Learn Python in a Weekend: Beginner Programming Projects

A compact project-based way to learn Python 3 in a weekend

Overview

What you’ll learn

  • You will learn how to program a computer in the Python 3 programming langauge.
  • You will learn how to setup Python on Windows, Linux, or Mac.
  • You will learn the programming features, syntax, and fundamental data structures used in Python.
  • You will create actual programs by completing short projects using Python.

Course Content

  • Introduction –> 5 lectures • 6min.
  • Getting Setup –> 3 lectures • 7min.
  • Introduction to Python 3 –> 3 lectures • 7min.
  • Data Representation and Variables –> 5 lectures • 27min.
  • Our First Data Structure: The List –> 3 lectures • 13min.
  • Control Flow — Making our programs Think –> 8 lectures • 30min.
  • Project 1 – The Guest List –> 4 lectures • 13min.
  • Project 2 – Guessing game –> 7 lectures • 19min.
  • Functions and Scope –> 2 lectures • 10min.
  • Project 3 – Message in a Bottle –> 5 lectures • 14min.
  • Project 4 – Data Science with Sports –> 7 lectures • 44min.
  • Project 5 – Image Processing –> 9 lectures • 41min.
  • Conclusion –> 1 lecture • 1min.

Learn Python in a Weekend: Beginner Programming Projects

Requirements

Overview

In this course you will learn how to use one of the most popular programming languages–Python. We will be learning the modern Python 3 programming language which allows you to rapidly build programs whether you are a first-time programmer, new to the language, or an expert. No matter what level you are in your career, learning the Python3 programming language can help you tackle your personal or professional programming projects. This course will start with the fundamentals, and then you will apply fundamental skills by building small projects to apply what you have learned. This is the Python crash course that you can complete start to finish in a weekend.

Topics you’ll learn

Students should take this course if they want to learn:

  • How to use setup Python3 for your respective operating system.
  • How to use the basic programming constructs: loops, functions, classes, and key data structures like Lists and Dictionaries.
  • How to load data from files, manipulate data, and apply the foundational topics that you learn in small projects.

Why you should take this course?

This course has been designed for students who are not trained with an undergraduate or advanced degree in computer science or software engineering. The original course materials were built for students with no background in programming–I work through concepts at a relatively slow and gentle pace, but I do not hide the details from you of how the language works. This course can be your introduction to programming using a beginner friendly programming language (but also a language that professionals use) that slowly builds on topics learned as we progress in each lesson.

This course is also compact, meaning you can complete it in a weekend as opposed to massive courses that are left unfinished and leave you wondering if you have big gaps in your knowledge when you revisit them. In this course, we learn a skill and then complete a small project where I give you time to build a solution, and then you can also work through my solution step by step with the reasoning ‘why’ not just ‘what to type’.

Some of the projects we build include:

  • A fun guessing game
  • A small cipher to encrypt and decrypt messages.
  • A sports analytics database to load and query information.
  • A small image processing (i.e. mini-gram) application.

These fun projects will help you unlock your potential as a you begin your programming journey!

Who am I?

I have been teaching for over 10 years in universities and as a professor. I have worked in industry in big companies, startups, and as a consultant. I am looking forward to being your instructor for this course, and I hope you will get great value out of the lessons learned!

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