Python Programming Course for Beginners

Set up Python on your own computer and run your first programs from VS Code and the terminal.

• What a program is and why Python is a good first language
• Installing Python and VS Code on Windows, Mac or Linux
• Running code in the interactive shell, in a file and from the terminal
• print(), input() and comments
• Reading your first error messages calmly

Python 3VS CodeTerminal

Practice: A 'hello, me' program that greets you by name · An interactive story that changes with your answers

Write programs that make decisions and repeat steps using conditions and loops.

• Variables and data types: int, float, str, bool
• Arithmetic, comparison and logical operators
• Type conversion with int(), float(), str() and checking types with type()
• Decisions with if, elif and else
• for and while loops, break and continue
• Working with strings: indexing, slicing and common methods

Practice: Calculator app · ATM simulator with a PIN check and balance · Odd/even and prime number checker · Number-guessing game

Store and organise many values at once using Python's built-in data structures.

• Lists: adding, removing, sorting and slicing
• List comprehensions for short, readable loops
• Tuples and when data should not change
• Sets for unique values
• Dictionaries: keys, values and looking things up fast
• Nesting: lists of dictionaries and dictionaries of lists

Practice: Contact book using a dictionary · Word frequency counter for a paragraph · Student score tracker

Break a big program into small, reusable functions and modules.

• Defining and calling functions, return values
• Default and keyword arguments, *args and **kwargs
• Local and global scope
• Lambda functions
• Splitting code into your own modules and importing them
• Using the standard library: random, math, time

Practice: BMI calculator · Loan EMI calculator · Rock-paper-scissors game · Shopping cart module

Save and load data from files and keep your programs running when something goes wrong.

• Reading and writing text files with open() and with
• Working with CSV and JSON data
• Handling errors with try, except, else, finally and raise
• Working with folders and paths using os and pathlib
• Installing packages with pip and isolating projects with virtual environments (venv)

csvjsonospathlibpipvenv

Practice: Command-line expense tracker that saves to CSV · Quiz game with a JSON question bank · Simple log writer

Model real-world things in code with classes, objects and inheritance.

• Classes, objects, __init__() and self
• Instance variables vs class variables
• Encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism
• Special methods such as __str__ and __len__
• When to use a class and when a function is enough

Practice: Bank account system · Vehicle management system · Library management system

Write shorter, cleaner code with generators, decorators, regular expressions and dates.

• Iterators and generators with yield
• Decorators: wrapping functions to add behaviour
• map(), filter() and functools.reduce()
• Regular expressions with the re module
• Dates and times with the datetime module

Practice: Text parser using regular expressions · Email address validator · Birthday countdown clock

Use Python to fetch live data from the internet and automate repetitive tasks.

• How APIs work: requests, responses, status codes and JSON
• Calling public APIs with the requests library
• Web scraping basics with BeautifulSoup, and scraping responsibly (robots.txt, site terms)
• Automating files and folders with os and shutil
• Sending emails from a script with smtplib
• Browser automation with Selenium and scheduling scripts to run on their own

requestsBeautifulSoupshutilsmtplibSeleniumschedule

Practice: Weather app using a public API · Currency converter · Quotes scraper for a practice website · Bulk file renamer · Email reminder bot

Load, clean, analyse and chart real data sets with Python.

• NumPy arrays and fast calculations
• Pandas DataFrames: loading CSV and Excel files
• Cleaning, filtering, sorting and grouping data
• Charts with Matplotlib: line, bar and pie
• Automating Excel reports

Jupyter NotebookNumPyPandasMatplotlibopenpyxl

Practice: Analysis of a public data set, such as cricket or weather data · Excel report automator · A small charts dashboard

Write tested, readable code and get a first look at web back-ends and CI.

• Writing unit tests with pytest
• PEP 8 style and automatic formatting and linting
• Writing a good README and project structure
• A first web app with Flask: routes, templates and forms
• Introduction to GitHub Actions: running your tests on every push
• What Docker is and why teams use it (intro)

pytestRuff or BlackFlaskGitHub Actions

Practice: Unit-tested calculator · Notes app with Flask · A GitHub Actions workflow that tests a Python project