Best Online Courses and Other Resources to learn Python

What is Python?

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Its high-level built in data structures, combined with dynamic typing and dynamic binding, make it very attractive for Rapid Application Development, as well as for use as a scripting or glue language to connect existing components together. Python’s simple, easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. Python supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms, and can be freely distributed.

Source: python.org

Why learn Python?

Often, programmers fall in love with Python because of the increased productivity it provides. Since there is no compilation step, the edit-test-debug cycle is incredibly fast. Debugging Python programs is easy: a bug or bad input will never cause a segmentation fault. Instead, when the interpreter discovers an error, it raises an exception. When the program doesn’t catch the exception, the interpreter prints a stack trace. A source level debugger allows inspection of local and global variables, evaluation of arbitrary expressions, setting breakpoints, stepping through the code a line at a time, and so on. The debugger is written in Python itself, testifying to Python’s introspective power. On the other hand, often the quickest way to debug a program is to add a few print statements to the source: the fast edit-test-debug cycle makes this simple approach very effective.

I would also suggest you guys to have a look at this, comparison between Python and other languages.

Source: python.org

What are the applications of Python?

Python is gaining a lot of popularity these days, it has been in existence for a very long time, since late 1980’s but it was not a very popular language, because of the popularity of C, C++, Java.

But Python has become very popular these days, and there are many factors, like:

It is the best choice in the field of education, as it is one of the most simple and clean programming language and makes it really easy for a beginner to program and one does not have to remember all those irritating syntax’s. Writing a Python program seems very similar to writing a psuedocode which makes it very easy and simple for beginners.
It is used for Web Development, due to popular frameworks like Django and Pyramid, micro frameworks like Flask and Bottle and advanced CMS like Plone and Django CMS.
It is very popular with Data Analysts. Most of the Data Analysts prefer to use either Python or R for the analysis work.
It is the only choice of language for Data Scientists for Machine Learning and AI. Popular Scientific and Numeric packages like Numpy, Scipy, IPython, ggplot, etc makes Python very powerful to be used in such tasks.
Python is also a popular choice among the projects being developed in the field of IoT(Internet of Things).
Basically Python can be used from helping someone to learn from very basic like printing a “Hello World” to doing analysis on Big Data and automating robots using AI and Machine Learning.

What is the best way to learn Python?

According to me, the best way to learn programming is by typing some codes, working on projects from the very beginning and not just reading books and memorizing theory and then planning to start working on a project someday.

The best way to start learning Python is to enroll in some very good online course, which has a good prof. to teach, an active forum support, the course which helps you learn Python by working on a lot of projects.

Some very good course available online, which I would suggest you to go for are:

All these courses mentioned are awesome, but the one’s with are (awesome)².

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python(6.00.1x) by MIT (edX)
Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from zero to hero in Python (Udemy)
Python Basics Training (Simplilearn)
Introduction to Programming Nanodegree (Udacity)
Python for Everybody Specialization (Coursera [University of Michigan])
The Python Mega Course: Build 10 Real World Applications (Udemy)
The Python Bible Everything You Need to Program in Python (Udemy)
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python Programming (Udemy)
Up and Running with Python (Lynda)
Complete Python Masterclass (Udemy)

Download free Handwritten notes by me for the course Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python here.

Best Books to learn Python are:

 **Clicking on any book will take you to your local Amazon store.

Few other good resources to visit learn more about python and stay updated are:

I want to make this blog a platform for the learners to find best resources and Online Courses available for particular technologies, So I request you all to please share any new resources you know of and will be helpful for everyone, in the comment section below and I will add the same in the article.