from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are the best tutorial sites for Python?

by jedwhite on 11/23/22, 5:14 PM with 7 comments

With all the interest in AI, there has been a recent increase in the number folks (especially students) cold-reaching out on LinkedIn and Twitter for advice on good resources to learn Python and AI. This is just because I work in the space (I think), so I'm guessing lots of other people will be seeing this too.

I try to be helpful but I also want to give the best possible current recommendations.

For the AI part, I've been recommending Jeremy Howard's awesome fast.ai course, and the new "Neural Networks: Zero to Hero" lecture series from Andrej Karpathy which I've seen lots of people recommend [1].

For learning Python (beginner-to-intermediate), my go-to recommendation used to be DataCamp, but I'm sure there are better and more-recent resources.

It doesn't look like there has been much discussion recently on HN, so I'm wondering what everyone would recommend as the best tutorials to help those people getting started or up-skilling now.

Sites that show up a lot in discussion include: realpython.com, treyhunner.com, makeuseof.com, digitalocean.com, tutorialspoint.com, towardsdatascience.com, programiz.com, simplilearn.com, learnpythonthehardway.org

What is everyone recommending?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAqhIrjkxbuWI23v9cThsA9GvCAUhRvKZ

  • by CrypticShift on 11/23/22, 7:53 PM

    All these are neither recent (they are updated though) nor AI related. Here you go :

    If you are new to dev, I like "think python"

    If you are already into programming, I personally find sifting through organized small code snippets helpful for learning a new language :

    https://github.com/jackzhenguo/python-small-examples

    https://github.com/satwikkansal/wtfpython/blob/master/README...

    https://www.30secondsofcode.org/python/p/1

    Finally, "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python" is good for everything configuration, and usage.

  • by gabelschlager on 11/23/22, 5:34 PM

    Any of the courses from the University of Helsinki [1]. They are free for everyone, have good explanations, and most importantly, great exercises to practice programming with an auto-grading system that gives feedback when you make mistakes.

    Programming is really only something you learn when you have to do it. Most of the online courses online (DataCamp being one of them) have very simple assignments that can be done via copy/paste, so people at least feel like they learned something and stay engaged. That's simply not good enough. You need complex assignments that really make you struggle a bit, so you engage with the material on a deeper level.

    [1] https://www.mooc.fi/en/

  • by cavemanSam on 11/28/22, 3:13 AM

    Harvard's CS50P is also great, completely free, easy to follow lectures and good problem sets. https://cs50.harvard.edu/python/2022/

  • by jonjacky on 11/24/22, 12:24 AM

    Seconding Alan Downey's Think Python. The current online version is here:

    https://greenteapress.com/wp/think-python-2e/

    For code examples, I like Peter Norvig's pytudes:

    https://github.com/norvig/pytudes

  • by ackatz on 11/23/22, 5:40 PM

    Automate the Boring Stuff with Python is a great, free resource. I think it is in written and video form.

    If already know a little Python, then just build something and you will learn very fast.