What is this?

This is a 12-week programme for the Python programming language.

Target audience

This course is aimed at beginners in the Python programming language. No prior knowledge of the language is assumed. Basic IT knowledge of your operating system (installing software, setting environment variables) is needed to successfully set up your system.

It is an advantage if you have basic knowledge of other programming languages.

Structure

This kickstart programme is divided into 12 chapters. Read one chapter per week and complete the corresponding exercises to each chapter.

Every chapter has at least one exercise. The exercises build upon each other and have a unique name (e.g. Ex3a1, Ex3a2, Ex3a3, Ex3b1). The name Ex3a1 stands for “Exercise for chapter 3, alternative ‘a’, exercise number 1”. The ‘a’ stands for exercise path A. Begin with exercises from path ‘a’ and continue the path until you have solved all exercises for the chapter.

If you encounter problems and cannot solve Ex3a1, have a look at the solutions folder. Try to solve the exercise after looking at the solution. Then try to solve an alternative exercise (‘b’, ‘c’, …) if available.

Learning a programming language

This course teaches you the basics of the Python programming language. Knowing a language and being familiar with its possibilities and limitations is an important part of your learning journey.

If this is one of the first programming languages you’re learning, then this is only the first of many steps you must take to call yourself a “real programmer” or “software developer”. There are literally thousands of books about topics like software engineering, software architecture, clean code, design patterns and principles, test driven development, running and monitoring your software, etc.

It is not the focus of this 12-week programme to teach you how to become a professional software engineer, but it is a great place to start. This programme will focus on a small part of the whole picture by giving you a short introduction to Python.

If you are a beginner, don’t be discouraged by the vast amount of advanced topics you need to know and understand to call yourself a software engineer. See it as a great opportunity to keep learning and improving yourself. Take it at your own pace, go step-by-step and enjoy the journey. It is very, very worthwhile :)

Let’s start

Here is the chapter overview for your 12-week Python programme.

License

This course is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.