Python 101: Python for absolute beginners

Learn beginner Python basics: data types, data structures, user input, typecasting, loops (for and while), print formatting, and comparison operators, ending with a rock, paper, scissors game.

Learn Python 3 as the standard, since Python 2 is deprecated and insecure. The course covers Python 3.9 and newer, reverse compatibility, and installing on Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Install Python 3.9 on Mac, Linux, and Windows by downloading from python.org and running the installer, then verify your version in the command line using python --version or python3 --version.

Learn to run Python code from the terminal on Windows, Linux, and macOS, check the version, and create a Hello World script that prints Hello World.

Explore basic arithmetic in Python, mastering addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, exponents, and modulus (remainder). Learn how to run Python in a terminal or file, and recognize float versus integer results.

Explore how variables in Python 101 are memory-allocated, named values like course = 'Python 101', and how print displays the variable's value, with Python's indentation and no semicolons.

Explore how Python uses indentation instead of curly braces, using colons to begin indented blocks, and how to manage empty blocks with pass while avoiding syntax errors.

Learn how to use code comments in Python to document intent, explain complexity, aid teammates, and capture to-dos, while keeping comments non-executed by the interpreter.

Explore Python data types, including strings, integers, floats, lists, dictionaries, tuples, sets, booleans, and none, with examples. The course will cover each type in upcoming lessons.

Explore number data types in Python by multiplying integers and floats, contrast with strings, and learn how underscores improve readability for large literals while recreating a Batman joke example.

Explore string data types in Python: define strings with single, double, or triple quotes for multi-line text, and use dot methods like upper and lower to transform them.

Learn how Python lists store multiple values in a single variable, including nested lists, and how to modify them with append, remove, and pop while looping to print items.

Explore dictionaries as flexible Python data structures of key-value pairs, using curly braces and string keys, similar to JavaScript objects and JSON.

Learn how tuples in Python are immutable iterables and how to loop through them with for loops. They differ from lists, offer memory performance, and are best for fixed data.

Explore sets in Python by contrasting them with lists and dictionaries; sets store unique items with curly braces and no key-value pairs. Learn adding and removing items with set methods.

Explore booleans in Python, understand true or false values (one or zero), and see how indentation affects if statements and basic conditionals.

Explore the none data type, which represents nothing in python, and see how to initialize variables, test if none with is none, and prepare for conditional statements and indexing.

Explore indexing and slicing of iterables like lists, strings, and booleans. Learn zero-based indices, subscripts, end-to-end slices using colon, and non-subscriptable errors for booleans.

Learn how to accept user input in Python with the input function, know that input returns a string, and cast values to numbers for calculations.

Explore type casting in Python by converting user input and various data types, such as strings to integers, lists to sets or tuples, and checking the resulting types.

Learn to format prints in Python 101 using the format method and f-strings, injecting a name variable into a string and comparing with the old percent formatting.

Learn to apply comparison operators in Python, including is equal to, is not equal to, and other relational operators, guiding code with if, elif, and else.

Master Python booleans in if statements by recognizing that non-empty values are true and empty ones are false, with examples including None, strings, lists, sets, and tuples.

Explore Python's multiple comparison operators, using and and or to combine conditions such as age >= 18 and name == Caleb, and merging nested if statements into concise expressions.

Master for loops to iterate over any iterable, from lists and tuples to sets and strings. Explore dictionaries with items() and f-strings to print key-value pairs.

Explore while loops in Python, contrast them with for loops, and learn to control execution with a condition, increment a counter, and print numbers until the condition becomes false.

Learn to use break and continue in Python with for and while loops, skip iterations and exit loops, and see modulus-based printing in practical examples.

Explore the basics of Python functions, including defining with def, passing named and default arguments, handling parameters, return values, and practical examples like a simple exponent calculator.

Explore Python scope: understand how variables inside a function remain local, why name errors occur, and how parameters and closures affect access with practical examples.

Learn to run a local Python http server to serve static html on localhost:8000, preview files like index.html, understand its basic limitations for get/post, and expose with ngrok.

Learn to import the random package in Python and use random.choice on a list to produce random selections, with examples like rock, paper, scissors for your final project.

Build a rock, paper, scissors game against the computer using the Python basics: random choices, a while loop, input, print formatting, and break and continue.

Celebrate completing Python 101 and highlight that this covers basic Python. Explore more courses like Python for everybody and join a free, supportive coding community.