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Best Python Resources

The Python community is amazing at sharing detailed resources and helping beginners learn to program with the language. There's so many resources out there though that it can be difficult to know how to find them.

This page aggregates the absolute best Python resources and explains from my biased perspective the best way to use each one. This is the list I wish I had when I was learning the language.

New to programming

Experienced developers new to Python

  • Learn Python in y minutes provides a whirlwind tour of the Python language. The guide is especially useful if you're coming in with previous software development experience and want to quickly grasp how the language is structured.

  • Python for you and me is an approachable book with sections for Python syntax and the major language constructs. The book also contains a short guide at the end to get programmers to write their first Flask web application.

  • Kenneth Reitz's The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python contains a wealth of information both on the Python programming and the community.

  • Google's Python Class contains lecture videos and exercises for learning Python.

  • Check out the Real Python! Blog for a great set of relevant posts about Python web development topics.

Beyond the basics

  • The Python Ecosystem: An Introduction provides context for virtual machines, Python packaging, pip, virutalenv and many other topics after learning the basic Python syntax.

  • awesome-python is an incredible list of Python frameworks, libraries and software. I wish I had this page when I was just getting started with Python.

  • The Python Subreddit rolls up great Python links and has an active community ready to answer questions from beginners and advanced Python developers alike.

  • Good to Great Python Reads is a collection of intermediate and advanced Python articles around the web focused on nuances and details of the Python language itself.

  • The blog Free Python Tips provides posts on Python topics as well as news for the Python ecosystem.

  • Python Books is a collection of freely available books on Python, Django, and data analysis.

Videos, screencasts and presentations

  • Kate Heddleston gave a talk at PyCon 2014 called "Full-stack Python Web Applications" with clear visuals for how numerous layers of the Python web stack fit together. There are also slides available from the talk with all the diagrams.

  • Neckbeard Republic provides free screencasts for learning intermediate topics. I typically prefer to learn by reading. However, these videos are helpful in seeing the code on the screen instead of just looking at static code snippets.

  • PyVideo organizes and indexes thousands of Python videos from both major conferences and meetups.

  • Ontwik has relevant programming videos in its Python category.

Newsletters

  • Python Weekly is a free weekly roundup of the latest Python articles, videos, projects, and upcoming events.

  • PyCoder's Weekly is another great free weekly email newsletter similar to Python Weekly. The best resources are generally covered in both newsletters but they often cover different articles and projects from around the web.

Those resources should help get you started. What's next?

I'm ready to learn how to code an application with a web framework.

I already built a web application. I need to know how to deploy it.

Let me start over from the Full Stack Python introduction.


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