Coding in Python is not hard, in fact – it has been acclaimed as the easiest programming language to learn for a long time. It is a good starting point if you’re looking to get into web development, even game development – as there are so many resources for building games with Python. It’s one of the ways of learning the language quickly.

Many programmers have used Python as the beginning of their journey, to later pick up languages like PHP and Ruby. It’s also one of the hottest web programming languages in 2014, and highly recommended to learn. But, how to learn Python? Where to go to begin learning?

I’m here to solve that problem for you, as I’ve myself relied on many of these resources to learn programming, and begin development. Just a friendly tip and word of advice, the best way to learn is by doing – and these books, resources are here only to guide you in the right direction.

It can be EXTREMELY frustrating to begin learning, but once you get the basics down – it comes to you naturally, and you’re building things without thinking about it.

Python for Beginners

Python for Beginners

If you’ve been meaning to get your Python development journey under way for a while now, this course might be a really good start. The Python for Beginners course as instructed by Alex Bowers is one of the most comprehensive, yet easy to digest Python tutorials on the web right now. Yes, it comes at a price tag, but do you want to learn alone, or alongside 30,000 other students?

The advantage of signing up for this course is that you’re granted access to a members only forum, where Alex (the instructor) himself is residing, and will gladly help to tackle your Python problems, whenever possible. I mean, it goes over everything that any of the other resources in this list would, with the exception that you get a community feel for having invested a little bit of dough into it.

You can use the coupon code: CODECONDO – it will give you a solid 75% discount, though it is going to be active only up until 30/09/2014 – so hurry up, you can always purchase the course and then work with it later, don’t waste your money by missing this deal!

Learn Python the Hard Way

Learn Python the Hard Way

The absolute easiest way of learning Python is by completing this book. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to pickup the basics, and you get that sense of real learning process, acquiring new knowledge as you move forward. I also learned that it is very encouraging to try and create your own programs.

Those programs might be small, but they’ll definitely help you better understand the language and how the syntax works. It’s highly popular, and so if you ever get stuck, it’s more than likely that there are several answers available on sites like StackExchange, just do a Google search when you need a solution or help.

You’ll learn how to:

Setup Python Programming Environment on All Platforms
Write Python Programs
Understand Python Syntax and Documentation
Think Like a Programmer
a lot more!
The HTML online version is completely free, and it’s also what most people use – I do encourage you to donate / purchase the full book, as the author has put a lot of effort into making it happen, and the premium version also includes videos – if you find learning from videos a lot easier.

The Python Challenge

The Python Challenge

It might be a little tricky to get this one going, if you’ve never in your life programmed before, but it goes together well with the above book, and you should definitely give it a go. There are 33 levels (puzzles), which can be solved by using your Python programming skills.

Millions of people have attempted to solve this, and even if you’re unable to complete all of the levels, you’ll have learned quite a few new things – especially in the field of critical and sharp thinking. Your brain is going to overheat, but that’s programming!

Learn Python Programming @ Codecademy

Learn Python Programming I Codecademy Online Tutorials

You’ll find that many ‘elite’ programmers will tell this interactive platform off, but that’s not the point. What we want is to see / test how the basic syntax of a programming language works, and what can be done when its combined with functions, other than the usual ‘Hello World!’ we’re printing.

In this Codecademy course you will learn how to work with files, how to use loops and how they work, what are functions and what they’re good for. It’s all very basic, and very beginner friendly. There is community forums available for those who need help, but usually everything can be understood from within the dashboard you’re working with.

You won’t need to install any tools, and the only thing you might need is a Notepad++ editor, to rewrite the code on your own computer – for gaining better understanding of it. It’s what I do, and I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn programming, be it Python or any other language.

Intro to Computer Science @ Udacity

Advance Your Career Through Project-Based Online Classes - Udacity

Udacity offers a great course at free of charge, for introducing yourself to the Python programming language and learning more about search engines, and how to build your own little web crawler. It certainly is a fun course to take part of, and it offers extensive guides and community support to help you along the way.


You can enroll as premium student to receive guidance from the instructors, and gain a certificate by the end of the course – or you can start the free courseware to get going right away, unfortunately – the premium full course is at limited capacity, and so you have to signup for a waiting list.

In total, there are 11 classes, all of which are thoroughly explained and documented. Go to the official page to learn more and find more answers to the questions you might have.

Google’s Python Class

Google's Python Class - Educational Materials — Google Developers

Google itself is powered by a lot of Python code, and so it only makes sense that they support the community and want to help others learn the language. This is one of my favorite guides / classes I’ve ever viewed, it’s really detailed and the videos are very beginner friendly and also entertaining to watch.


Just watch a couple of minutes of the first lecture above, to get a better sense of whether you like the instructor or not, and then perhaps start learning! The official Python Class page has all of the links to exercises and examples.

A Byte of Python

A Byte of Python

Very similar to LPTHW, but offers a slightly more in-depth introduction on how to get your perfect setup up and running, and how to take the first steps so you don’t overwhelm yourself. It has been recognized as one of the best beginner guides for those who want to learn Python, definitely check it out and see the first few chapters to figure out whether you like the style of writing.

Think Python

Think Python_ How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Think Python is an introduction to Python programming for beginners. It starts with basic concepts of programming, and is carefully designed to define all terms when they are first used and to develop each new concept in a logical progression. Larger pieces, like recursion and object-oriented programming are divided into a sequence of smaller steps and introduced over the course of several chapters.

You can find a lot of the example code by following this link, it’s one of the most professional books and have a strict “teaching you computer science” policy. It costs nearly $40 to purchase, but you can download the PDF and HTML versions for free, I’d definitely take advantage of this – if I was to learn Python from the beginning.

Python at Learnstreet

Python at Learnstreet

You’d think that a site offering programming courses would know how to add a HTML title for their pages, lol. In all seriousness though, Learnstreet offers a great interactive programming course for learning Python, its beginner friendly as everything in this post is – and if you ever run into problems, its best to Google them.

What I like about Learnstreet is the amount of hints / explanation you get with each of the exercises, right within the same dashboard that you write your code in.

The New Boston

List of Videos for Python

If you’re more like someone who likes to learn from video tutorials, I’m not sure there is anything as comprehensive as The New Boston video tutorial series for learning Python, and many other programming languages as can be seen on their YouTube channel.

The only downside is that there is no real material for you to read or download, and it all comes in video format. I’m the type of programmer who cant withstand having to watch videos all the time, but that might clash with my opinion with the Google’s Python class – which was pretty sweet.

Python @ Coursera

Learn to Program_ The Fundamentals I Coursera

This course is intended for people who have never programmed before. A knowledge of grade school mathematics is necessary: you need to be comfortable with simple mathematical equations, including operator precedence. You should also be comfortable working with simple functions, such as f(x) = x + 5.

It should be completed with ten weeks, spending around ten hours of work on the tasks each week. If you’re able to find the time to do it, and not overwhelm yourself – I do recommend signing up and completing this course, it will only strengthen your knowledge, and it can be combined with any of the above mentioned resources for better understanding.

Python for you and me

Welcome to Python for you and me — Python for you and me 0.3.alpha1 documentation

Kushal Das has written a nice online book for students, beginners and anyone else curious enough to learn more about Python. I would say that this book is similar to the one we looked at the beginning of the article (Learn Python the Hard Way), with the only exception that the author has different experience, and writing style. Everything else, you’ll be learning step by step.

By the end of the book, you’ll be looking at structuring projects, and there is also a small introduction to the Flask framework (which was been mentioned in the minimal frameworks post), on top of that – there is a separate section for learning testing with Python.

LearnPython

Welcome Learn Python Free Interactive Python Tutorial

If you’re an interactive learner (or simply prefer to learn that way), then Learn Python is a great alternative (to Codecademy) to try out. There is a section of basic tutorials, and also some more advanced ones that will give you deeper understanding of the language. Worth noting: there are tutorials for other – Java, C, JavaScript, PHP, Shell, C# – languages as well, so definitely worth checking out.

Quiz & Learn Python

Quiz Learn Python — Mobile IceCube

It’s very possible that you lead a busy life, and so don’t have a lot of time to be spending learning the basics of Python, so here’s a great mobile application that will test your skills through quizzes and puzzles. You can finally carry your programming practice with you, and even if you’re learning only a little bit – at least you’re keeping your memory fresh and engaged with all the different programming patterns.

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

inventwithpython.com

In this book, you’re going to be building about twenty different scripts (or should we say, games) and that will put you through a great learning curve for learning how to build games with Python. It is worth knowing that massive games such as EVE Online have been built using Python. (more specifically: StacklessPython)

I’m not a Python game developer, but I’ve seen some great games have being been built with this language, and if you’ve been meaning to combine your learning experience with game development, this might be a great book to try out. (to be fair, even those who’re not interested in gaming, should give this book a try)


Dive Into Python 3

Python like any other programming language is constantly growing, and finally we’re seeing a decrease in Python 2 users, an increase in the amount of developers using Python 3; and there have even been talks of Python 4 already, so perhaps it’s not such a bad idea to begin your switch now. You’ll enjoy what this book has to offer, as it gives you a fresh perspective of what Python 3 is, and how to use it to build even more amazing software.

You can learn more about some of the changes in Python 3 in this slideshow.

Where to Learn Python?

It turns out that I’ve tried most of these courses myself, I was actually hoping there would be more resources and links to add to the list, but we’ve just taken a look at all of the major ones and there is so much stuff and new things you’re going to be learning about.

What is your experience with programming, and what are you looking to do with your newly found skills? I think that anyone who wants to build their expertise, should first acknowledge what they want to build and then work on that project until it gets done. The beauty of doing that is that you’ll learn specific things, and recreating similar projects will be much easier.

Interactive platforms are cool, but they’re not yet ready to replace books or courses provided and narrated by professionals. I wish you the best of luck with learning Python, and please – if you’ve got any questions to ask, do so in the comment box.

Original Link - http://codecondo.com/10-ways-to-learn-python/

hmmm so many programming languages I get confuse which to even learn. its just as if they should open my head and put everytin in it.

Am a novice wen it comes to programming infact I only know Qbasic learning C now
I must say its been fun...don't knw shld I forget C and learn Python or I shld finish with d it first?