How to Learn Python

I’ve taught several people the basics of coding throughout the years. If Python is the language you should learn first (rather than, say, JavaScript), do this:

1. Read Learn Python the Hard Way and go through at least the first ~half of the exercises in order to learn the basics of Python.

2. In general, the most important thing you can do when learning how to code is project-based learning. Come up with ideas for simple things to build, and build them! Or get project ideas from other people.

Examples:

• Create a basic number guessing game command line script
• Randomly generates a number between 1 and 100
• Accepts a guess from the user via stdin
• Tell the user whether their guess is too low or too high
• When they guess correctly, say so and exit
• Write a simple flask app
• Trivial app you can start with: flask_demo
• Scrape a website (using requests) and extract useful data from it using BeautifulSoup

Other Resources

Great summary of Python basics: <https://medium.freecodecamp.org/learning-python-from-zero-to-hero-120ea540b567>