Python is a general-purpose, object-oriented, high-level programming language. Whether you work in artificial intelligence or finance or are pursuing a career in web development or data science, Python is one of the most important skills you can learn. Python's simple syntax is especially suited for desktop, web, and business applications. Python's design philosophy emphasizes readability and usability. Python was developed on the premise that there should be only one way (and preferably, one obvious way) to do things, a philosophy that resulted in a strict level of code standardization. The core programming language is quite small and the standard library is also large. In fact, Python's large library is one of its greatest benefits, providing different tools for programmers suited for a variety of tasks.

Python and R are two of today's most popular programming tools. When deciding between Python and R, you need to think about your specific needs. On one hand, Python is relatively easy for beginners to learn, is applicable across many disciplines, has a strict syntax that will help you become a better coder, and is fast to process large datasets. On the other hand, R has over 10,000 packages for data manipulation, is capable of easily making publication-quality graphics, boasts superior capability for statistical modeling, and is more widely used in academia, healthcare, and finance.

Python is a multi-paradigm language, which means that it supports many programming approaches. Along with procedural and functional programming styles, Python also supports the object-oriented style of programming. In object-oriented programming, a developer completes a programming project by creating Python objects in code that represent objects in the actual world. These objects can contain both the data and functionality of the real-world object. To generate an object in Python you need a class. You can think of a class as a template. You create the template once, and then use the template to create as many objects as you need. Python classes have attributes to represent data and methods that add functionality. A class representing a car may have attributes like color, speed, and seats and methods like driving, steering, and stopping. The concept of combining data with functionality in an object is called encapsulation, a core concept in the object-oriented programming paradigm.