IT Enthusiast — Best Resources to learn Python

Best Resources to learn Python

I once explained (in this post) why so many people prefer to start programming by learning Python. Shortly - it allows very gentle start without overloading one with tons of special concepts - and on the other hand it is not a toy, but industrial-level language, used for development of well-known applications and sites.

So how can someone start learning it? Generally you get python interpreter and some book (official tutorials will do). But I dare to link also some web-resources of different kind.

Let me discuss few books, online courses, and interactive exercises I am acquainted with. I will mention only free resources.

Books

Learn Python The Hard Way (site) (book) - it is a well-known “bestseller”, which starts from basics and leads you in depths. If you feel comfortable with it you probably will not need most of additional resources.

Official Documentation: tutorial along with language reference and library reference - they should be your closest friends. They are well written and provide you full explanation of every subject of the language. As beginner you may prefer tutorial and by and by you will get used to have a look into language and library reference for getting detailed information on certain things you encounter in other books, courses and examples.

Online Courses

Interactive Programming in Python at Coursera - great for beginners - they use javascript implementation of Python (see “Skulpt”) to create simple games running directly in your browser. This implementation is similar to Python 2.6 however and surely is not very efficient - nevertheless it is great for learning purpose.

Learn Program Using Python at EdX - this is a straightforward beginner’s course. For me difference is in that is more “academic” then one above - and the EdX site itself having somewhat nicer and less buggy interface compared to Coursera.

Intro to Computer Science and Python at EdX - this feels like more advanced course, requiring participants not only learn the basic of language but also study more general concepts (algorithms, data structures, testing and debugging). I strongly recommend this one.

Interactive exercises

Everyone will tell you that no one can master programming without dedicating 90% of time to practice. Just reading books and watching videos are not enough. So you need do some coding every day and you need to find or invent exercises which are suitable for your level.

CodeCademy for Python - probably one of the best known. It allows you to lay your hands on Python at once and go through a set of very detailed exercises to learn all of the basic concepts by doing. However it is really very basic level - and you will usually get through it very fast and start wondering where to go further.

CodeAbbey - collection of coding problems starting from very simple ones - they could be solved in any language, though Python is most popular at this site. What is important, after solving you can (and you are advised to) browse others’ solutions to learn how the same code could be written, perhaps, better. Certificates are granted for solving 125 exercises to help you keep motivated.