Hi! Your skill level is beginner or intermediate, or even advanced. You want to learn more Python. There are plenty of resources out there, and this is just a curated list of links. Some for each skill level. It's not everything and the kitchen sink, but it's not all "must-read" either; you should feel free to skip around.
A note on approach: I agree with Learn X the Hard Way that the "hard way" — learning by doing — diving right in — is actually the easy way. So no matter your background, newbie programmer or advanced Pythonista, take a look and learn something new.
The first key is Don't Panic. You can learn most by hands-on experience.
If you have not installed Python yet, you need to pick a version of Python and then install. For both of these subjects, you should read Hitchhiker's Guide to Python.
It's also a good idea to debunk the myths you may have heard about Python.
- PayPal Engineering Blog: 10 Myths of Enterprise Python
- (And more testimonies: python.org → "Success Stories" )
If nobody’s told you yet, Python’s community is one of the most important things about it :) Join forums, subreddits (/r/Python, /r/learnpython), chats (Slacks or IRCs) local meetups, etc., and get support. You’ll learn much better with a community.
Keep these handy.
- The official docs! https://docs.python.org/2/
- Learn X in Y Minutes: Python is a good cheat sheet.
- Flow-chart to help you get past common Python error messages
If you like self-guided courses, try one of these:
- Learn Python the Hard Way
- RealPython: "Real Python teaches programming and web development through hands-on, interesting examples that are useful and fun!" (paid)
- or Dive into Python (the classic). (Note that Dive into Python 3 only covers new & advanced features in Python 3 - not the language as a whole. Don't start there if you're new to Python) (free)
- or Google's Python Introduction course (free)
- or How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python, Interactive Edition (free) — if you're relatively new to programing, this is an especially good fit for you
If you like taking online courses with a group, I’ve heard this one is good:
A lot of people think when you're first learning a language like Python, you'll grok it best if you use a basic text editor instead of an IDE. Still, maybe you are just here to learn a little Python for some projects at work, and you just need to get some things done. An IDE might help you.
- I strongly prefer JetBrains PyCharm. So do most people at my company now. And many many people the world over … PyCharm does incredible things with your Python code.
- There's a free Community Edition you can use immediately.
(Another side note on text editors vs. IDEs. Even if you like the lean text editor side of things - vim or Emacs, Sublime Text... Well, I still think you should check out PyCharm. I hated disliked IDEs for a long time until I tried PyCharm. Vim users, take a look at "Epic Review of PyCharm [...] From a Vim User's Perspective" (and "Part 2". The vim emulation is solid, I use it every day.)
- ipython and ipython notebook - you should be using these!!!
- There's also Python's built-in debugger,
pdb, and the ipython variant (autocomplete etc)ipdb - Use PyCharm's debugger, it is excellent. JetBrains PyCharm docs: Debugging
Free book (PDF): How to make mistakes in Python
One of Python's biggest strengths is its testability. Test-Driven Development and Python go together happily.
- start with this concise post, http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/writing/tests/#the-basics
- then try this comprehensive post. It's about unit testing with Python's Standard Library unit test package, but leads you up to introducing pytest — the best runner for any kind of tests (you can get started on that right away). It’s also the best framework for writing data-driven tests, when you’re ready to get gung-ho about testing your code :D
- Jeff Knupp: Improve your Python Understanding - Unit Testing
- When you’re ready, move onto pytest, definitely :) pytest.md
Are you intermediate or advanced? If you're not sure, one way to check:
- Ask yourself Python Interview Questions and see if you know them. If you don't, try and learn more
- Read some of "Good to Great Python Reads", a nice index of great Python reading (good to Ctrl+F for topics)
You don’t need to read style guides until you’re beyond beginner status. At some point that will become very valuable and helpful to you :)
There are two main style guides:
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to Python – opinionated guide by the legendary Kenneth Reitz of requests fame
- Google Python Style Guide – perhaps the most widely-used Python style guide
Not comprehensive, but when I brain-dumped some really good things to know about, I wrote down these subjects.
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Unicode is pretty sad in Python 2, so if you're using Python 2 you should learn the gotchas and fixes ASAP...
- Unicode in Python, completely demystified (weird presentation format, but, you just press spacebar to proceed through slides)
- unicode frustrations
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Functional programming, list comprehensions, etc.
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Security, with this bent: learning general skills to get into InfoSec or AppSec
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Machine Learning! Here’s my guide: Dive into Machine Learning
You're probably going to use libraries to do a lot of things. When you have a new scenario and you are thinking what should I use... You should:
- Ask your community :D
- check Hitchhiker's Guide to Python: Scenario Guide for Python Applications
- check Full Stack Python, another comprehensive but carefully curated guide, full of useful context, advice, etc.
- check Awesome Python, "A curated list of awesome Python frameworks, libraries, software and resources" — or the Pythonidae list
For completely out-of-the-box Python, concurrency is slightly complicated (because of the GIL). However, it's not some no-man's-land or something. You don't need to rediscover the solution on your own. The best single summary I've seen of (preferred) concurrency options –
Myth: Python Lacks Concurrency
There are loads of options... Greenlet, Twisted. I must say, while I've used those, I tend to go for parallelism with Celery if it makes sense. While it's a different solution, it can be relevant to some of the same problems you might be trying to solve.
For Python projects that need some horizontal scale-out and fast performance, there's a good chance a worker-and-queue setup might work better for you, compared with single-computer concurrency. There's no question: Celery is the way to go for worker-and-queue systems in Python --
Or maybe not worker-and-queue. I've maintained some pretty iffy worker-and-queue systems. These days I reach for Apache Spark instead. Batch and stream processing, in a portable fashion, with a very declarative and maintainable API (thanks to Functional Reactive Programming).
Use these links to further expand your knowledge base.
r/LearnPython Wiki - Plethora of useful resources including video lectures, useful tools, and communities for learning competetive programming to keep you on an edge.
Learn Python the Hard Way (Book) - This is an excellent beginner programmer’s guide to Python. It covers “hello world” from the console to the web.
svaksha's python resources - More books, a beginner's guide to Git, blog posts on Python/CS/Data Science, videos, and workshop tutorials.
Hitchhikker's Guide to Python learning resources - Links to good python books/guides. This book itself is a practical approach to learning Python. It assumes you already know the basics, and teaches you when & how to use Python. Read this book for a more example-driven approach.
Think Like A Computer Scientist - Interactive python guide. Also includes programming a GUI, Recursion, Classes & Objects, and includes interesting game examples.
If you're coming from Java, you should watch this video for sure and/or grab this ~70-page book
Writing a program and none of the guides/docs are helping out? Ask real programmers for help on Stackoverflow