The best Python tutorials for beginners

Python is already around 30 years old, yet it has become one of the most popular programming languages, even to this day. This is because of new application areas such as Data Science and Machine Learning where Python is the go-to programming language for writing algorithms for Artificial Intelligence. The following reasons explain Python’s advantages and success:
 

 

There’s more: Python's syntax is similar to the English language, so the basics are easy to learn even for beginners. With some basic understanding you can already do quite a lot with less code compared to many other languages. The demand for Python developers on the job market is extremely high, also making it attractive to learn. If you're looking for an easy introduction to programming, it’s clear that you should get familiar with the basic principles of Python.

The tutorials listed below will help you to get started with Python.

Learn the basics of Python in 7 weeks with “Programming for everyone” from the University of Michigan. The course covers the basics of how to build a program from a series of simple instructions in Python. Areas to be covered in self-study include: variables, conditional execution, repeated execution, and how to use functions. This free course is done in a web browser, so no downloads are required. Thus, the assignments can be accessed from anywhere. Even from your smartphone!

Duration: 7 weeks
Effort: 2-4 hours per week
Instructor: Charles Severance
Coding level: beginner, no prerequisites are required
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Data visualization is perhaps one of the most commonly used features for Data Science with Python nowadays. The language offers great graphing libraries that come packed with lots of different features. Whether you want to create interactive, highly customized, or live plots, Python has the right library for you. In this course, you will learn how to leverage a software tool to visualize data that will also enable you to extract information and to better understand the data. After this course you will be more familiar with Python libraries such as Matplotlib, Seaborn and Folium – the most popular libraries for data professionals.

Duration: 5 weeks
Effort: 2-4 hours per week
Instructor: Alex Aklson
Coding level: intermediate
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The course content includes basics of Python, getting to know strings, variables as well as data types. This is followed by conditions, file manipulation and functions as well as other essential programming constructs (ex:loops and conditions). After the completion of this course, you will be able to program in Python and write your own scripts and functions. This easy intro to Python is completely built around teaching yourself the skills. There is no course instructor, but you are equipped with practice material, videos, and an FAQ.

Duration: 18 lessons
Autor: Avinash Jain
Coding level: beginner, no prerequisites are required
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The syllabus of Code Academy’s Python course includes the following modules: insights to strings and console output, how to use conditionals and control flow to create programs that generate different outcomes as well as functions, dictionaries, lists, “while” and “for” loops etc. In each module you will start by completing one or multiple lessons followed by a project or a quiz that has to be completed.

Duration: 25 hours
Coding level: beginner, no prerequisites are required
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This tutorial looks at the basic beginner difficulties and puts them aside. It gives you the opportunity to get started in the program with a basic understanding of the language. New topics can be learned at one's own speed and you will be taken to the next step with the help of navigation. The tutorial is constantly adapted and is therefore up to date.

Duration: 25 hours
Instructor: Erik van Baaren
Coding level: beginner, no prerequisites are required
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This free course focuses on Python specifically for data science. In this introductory Python course, you will learn powerful ways to store and manipulate data, as well as helpful data science tools to start performing your own analysis. Material to be covered includes lists, functions, methods, and packages such as NumPy.

Duration: 4 hours
Instructor: Hugo Bowne-Anderson
Coding level: beginner, no prerequisites are required
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Now that you are a Python beginner, you will have even more motivation to become a professional programmer. To assist you on your continuous learning journey, we would like to draw your attention to our Python programming course. What is special is that it’s designed for different coding levels. Thus, beginners, as well as more experienced Python programmers, can participate and acquire additional valuable skills. After the brief introduction to Python, the course agenda leads you to Object-Oriented programming fundamentals. You will also learn more about Python Data Structures, automatically scraping data from the web, working with APIs (Google Maps, Twitter), creating your own APIs with Flask, and using Python with databases to generate automated reports. The course will end with an exciting project on a topic of your choice.

Duration: 36 hours, 6 weeks, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 16:00-19:00
Instructors: Thorben Croisé, Marie Bocher
Coding level: no prerequisites required
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…and take your Python skills to the next level!