Thread by @PrasoonPratham

Want to learn Python as a beginner in 2021 for free?

Here's everything you need to know to get started with updated resources and a proper roadmap!

🧵 👇🏻

A bit of backstory, I wrote my first piece of Python code in 2015 but eventually gave it up for several years because of two main reasons:

A. I had no internet
B. No guidance

You have the power of the internet and I don't want the same to happen to you, hence this guide.

All of this is based on my experience of successfully teaching 300+ students the basics of how to code using Python.

Feel free to modify this roadmap to your liking!

Now onto the guide.

Why learn Python as a beginner?

• Comparatively easier to learn than other languages
• Several use cases
• Has an awesome community

The list of topics you need to cover 👇🏻

1️⃣ Basics

• Basic terminal commands
• Basic arithmetic (+,-,/,*)
• Accepting user input
• For & While loops
• Exception handling
• If/Else statements
• Functions, modules & Imports

2️⃣ Intermediate concepts

• Object oriented programming in Python:Classes, Objects, Methods
• PIP (Pypi)
• List slicing
• String formatting
• Dictionaries & Tuples
• Managing environments
• Dunder methods like __init__

3️⃣ Advanced concepts

• Lambda functions
• Built in libraries like CSV, requests, Sqlite
• Map and Filter
• *args and **kwargs
• Async
• Decorators

From what I've observed, most beginners find it really difficult just to get the Python environment setup and then using the terminal becomes an even bigger nightmare for them.

Let's tackle this issue.

You need to install 2 things:

• Anaconda for managing environments (different versions of Python)
• Python3

Here are the anaconda installation guides for 👇

MacOS: 🔗docs.​anaconda.​com/anaconda/install/mac-os/
Windows: 🔗docs.​anaconda.​com/anaconda/install/windows/
Linux: 🔗docs.​anaconda.​com/anaconda/install/linux/

MacOS and Linux have Python pre-installed, for windows you'll have to install it yourself and it is really easy to mess up the install.

Here's a guide with step by step instructions which will help you.
🔗 bit.​ly/3rbDoyl

After you do all of that, you need a place to write your code which is called a code editor.

Here are some popular ones

• VS Code: Feature-rich (my fav)
• Sublime: Light and simple
• Jupyter: For machine learning
• Pycharm: Full-blown IDE i.​e has loads of features.

I'll be honest, VS code is objectively the best code editor out there for most languages and Python is no exception.

You can install lots of plugins and themes to make it feel just the way you want it to.

Go for VS code in my opinion, but...

If all of that seems complicated to you, I suggest you use something Google colab, Kaggle notebooks or repl.​it

These are online editors which have everything set up for you.

Not to mention colab and kaggle notebooks give you a free GPU for your machine learning workloads.

Links for these editors

Collab : 🔗colab.​research.​google.​com
Kaggle Notebooks : 🔗kaggle.​com/notebooks/welcome
Repl : 🔗repl. it

Whatever editor you choose, just remember that it does not really matter where you write you code.

It should just get the job done comfortably for your needs.

Now that you have a place where you can write your code, lets see how you can begin to actually learn how to write it.

The Basic & Intermediate Python course on freecodecamp go over pretty much all Python concepts you need for machine learning which I have mentioned above.

Basics: 🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw
Intermediate: 🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=HGOBQPFzWKo

Another thing which most beginners skip is knowing how to use the terminal properly and the know-how of navigating around folders.

Here's a brilliant website which gives you an overview of the windows command prompt, enough for you to get started.

🔗bit.​​ly/34tmnGd

The story is a bit different on Linux and Mac, their terminals are extremely powerful and packed to the brim with features, here's a tutorial which will help you get started with the basics 👇

🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=oxuRxtrO2Ag

Keep in mind that you should learn how to use the linux terminal because at some point in your machine learning journey you will have to deal with linux.

It is not important to learn it at the start but I do recommend it.

This tutorial will help you in knowing how to work with folders, this is important!

Windows: 🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=HDmwiJxzIrw
Mac: 🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=3TAEC-1YUZw
Linux: 🔗youtube.​com/watch?v=HbgzrKJvDRw

All of this knowledge will help you pursue whatever it is that you want to do with Python🔥

If you found this thread useful, retweet it and follow @PrasoonPratham.

I even have more informational content coming.
Your support keeps me going!💪🏻