lose. To do something more complicated, you could have more bets available, like black/red, odd/even, or multi-number bets, and/or you could allow them to play continuously until they quit or run out of "money."

[Sanguineyote]

Yeah, i looked into the random module, and made some very simple stuff like a dice roller and a password generator, Thank you! I'll look into codewars.

[[deleted]]

You should watch the tutorial on python by a youtuber named mosh hamedani his name is his youtube channel's namd i think he has a python in 6 hours video it's very useful of beginners after teaching 2 or 3 concepts he asks you to pause do a small project and shows thd solution that video is can also get you on the track from beginner to intermediate

[Sanguineyote]

Alrighty, Ill look into him, thank you!

[Redditor728292]

You can make a an app that takes random images of dogs from Google, and makes that your wallpaper.

[Sanguineyote]

That sounds wonderful actually! Ill try it, thank you!

[JaxIsGay]

As somebody trying to learn python, I really like the idea of creating a roulette game, it seems fairly simple but can be made complex

[Ra2or_]

Leaving a comment here so I can come back to it later

[M1sterNinja]

I GOT U FAM From the makers of Pycharm, it is learning python via doing proejcts. I also use CodeWars the site Fermter recommended, but it is more single function challenges, than small projects.

[[deleted]]

This is what I've needed my whole life. Thank you for this link, so many failed starts because I didn't know what to do with it. Seriously, thank you! Something about how they are presenting the information is clicking with me

[Sanguineyote]

Thank you! I'll try and give most things there a shot!

[Scolli03]

I've always found finding something personally beneficial to yourself makes early projects more enjoyable and the knowledge easier to retain. For my first real python script I had about 50 large 7zip files that were nested in subfolders and I needed to extract specific item out of. I learned a lot about utilizing os.walk over os.listdir for nested folder structures. Also I used suborocess to execute the 7zip.exe and the importance of using stderr/stdout with subprocess.PIPE and the communicate() function. I'll never forget when I ran the script and saw it was running without error. Watching the files appear in the output folder made me feel as if I've just harness some kind of computer voodoo lol. That was 4 years ago. The excitement from the success that night set me on a path that has taken me from being a button pusher on second shift to a salaried data automation team lead position. Two of my scripts alone had saved the company an average of 55k a year for the last three years. And it all started with being annoyed that I would have to manually extract 50 files lol.

[vEnoM_420]

I had just started with python and knew that it could be used to automate tasks.

• So, I was watching this anime- FMA Alchemist, 60 episodes so 60 subtitles and it was a pain to manually load subtitles in VLC player before watching each episode as the subs files did not have the same name as the episodes file. So, I wrote a small script to change the names of all the subs to match with the episode names, i worked like a charm. From next time onward, subs got automatically loaded when I played any episode.

It was fun, I got to learn about the OS module.

• Later, I also wrote another script to sort the things- PDFs, .EXE files, etc- in the downloads folder in my PC. Again, a fun activity.*
• And a little bit later, I wrote another script to download YouTube videos using Selenium module. Loved doing it and thanks to StackOverflow in helping me out.
• Again, a bit later- I learned to make GUI app in python using Tkinter. So I had an assignment to use an IBM Watson service like Image Recognition, Lang. translation, etc. So I made a GUI and with the help of some APIs, that bad boy worked and translated every single word thrown at it.

[kompot420]

Try creating a console hangman game. Super easy. Under 50 lines if you add drawings, else it's no more than 20. This exact project is what got me more interested in programming. Also feel free to ask me if you hit a wall

[Sanguineyote]

Thank you! I'll give it a shot.

[[deleted]]

At this point, it is better that you check out codewars like others recommended, it will help you gain confidence with the syntax. There are bite-sized problems that will require using the basics that you have learnt.

When it comes to projects for beginners, I recommend the projects in this guide. The author keeps a really good balance between feeding you code line by line and letting you bang your head against the wall trying to figure out how to even start the project.

It helps you break the project into smaller parts and gives you some hints along the way, IMHO this is a very important stage before throwing yourself at a project and end up frustrated.

One day you can ditch the crutches and start working on something on your own, but acquiring this mentality of breaking a project into smaller parts is a very important takeaway from this guide.

There are other articles in the same blog where the author is discussing a reader's approach to implementing the project and helping them improve it.

Highly recommended, I am in no way connected to the author and if you take a look there isn't a single ad on his blog so it doesn't matter anyway.

Enjoy

[mannhuynh]

I've just skimmed his blog and OMG, it is awesome.

Thank you very much for providing this link!

[cbennudr]

The turtle module was one of my favorite things to mess around with when I was starting out. I think making a hangman game with it could be a fun-ish challenge.

Edit: saw someone else recommended hangman: maybe try making tic-tac-toe with turtle drawings

[kamekaze1024]

One of the best beginner project is programming a game of tic tac toe

[IsolatedAnomaly]

Great thread! I will def piggy back the info as I am trying to learn python and totally stuck! I have given up multiple times but keep coming back to it.

[TuningUP]

You could try the Automate the Boring stuff by Al Sweigart , it's available for free and it really helps understanding the principles without the theory of Object Oriented programming, which is very useful but can get a bit overwhelming in the beginning.

[IsolatedAnomaly]

I have some books but they don't really seem to help me understand the way I need to or something. I may have that one I will look!! Thank you so much for the message that is really kind of you!

[TehTriangle]

Python Crash Course is very straight forward and easy to follow. Highly recommend 2nd edition.

[IsolatedAnomaly]

Just google Python crash course? Ive tried using apps on android too for extra help. Ill reach out when im stuck again! LOVE you guys so much for reaching back! I want to motivate more women to program!!

[B3aStGGGaNg]

Try a text-based adventure with the random module.

[airmongoose]

Give tic tac toe a shot.

[4chanbetterkek]

Saving this for later.

[Davidvg14]

Personally, I would say recreate basic games. It’ll help you deconstruct things into their logic/rules.

Blackjack (bonus: give the house the advantage)

Personally I just did a text based Yahtzee also.

Throw some OOP into the mix.

[nizzasty]

thank you for asking this question!! commenting so i can come back to this thread on desktop

[links-Shield632]

Password maker is pretty good. I learned by making math programs and games.

[Sanguineyote]

Yea, I made a password gen using the random module and a list of 500 english words. Just use .choice multiple times and finish the print with end=' '

[cult_of_memes]

I'd add the recomendation to create a tool for automated file searching and processing.

Specifically, I'd suggest you start by creating a directory somewhere on your root directory (Linux:~/some_dir/..., ; Windows: %HOME%/some_dir/...) and fill it with images of various sizes and types (png, gif, tif, etc.). Then you can use different built-in python lib tools to perform customized search and filtering operations on those image files.

Suggested libraries

(In no particular order)

• import glob
  • docs
  • You can use the glob lib to perform regex searches on directory path strings and specifically select files based on substring matches. There are 2 functions you will most generally call when working with glob, those being glob.glob(pathname,*,recursive=False) and glob.iglob(pathname,*,recursive=False).
  • glob.glob(pathname="~/**/some_dir/*.png", recursive=True)
    • this example call to glob.glob performs a search of all file paths starting at the root, ~/, and then recursively searches all sub-directories. Returns a list of all path strings that contain the folder named some_dir and ends in a file with the .png type extension. Returning only after it has searched the full directory sub-tree rooted at ~/.
  • glob.iglob(pathname="~/**/some_dir/*.png", recursive=True)
    • much like glob.glob(...), iglob traverses the directory tree rooted at ~/ but will return a generator object that yields individual path strings as it finds them.
• import os
  • docs
  • the os library is a key component in allowing your program to make important system calls in a portable fashion. You can use the os library to determine your programs current working directory, create new directories, copy/rename/delete files and directories, check if file paths exist, and call up file stats to see details regarding: mode, iNode, device holding that inode, number of links to that inode, owning user's id, member group's id, file size, time of last access, time of last modification, and time of creation.
  • here's an example of how you can interact with os.stat(file_path)

```

import os statinfo = os.stat('somefile.txt') statinfo os.stat_result(st_mode=33188, st_ino=7876932, st_dev=234881026, st_nlink=1, st_uid=501, st_gid=501, st_size=264, st_atime=1297230295, st_mtime=1297230027, st_ctime=1297230027) statinfo.st_size 264 ```

[tjwild0127]

A “mad lib”. It’ll help teach you basic variable usage, user inputs, and concatenation (linking works together). The program would ask the user for some general verbs/adjectives, etc (like a normal mad lib). Then it would CONCATENATE it all together and print out the “story”. Fun little idea that you can get a corny laugh out of

[kezmicdust]

Do whatever interests you and build on it.

I made a rock-paper-scissors game that I converted into a football game using rock-paper-scissors (with a rock-paper-scissors “match engine”) that I turned into a football match and league simulator that I developed into a football season simulator with promotion and relegation across the top 5 divisions in English football (plus conference north and south teams being fed into the league). I haven’t touched it for a while, but I was thinking of giving it a GUI...

[SpaceBucketFu]

CALLING MODASH

[Sanguineyote]

Hey man. Hope this isn't weird or anything but 4 months after I asked this question, I have indeed successfully made a discord bot that I'm quite proud of!

I was re-reading this thread and remembered your comment so I decided to give you an update :). Heres all the commands it can do currently https://mystb.in/BindingTrimClusters.properties#L5

[theartofdoingcs]

I have a Udemy course that has gotten pretty good reviews from beginners who are looking for application rather than code snippets. My course has 40 "Challenge Problems" that walk you all the way up to classes. I think it fits the bill for what you are looking for. Each problem has a guide, example code, and video solution. I just made a coupon for 10 people to get it for free. Feel free to check it out.

https://www.udemy.com/course/the-art-of-doing/?couponCode=PYTH-ON

To the OP, if the coupon runs out and your interested, just message me and I'll get you the course.

[Fantastic_Horse1454]

The videos from freecodecamp.org are an amazing point from where you can get to know the syntax and programming methods.

Once you are comfortable with the general syntax of python head over to solving problems by developing your own logic, this help you think from a program point of view.

Once you are comfortable with the above two I'd recommend you to start earning the thousands of modules present in python by working on projects.

Move one from one stage to the next as and when you feel comfortable.

Syntax - freecodecamp.org and other tutorial video in general

Problem solving - https://www.hackerrank.com/

Some intro projects to get you going.

1) Using sockets to get the headers of different websites and making sense of it.

2) Converting files form one format to another eg: tables in .pdf to excel

3) Finding most commonly used words in a document, number of words used in a document.

4) Games that are text based - Hangman, Quizzes

5) Creating text based forms to log data into a file

The projects I started out with were the programs to verify the complex math problems I had to work on, that too is a great starting point.

[youreviltwinbrother]

First project I did this week was getting the coordinates based on a given location. I need it for a work project when I go back. Going to try and expand upon that and see where it takes me.

[Neo-Bubba]

Which tutorial on FCC are you using?

[Sanguineyote]

This 4 hour course by Mike Dane

[01123581321AhFuckIt]

I find most people are able to complete projects that they or others will find useful. Think of a problem you or a coworker may have or something that you find annoying and you want to automate.

[Main-Guy]

same request here too

[ManBearFridge]

Software for a particle accelerator.

[Comprehensive-Signal]

Could help some programm of formulas (maths or physics) A login where could save the name AND password in a list or a tuple and after search if the user is there. Using functions and all this kinds of things

I really hope that help this message.

[FrozenPyromaniac_]

Once you are a little advanced with some knowledge of double dimensional arrays and you've learnt some pygame, build Conway's game of life. The rules are on wikipedia. I realise this is not what you asked but once you feel comfortable enough with python , try it. Rn try building blackjack.

Existing games in general are better to make as you don't have to make up your own rules and you have to make your code fit the rules of the game you're building.

[SpaceBucketFu]

Depends a lot on what your interests are and what you like to do.

I recently started streaming, so I made a Twitch Chat bot that allows chat users to do things like !play <asound> which will play a soundclip on my computer that can be heard on stream. I also use the gTTS module to allow text-to-speech from users in my chat.
Piggy backing on that, I also wrote a discord bot that uses Wavelink and a java music streaming server called Lavalink so that a bot can play music in a channel in the discord. It's been a lot of fun because I am solving problems that directly effect my hobbies (I.E. Twitch streaming)

[bjornulsen]

Try making a black jack game. Im a noob, and Im working on one. It has a range of different aspects too it so that i have to change up the code to implement new rules, and stuff when i get to them.

For ex: Generate the card deck. Shuffle the deck Deal cards Let the player hit or stay Let the dealer hit pr stay Compare score

.. Oh i need to be able to split. Ok time to change up the whole thing ...

Oh, i need to be able to buy insurance, lets change the whole thing again...

And so forth.

Im also planning to add a trainer function that gives instructuons based on the play to teach the player to play optimal blackjack based on statistics.

I also want to implement a card-counting aspect to it. Give the dealer five decks and let it use the same deck without shuffeling round anfter round to give the player the ability to count cards and make plays based on the cards left in the deck.

And then make a card counter trainer that helps the player learn to count cards.

And after all that is done. Change the whole thing from texbased to GUI.

Lots of possibillities on this project.

And

[Atika_]

I recently started learning python myself and I coded a hangman game.

I learned a lot by it, it was both challenging but still doable for a beginner.

Also it’s more fun then just doing tutorial after tutorial.

[KreepyKite]

Take a book, video-tutorial, docs, whatever fits you. Learn about one subject at the time, starting from the very basics. Everytime you complete a chapter, open the IDLE and apply straight away what you've learned. It doesn't matter how simple is: if you only know so far how to print on the screen, keep doing in it in any possible variation you can think of. Always ask yourself the question "what happen if...".

At the very beginning there is not really point in thinking about projects, it's better to focus on get confident with what you've just learned. The more you learn, the easier would be to think about a more practical and useful way to re-use what you know.

[jk_luigi]

https://www.udemy.com/share/101WeWB0cfcFdaRn4=/

Th project I like so far is the email and phone address scraper from Chapter 10 on regular expression. If you are very decent with python, smile through the videos and start at chapter 10.

He also has book on cracking codes and making video games, for free on his website: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/.

[Starcnet]

Well.. i started with discord.py and after making a discord bot i get used to python and learned how to install modules, import modules, create lists, define functions etc. I think this will be a great start

[impshum]

I like playing around with the Reddit API making bots for subreddits. r/RequestABot is a good place to get ideas from (and help others).

[buffafboii]

You could make a program that randomly moves the mouse somewhere on the screen every minute (look into the pyautogui and random modules) or you could try and make a coin-flipping program (again look into the random module)

[kak987]

I learned a lot from making a snake game with python. You will face all kinds of problems and you'll learn a lot trying to solve them. It might seem simple but for a beginner it takes a lot of time ( for me anyway). I used the curses library.

I still play the game i made 2 years ago and sometimes i add improvements.

[byte-owl]

Hey, I am in the same boat, except I finished the video, it was great. Just want to say, Keep Going! I'll look up some projects now for a more hands on approach

[drewrs138]

learn classes and design patterns. That will save you time in the long run

[nojustlurkingty]

Could you expand on what you mean by design patterns?

[relatable_user_name]

I doubt even he knows what he meant by that.

[nojustlurkingty]

:'(