Learning path¶

Pick one thing from your level and finish it. Collecting resources is a procrastination technique with excellent branding.

Complete beginner¶

You've never written code, or you've written a little and it didn't stick.

If you'd rather see the whole route before you start, roadmap.sh/python lays the topics out as a map. Read it once for orientation, then close it — the map isn't the walk.

An hour of video first¶

Not a substitute for a course, but a decent way to find out whether the syntax scares you.

• Python in one hour — current, and a reasonable tour of the basics.
• An older one-hour crash course — some details have dated, the concepts haven't.

Getting comfortable¶

You can write a script. You're unsure whether you're writing it well.

Building things¶

You can build something that works. You want it to be good.

Practice between sessions¶

Short problems keep the syntax in your fingers on the days you don't have an evening to spend. They're a supplement to building things, not a replacement — nobody ever shipped anything by grinding exercises.

Reference¶

Worth bookmarking rather than reading start to finish. There's more of this on the cheat sheets and tools page.

• The standard library index — read this before installing a dependency. The answer is often already installed.
• PEP 8 — the style guide. Most of it is handled by a formatter now.
• PEP 20 — the Zen of Python. Quoted more often than it's followed.

What we don't recommend¶

Tutorials older than about five years, unless they're teaching something that hasn't changed. Python 2 material, obviously. Anything promising fluency in a weekend.

Video playlists that never build anything are also a trap — you'll feel productive and retain very little. If a course has no exercises, add your own.