Python Master Guide

This Python master guide provides complete overview of Python. Explorer the most trending programming language on planet - Python. You will also get 270+ free python tutorials, practicals, use-cases, applications, interview questions, projects and many more (stay with me till the end) to learn python from scratch. Go from zero to hero with this python tutorial

Already know the basics? Jump to real-time Python Projects

1. What is Python?

Python most fundamental language - it’s being taught in universities, and also considered as general purpose programming language, it can be used for scripting, desktop as well as web development, machine learning as well as IOT, data science and many more. But what is Python?

Python is a general-purpose programming language that is, object-oriented and dynamically-typed. Guido Van Rossum (Python founder), named it over the British comedy group Monty Python. The implementation we widely use is CPython (written in C). Python has powerful frameworks and libraries.

Raise the bar and be a Python star with 270+ Free Python tutorials

2. Why Learn Python?

Because you want a boost in your career.

There numerous reasons why you should learn Python:

  • It is best for both startups (as it's economic, open source, requires less resources) as well as big organizations (feature rich, almost anything can be done).
  • It is most preferred language amongst Data Scientist for machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence.
  • Python is open-source and has a large community.
  • It is the most trending technology on StackOverflow,
  • Python replaced Java and become 2nd most-used languages on GitHub.
  • It has a very bright future and Python jobs pay well and provide stability.
  • Python has powerful frameworks like Flask & Django for web development.
  • You can use Raspberry Pi to create DIYs and other projects like robots, arcade machines, remote-controlled toys, and cameras.

Fascinated, find more reasons: Top 7 reasons why you must learn python

3. What is it used for?

Almost everything

4. Is Python Easy to Learn?

Python is easiest language, that is why python is taught to university students- to create interest in programming. Python is:

  • Easy to learn- it has a smooth learning curve
  • Easy to read- it is easy to read, understand, code
  • Easy to write- Python’s syntax is like English language
  • Easy to debug- it gives you full tracebacks

5. How to Learn Python?

All the technocrats all looking to upskill themselves. Python can carve your profile and give it a much needed boost. We have laid down steps to help you:


Now it's time to learn Python from scratch:

6. Basics of Python for beginners

a. Python - Basic programming Constructs

Let’s first see what Python looks like.

  • Functions - Collections of statements grouped under a name. May or may not return a value.
  • Classes and Objects - Python is object-oriented. A class is an abstract data type and a blueprint with no values. An object is an instance of a class. Everything in Python is an object.
  • Packages - They are collections of related modules. You can also create your own packages.
  • Modules - Modules are collections of related classes and functions.
  • Lists - These are collections of values in the CSV format. Lists are mutable objects.
  • Tuples - These are like lists, but immutable.
  • Sets - They can’t have duplicates, and are mutable.
  • Dictionaries - These are collections of key-value pairs defined using curly braces.

b. Python Features

Let’s discuss some amazing features of Python now.

  • Easy to learn/code/read/write/debug
  • Free and Open-Source
  • Object-oriented
  • High-level
  • Portable
  • Interpreted
  • Dynamically typed
  • Extensible
  • Embeddable
  • Large standard library
  • GUI programming
  • Vast Data Science & ML libraries

Unique features which make Python most popular programming language on the planet

c. Concepts to learn Python

Now, you know the basics, it's time to move to next level and learn some important concepts in Python.

7. Python Syntax

To learn about variables, operators, and other topics, refer to the links above. Here, we will talk about the syntax of Python code.

  • Line Structure - Python Programs consist of logical lines. Each line has a NEWLINE token at the end. Blank lines are ignored.
  • Multiline statements - There are no semicolons or braces in Python (you can use semicolons if you want, but they are not mandatory)
    • Backward slash - To distribute a statement across multiple lines in Python.
    • Triple quotes - Put strings in triple quotes to span them across multiple lines.
  • Comments - They explain code and are ignored by the interpreter. Declared by hash (#).
  • Docstrings - Documentation strings that explain code. Retained at runtime for inspection.
  • Indentation - Since there are no curly braces, you need to indent code blocks equally. You can use tabs or spaces, but not a combination of both. PEP8 recommends using 4 spaces.
  • Multiple statements in one line - You can use semicolons to separate multiple statements in one line. You can also put an if-statement’s single-line body in one line.
  • Quotations - You can delimit strings with single or double quotes, but not both (opening with one and closing with another). If you use single quotes inside the string, use double quotes to delimit. You can escape quotes inside strings with the escape character ().
  • Identifiers - These are names of elements, and are case-sensitive. You need to follow some rules when naming identifiers.
  • Variables - They hold values. Python follows duck-typing and is dynamically-typed. You don’t need to declare the type of variable, that is determined by the interpreter at runtime.
  • String formatters - For this, you can use the % operator, the format() method, or f-strings.
  • Python vs Java vs C++ - Curly braces are mandatory in Java and C++, but Python uses whitespace indentation to delimit code. Semicolons are optional in Python, but can cause errors in C++ and Java. Python is dynamically-typed, Java and C++ are statically-typed. Java is faster than Python.


8. How Long Will it Take to Learn Python?

Python is an easy language to learn and has a smooth learning curve. Learning the basics will not take much time, you can learn python basics with this python tutorial. You will need to practice as you learn. The more you practice, the better you are at it. You will need to build projects as well. Once you have followed the steps mentioned above, you can say you know Python. So how long it will take depends on you.

9. Which Libraries Should I Learn?

Python has over 198,495 projects in the PyPI. Which of those packages (and the built-in ones) should you learn? Here are a few names:

10. Which Python Projects Should I Develop?

Working on a real-world python project will strengthen your understanding and help you master the Python.

You can also build a project to solve a real problem you face or faced earlier.

11. Which Data Science Projects Should I Practice?

According to Hal Varian, Chief Economist of Google: Data Scientist is the sexiest job on the planet.

Work on real-time Data Science projects: 70+ Data Science / Machine Learning DataSets and projects ideas

12. Should I Go for the Python Certification?

There is no official certified exam for Python. DataFlair offers an excellent certification program for Python. This has more than 20 hours of video-based sessions, tons of practicals, and 5 exciting projects to build- with complete source code!

13. Which are the Popular Interview Questions?

Kudos, now you are ready to crack Python interview at any level- beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Refer to these questions curated by industry experts:

14. What are the Job Trends?

Python is the second-most loved language and the most-wanted language according to the StackOverflow Developer Survey for 2019. It seems to have a good future with stable jobs. Here are the Job profiles:

  • Software Engineer
  • Senior Software Engineer
  • DevOps Engineer
  • Data Scientist
  • Senior Data Scientist

And here are the salaries:

  • Software Engineer - $103,035 /year
  • Senior Software Engineer - $129,328 /year
  • DevOps Engineer - $115,666 /year
  • Data Scientist - $117,345 /year
  • Senior Data Scientist - $136,633 /year

NOTE: Python is at #3 on the TIOBE Index for September 2019. Job boards like Naukri and Indeed post more than thousands of jobs for Python. This is a great opportunity for you. There is a large number of jobs per Python programmer.

15. How to use Python for Machine Learning?

One reason why Python is so popular is its humongous machine learning / data science libraries:

What Next

16. Which Companies are Using Python?

Many giant companies use Python for their products and services. Some of these are:

  • Google - Python as a major programming language
  • Facebook - For production engineering
  • NASA Workflow Automation Tool - Written in Python
  • Nokia - Platforms like S60
  • IBM - Factor tool control applications
  • Walt Disney Feature Animation - Scripting language for animation
  • Yahoo! Maps services - Written in Python
  • Disqus - Commenting forum built with Django
  • Dropbox stack - Written in Python
  • Quora - Social website written in Python
  • Instagram - Built with Django
  • YouTube - Scripted Python for website
  • Bit Torrent - Originally written in Python
  • Other companies like Uber, MIT, Hike, Pandora, Spotify, Udemy, Netflix, PayPal, Reddit, Pinterest, and Glassdoor use it too

17. What are some good Python Case Studies?

a. Python at Netflix

Netflix uses Python for data analysis and its backend services. It is how it recommends new titles. Netflix also uses Python to build custom extensions to the Jupyter server. This can be used to manage tasks like logging, archiving, publishing and cloning notebooks. Netflix uses the statistical and numerical libraries like numpy, scipy, tuptures, and pandas. It also uses Python for automation, data exploration, and visualization. It implements demand engineering, insight engineering, Open Connect Network, Information Security, an ML infrastructure, Notebooks, a Partner Ecosystem, and Animation and NVFX.

b. Spotify

Like Netflix, Spotify uses Python for data analysis and backend services. It uses ZeroMQ for backend communication- this is an open networking framework written in Python and C++. Python allows fast development. Also, Spotify uses it for data analytics to create suggestions and recommendations. It also uses Luigi for synchronization with Hadoop. This lets it create “Radio and Discovery”.

c. Facebook

Facebook extensively uses Python. The libraries and frameworks reduce the code-load and focus on improvements. Facebook used Python for multiple services in infrastructure management, and made it scale-efficient. It also published Py3 written projects, including Facebook Ads API and a Python async IRC bot framework.

d. Quora

Quora is a social networking platform with questions and answers. They considered many languages before choosing Python because it has no type checking, and is slow. They rejected C# because the Microsoft Language is proprietary. Java has strict syntax, so it was rejected. So, like Google, Quora chose Python for its ease of writing and readability. They solved the problem of type checking by writing unit tests. They also liked the frameworks for Python- Django and Pylons. It was also easier to club Python and JS for handling user interactions.

This was the detailed plan to become employable in Python.

In this python tutorial we provided a direction to start from scratch, master important concepts, how to practice, and the most important part: Real-time projects. The objective was to enable you to become job ready with best resources: short tutorials, some libraries, python case-studies, python projects, python interview questions, its future scope, Python for Data Science / ML / DL / AI.