Free Python Crash Course

Python is a flexible, open source, interpreted, high level programming language, which is appropriate for use in a variety of real world settings. At some point, likely in part due to its simple syntax and amenability to fast prototyping, Python became the language of data science.

Python also happens to be one of the most popular programming languages — if not the most popular programming language — in the world, as evidenced by the fact that the TIOBE Index for June 2022 ranks Python #1.

TIOBE Programming Community Index (source)
Click to enlarge

What is Python's appeal? Contributing factors to its continued widespread adoption as the language of choice for implementing projects include its massive ecosystem, its flexibility and performance, the fact that it is a force multiplier ("Python does let you hammer something out really quickly"), and the open source community.

For a majority of data science and machine learning positions out there, not knowing Python is a major hurdle to gaining employment, regardless of your other qualifications. That's why you should learn Python now —if you don't already know it — or solidify your Python knowledge if you are already familiar with the basics.

freeCodeCamp and Bobby Stearman of Did Coding recently released Python Tutorial for Beginners, a crash course for those looking to master the language.

Directly from its website, here is what the course promises to cover:

• Installation
• Python Interpreter
• Text Editor
• Git: supporting docs
• Numbers
• Strings
• Lists
• Tuples
• Sets
• Dictionaries
• If statements
• Match statements
• Loops
• Loop clauses
• Modules
• Loop clauses
• Errors and exceptions
• Classes
• Virtual environments
• Building a project

As you can see, the course goes from installation and the basics all the way through to building a project, hitting the major aspects of the language along the way. Aside from learning Python's linguist constructs and syntax, like its basic types, control statements, and dealing with exceptions, you also gain exposure to somewhat ancillary, but no less important, concepts such as Git and virtual environments.

You can find the ~3 hour course below, or on YouTube directly.

 
I genuinely encourage you to learn Python if you don't already know it. This free offering from freeCodeCamp looks like a great way to help you achieve that goal, so have a look now and make sure you have one of the most essential and in-demand technical skills for data science today.

 
 
Matthew Mayo (@mattmayo13) is a Data Scientist and the Editor-in-Chief of KDnuggets, the seminal online Data Science and Machine Learning resource. His interests lie in natural language processing, algorithm design and optimization, unsupervised learning, neural networks, and automated approaches to machine learning. Matthew holds a Master's degree in computer science and a graduate diploma in data mining. He can be reached at editor1 at kdnuggets[dot]com.