01a-install.md

Install software on your computer

Install git.

You have it installed if you can run git --version at the command line and get output like git version 2.3.5.

Install Anaconda.

There are two things you can verify to check your install.

First, from the command line, all of the following should start up some kind of Python interpreter:

python
ipython
ipython notebook
spyder

Second, inside any of those Python interpreters, you should be able to do all of these without error:

import numpy
import scipy
import matplotlib
import pandas
import statsmodels
import sklearn

Install Homebrew on Mac

If you use a Mac, install Homebrew if you don't have it yet. You could use Homebrew to manage your git and python installs as well, but the methods given above are very good and more cross-platform.

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Q1. Python Version 2 or 3

Course material for the bootcamp is compatible with Python versions 2.7 and 3.0. All HackerRank Python pre-work is configured for Python 3 only. Therefore, Python 3 is the recommended version.

Did you install Python 2 or 3? Why?

I have both versions on my machine, but I plan on using a conda environment for each project I do and choose the appropriate python version depending on project requirements.

Q2. Which Python Version Installed

How can you check the version of Python installed if you happen to be on an unfamiliar computer?

python --version