Python Tutorial: A Free And Complete Beginners Course

Are you ready to finally learn Python programming? Look no further and start with my free Python tutorial for beginners. We’ll dive into the basics and work our way up to advanced concepts. I’ll provide you with many examples to explain all the concepts clearly.

This Python tutorial covers a diverse set of topics. If you’re in a hurry to learn Python, continue with the next page to learn what Python is and what features make it such a great language. Use the menu to navigate quickly to subjects of interest.

Python Tutorial: Why this one?

I admit there are many terrific Python tutorials out there. Why should you read this one, instead of the others?

Here are a few reasons:

• This tutorial is easy to read and ideal for beginning programmers. I do my best to explain stuff in simple terms, making it easy to understand for everyone.
• Interactive example code: edit and run the interactive examples. It’s great fun and helps you to learn concepts much better.
• This Python tutorial is practical. I kept the dry theory to an absolute minimum and focused on getting stuff done in the real world instead. But at the same time, I try to explain how things really work instead of teaching you tricks.
• On most pages, I provide you with carefully vetted links to deepen your knowledge.
• It’s completely free to use this Python tutorial

Here’s an example of how I included interactive, runnable code in the tutorial to get a feeling for what to expect. Feel free to play around with this ‘Hello World’ example:

Python Tutorial: What you will learn

You will learn about computer programming using the Python language. My goal is to make you understand the language and the ecosystem. After reading this Python tutorial, you will be able to continue exploring Python on your own. You won’t feel lost anymore, but instead, you will know where to look when you’re trying to solve a problem.

This Python tutorial covers a broad range of topics that will get you productive with Python in no time. I won’t teach you just the basics, but we’ll also tip our toes in deploying your code and properly using virtual environments and package management, for example.

Navigating the Python tutorial

You can browse the Python tutorial by using the menu. In addition, there are navigational links at the top and end of each page to guide you to the next topic, or go back to the previous one.

The Python tutorial has several sections that I carefully ordered so that you can start from the beginning and work your way up. However, feel free to browse around! Especially if you’re not a complete beginner.

Sections

For reference, here’s a global walkthrough of the Python tutorial:

1. Install Python: learn how to install and open Python.
2. Introduction to Python: start with the basics! This section is suitable for absolute beginners, but I recommend everyone to browse through it before continuing with the other sections. You’ll learn about Python variables, strings, functions, conditional programming with booleans, loops, and more.
3. Creating Python programs: when you know the basics, it’s time to create actual programs. For this, you need a proper Python IDE like VSCode with Python extensions.
4. Classes and objects: a continuation of the introduction to Python. This subject is essential knowledge, and I advise you not to skip it.
5. Python data types: in this section, we take a closer look at Python data types like strings, integers, tuples, sets, lists, and dictionaries.
6. Virtual environments: these are an important part of Python, so we have a comprehensive section on how to create, use, and delete a venv. We’ll also look at installing packages with Pip, and we’ll dive into some tools to make life easier, like Pipenv.
7. Data science using Python: we offer a learning path to using Python for data science, with links to articles from Python Land and external resources. We’ll also look at Jupyter Notebooks, which are ideal for this type of work.

I also included a few bonus sections on related topics, like the most used Linux commands, and how to write Bash scripts.

This tutorial is constantly evolving. New pages are added weekly, and I’m working on a couple of awesome features to improve the learning experience. Make sure to check back regularly and sign up for the newsletter to stay up-to-date!

Who am I?

Good question! What makes me eligible to teach you Python through this tutorial?

I’m Erik, and I’ve been a professional software engineer for more than 25 years. I used many programming languages in my career, but Python is my absolute favorite! I love programming and building complex systems, but I also love to write. That’s why I decided to combine these two by writing this tutorial and creating this website.

You can also follow and find me on Medium, where I regularly write Python programming-related articles.

How you can help me

You, yes, that’s you, can help me improve this Python tutorial. As you know, it’s hard to spot your own mistakes. If you:

• find any mistake,
• something that can be improved,
• or something that is unclear to you,

please tell me through the contact form. If it’s unclear to you, it’s probably unclear to many, so it needs improving. Don’t hesitate to drop me a message; I love hearing from my readers.

I’ve been working on this site for about 3 years now, spending most of my spare time here with all my heart and soul. I hope it shows, and I truly hope you have a lot of fun learning Python here. If you want to show your appreciation, you can buy me a coffee. All the support I got so far is what encourages me to keep writing and keep updating the content!

if ready:
    print("Let's start learning Python programming")