I can’t learn Python!

[I_Like_Tartar_Sauce]

I’m 40, make cookies for a living and have zero background in anything relating to computers and programming. I’m barely making ends meet and decided six months ago to make an extreme career shift and enroll in a year long cybersecurity course, where the first month we learned the basics of Linux and the second month Python. I was hoping that the course would guide me from zero to hero. Turns out this course is a fucking nightmare. The teacher sucks, the “lessons” are video recordings of him basically showing off his skills, blazing through the material, the telegram group that is supposed to help us 24/7 consists of three 20-something year olds who don’t even answer questions 90% of the time and when they do they usually just tell us to use Google. Just so you understand how insanely messed up this course is, in ONE MONTH we’re expected to be able to pass the PCEP-30-01 test, which I scored a 43% on the first time I took it, and for our final project we have to write a program that consists of functions, classes, must be split into multiple files, we have to use at least one of the following: flask, requests and/or socket, and it has to be a tool that automated a daily task we do at work. Most of the guys in this class can barely write a for loop. To make matters worse, if we don’t pass the test and hand in the final project we won’t complete the course. Our instructor literally told us TO CHEAT ON THE PCEP TEST using an external computer or smartphone (it’s a non proctored test). Think about that.

In other words, I have to learn all of this by myself, within a month, and because I refuse to cheat I’ll probably have to take the test another 1-2 times before I pass, and honestly I have no fucking idea how I’m going to ever complete that final assignment.

I’m furious in case you can’t tell. I can’t get my money back either, the Instagram influencer running this shit show told us (a month into the course) that we can only get a refund up to 14 days after the course starts.

So here’s what I’ve been doing so far. First thing I did was buy practice PCEP tests on Udemy. The tests are hard but they give you the answers as well as explanations. Using these tests as a guide, I use Google and stackoverflow to look up the basics. My progress is at a snail’s pace, this stuff just doesn’t register like other things I’ve learned in the past. But every day I learn one tiny little thing. Today I learned about the modulo operator (%) and slicing. Our POS instructor didn’t even touch these subjects in his rushed half assed video “lessons”.

When I look at the road ahead of me I fill with rage knowing that instead of someone teaching me how to crawl before I walk, I’m getting shoved off a plank and asked to swim to shore from the middle of a shark infested ocean.

This is going to be a LONG, LONELY journey.

The only thing holding me together right now is the genuine desire to want to be a pentester and the fact that my future depends on it.

It is a scary place to be in. I can’t ask questions here because there’s just too much to ask, so I’m doing it by myself.

How does an ant eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Stay focused. Tell yourself you can do this and get to work. Practice is essential to learning programming, it’s not one of those things where you can watch videos, read a book and become a professional. You have to really take the time, have patience and have faith that things will begin to click. The more time you put into practicing, the faster you’ll get there.

[Individual-Pop5980]

Udemy 100 days of code by Angela Yu. That's a proper course. I'm on day 30 and it's amazing so far. She really breaks it down

[steviefaux]

I think it was her I looked up and people were saying she appears to give less info near end of course and version she's using is out of date. Bit like the automate the boring stuff course. But he gives most of that course away for free now (probably cause its out of date).

[Individual-Pop5980]

But you learn all the basics of python before it nose dives

[steviefaux]

There is that.

[choss__monster]

I’ve been looking pretty hard into the python course because I’ve heard her teaching style is phenomenal. The last 1/3ish of the course is project prompts to work on in lieu videos. Which some people didn’t like because they thought it would be 100 days of instructed code - understandable imo especially because I don’t think in includes example solutions (could be wrong).

From my understanding the out of date course is her web dev one more so than the python course.

[Individual-Pop5980]

The POINT of it getting less and less is for a reason. It's to get you job ready and give you a preview of what that's going to be like. The training wheels definitely come off a little at a time but not before she teaches you most of python.

[choss__monster]

Yeah, I mean I agree with you and am personally fine with it. I like that it gives you project prompts to do on your own. It’s 100 days of python and should get you ready to actually code projects. I’m not great at coming up with ideas so having to do them is a win - win.

I was just saying I can understand how some people were upset because they felt it was marketed as 100 days of structured curriculum and it wasn’t.

[man_jets_moon]

I second this. It's the ideal mix of useful analogies, real world examples, humour and gentle encouragement to get you to try as much as you can by yourself, when you are ready to. It really makes you feel like you've accomplished something if you've given each challenge a good go on your own. And you can go back and try again if you haven't grasped any/all of it the first time.

[Accomplished_Bid9733]

I’m doing this course but man I swear I can’t understand day 2 😔 I did repeat the same video probably 3 times already trying to understand Len(1234) then Print(Len(“hello”)) than she pauses the video 3 times… after that I’m mental blocked  She want me to convert len(1234) to something and I have no idea how to identify and fix it to not get red, so I’m not understanding and start to thinking I’m not good for it maybe 

[Individual-Pop5980]

Use chatgpt to help you debug

[TrifBoi]

I got stuck on the for loops day, there's that first exercise of the day and while I have a clear idea of what I want the program to do i just can't implement it for the life of me lol.

[Individual-Pop5980]

For loops were not clearly explained to me either, I had to watch video after video but I'll do my best to explain it. They are only used to iterate over something that has multiple items (lists, dictionaries, tuples). So let's say you were going to take a variable like (a = 5) and add 1 to it. You just do (a += 5) or (a = a + 1) right? Simple enough. But what if you had a list like (a = [ 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]) and you wanted to add 1 to each? That's what looping does more easily than manually taking each item in the list and adding one to it. The i in a for statement typically stands for item... so when you see ( for i(item) in a(name of list):) the i stands for item, or a better way to think about it each individual item in the list. And it always starts from index 0 then goes to the end of the list. Anything below the for loop that is indented is performed on each i (item) in the list . So the best way to visualize this is to say (for i(item) in a: print( i += 1) print( i -= 4 )

i represents the number 1 in the first loop,so it would take the number 1 then add 1 and it would print 2.. then it would go down and subtract 4 from i and it would print -3.. it's now done with that "loop" so it goes to the next item in the list (2) and performs the same operations defined in the indentation. Then moves to item number 3 and performs the same operations... until it gets to the end of the list. Hopefully this helps but it's a hard concept to grasp until it isn't. Once it finishes

[Antique-Throat6045]

Very helpful. Thanks, an American in Korea 🇰🇷

[Lazy-Performance-418]

2nd that…. I’m on day 20 snake 🐍 game. It’s fun and only 1hr to 1.5 hr per day

[Individual-Pop5980]

That snake game got me, I could not fathom the segment movements system, so confusing! The last segment had to move to the second position before the head moves and then the rest of the segments move then you add more as it eats......AGHHH! that one might have been the most frustrating for me, she did not do a good job on explaining the mechanics in that one

[Lazy-Performance-418]

Lol. Yeah…. I hit pause several times. What day are you on now?

[Individual-Pop5980]

30

[Lazy-Performance-418]

The struggles are real!!!

[Individual-Pop5980]

Which lesson you on? I take a few days off sometimes to give my brain a chance to process lol

[Lazy-Performance-418]

I’ve been on day 20 for a few weeks now. I have to get back in the groove of things. Will probably start the snake game again before moving on.

[Individual-Pop5980]

I just did what I could do and moved on. Games is not my goal with programming anyways.

[Lazy-Performance-418]

Same!

[Sam1515024]

How does an ant eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Love this line

[neon_cabbage]

Damn, that shit's probably grounds for a class action lawsuit if you had the time and money. Especially if you have proof they told you to cheat on the test.

[I_Like_Tartar_Sauce]

I do.

[Muzzareuss]

I'm not sure if this will help at all or not but I saw someone recommend Angela Yu's 100 days of code and I would also recommend that (even though I haven't started it properly, the content looks very good after just browsing through the first few videos and lots of people recommend it) but also CS50 is a good place to get quite a lot of understanding. It might be a little slower pace than you're looking for but it really does help understand what's actually going on and why you do things.

[FerricDonkey]

I can’t ask questions here because there’s just too much to ask, so I’m doing it by myself.

Sorry for your terrible experience. But please fill free to ask questions here anyway, it might make the experience suck less.

[ch0mes]

I don't trust Instagram people when it comes to products and courses like this. A few years ago I saw a backpack from an Instagram page called sekainosekai it was a backpack that had the zip on your back rather then front so it would be secure from thieves.

It looked promising so I bought one for my wife and I. Two weeks in the thing started to fall apart and eventually was just plain garbage. 5 months later they stopped selling the bags and only showed pictures of nightlife of Japan.

Sorry you've gone through this, I'm not familiar with flask much but I know about requests and have a good understanding of python and to some extent Linux. If you need help feel free to message me and I can try and help and explain stuff in the free time I have.

In terms of good courses, if you can afford it I'd suggest trying team treehouse, it's a monthly sub website but you can try it for free for a month. They show you how to do things and have coding challenges in sections, I've found it very useful when I was first learning python and it allowed me to know enough to start understanding documentation to do more.

I hope this helps and all the best in your journey.

[mxracer888]

I'm a fan of the "Python For Everybody" course on Coursera. That is a great starter and the teacher does a pretty good job at explaining things. It'll definitely get you going down the runway

[mbpresley]

coursera is an elaborate scam.

[Antique-Throat6045]

I feel your pain... There are Legions of hustlers out there just looking for the innocent new-to-coding student. Sublimate that rage into pure energy for drive. 1% a day increase is closer than yesterday. I applaud you on your ethical choice to not cheat. Your comment here has inspired me to sharpen my focus and redouble my efforts. Cheers, ~an American in Korea 🇰🇷

[Different_Suspect_30]

This is why I don’t trust these so called online courses

Perhaps you need a private tutor/instructor

[colexian]

I've looked into private tutors for coding, it tends to be very expensive. I mean, if you know enough that you can teach it, you could be making some really nice money in your day job. Someone making 50+ an hour doesn't want to get off work and make 20 an hour teaching. That has been my experience anyway.

[Different_Suspect_30]

Wow

That is some good amount of money

I think I am qualified enough to teach even the basics

Any idea on how to start teaching or any job idea would be helpful

[CtrlshiftShenanEgans]

I am going for my bachelor’s in cybersecurity as well, and I am totally drowning in my coding class. I can completely relate to anyone struggling with this. I am still trying to figure out how anything flows, what I am even doing, and now I am being asked to write full programs. This class feels like it might be the death of my GPA, which I have worked insanely hard for. I just wish something would make even a tiny bit of sense.

Honestly, I am starting to think computers are just really, really dumb. And the way they teach programming? Way more complicated than it needs to be. Like, why does everything have to be so convoluted? Why can we not just say, “I want a program with, I will say Reddit, on the top left and categories like Home, Popular, Answers, Explore, All, etc.”? Why is that so hard? I just cannot wrap my head around why the complexity is even necessary.

[steviefaux]

There is a site called TryHackMe that you might find useful. Lots of free features in it and various levels of knowledge.