Python is a high-level, general-purpose, structured, powerful, open source programming language that’s used for a wide variety of programming tasks. It features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management, similar to that of Scheme, Ruby, Perl, and Tcl, avoiding many of the complexities and overheads of compiled languages. The language was created by Guido van Rossum in 1991, and continues to grow in popularity, in part because it is easy to learn with a readable syntax. The name Python derives from the sketch comedy group Monty Python, not from the snake.
Python is a versatile language. It’s frequently used as a scripting language for web applications, embedded in software products, as well as artificial intelligence and system administration tasks. It’s both simple and powerful, perfectly suited for beginners and professional programmers alike.
Here’s our recommended tutorials to learn Python. If you’re looking for free Python programming books, check here.
1. Introductory training session on the use of Python for data science by LinuxLinks
This is a short introductory training session on the use of Python for data science. We focus on a common task in data science: import a data set, manipulate its structure, and then visualise the data. We shall use Python and a Jupyter Notebook to accomplish this task.
2. A Beginner’s Python Tutorial by Steven Thurlow
When Civilization IV (Firaxis Games, published by Take2) was announced, one of the most exciting features was that much of the scripting code is in Python, and the game data in XML. This tutorial attempts to teach you the basics of Python programming that you could use with civIV.
3. A guide to Python’s magic methods by Rafe Kettler
This guide focuses on magic methods. They are everything in object-oriented Python; special methods that you can define to add “magic” to your classes.
4. Build applications in Python the anti-textbook by Suraj Patil
This is an easy to understand introduction to the Python programming language which focuses on teaching concepts via examples. The initial chapters explain various concepts and in a later chapter, you will build a command line todo list manager.
5. Composing Programs by John DeNero
This text focuses on methods for abstraction, programming paradigms, and techniques for managing the complexity of large programs. These concepts are illustrated primarily using Python 3.
6. Google’s Python Class by Google
This is a free class for people with a little bit of programming experience who want to learn Python. The class includes written materials, lecture videos, and lots of code exercises to practice Python coding. These materials are used within Google to introduce Python to people who have just a little programming experience.
7. Google Python Style Guide by Google
Python is the main dynamic language used at Google. This style guide is a list of Do’s and Don’ts for Python programs.
8. Introduction to Programming with Python by OpenTechSchool and contributors
This workshop is an introduction to basic programming concepts and abstractions. It’s laid out for hands-on workshops taking up roughly 4 hours.
9. Learn python3 in Y minutes by Louie Dinh
A whirlwind tours of Python, presented as valid, commented code and explained as it goes.
10. Non-Programmer’s Tutorial for Python 3 by Wikibooks
The Non-Programmer’s Tutorial For Python 3 is a tutorial designed to be an introduction to the Python programming language. This guide is for someone with no programming experience.
11. Python programming tutorial by Akuli
This is a concise Python 3 programming tutorial for people who think that reading is boring. The author aims to show everything with simple code examples; there are no long and complicated explanations with fancy words.
12. Python Koans by Greg Malcolm
Python Koans is an interactive tutorial for learning the Python programming language by making tests pass.
13. Scipy Lecture Notes by Gaël Varoquaux, Emmanuelle Gouillart, Olav Vahtras, Pierre de Buyl (Editors)
One document to learn numerics, science, and data with Python.
14. The Python GTK+ 3 Tutorial
This tutorial gives an introduction to writing GTK+ 3 applications in Python.
Prior to working through this tutorial, it’s recommended that you have a reasonable grasp of the Python programming language.
15. Python Tutorial for Beginners [Full Course] by Programming with Mosh
A Python tutorial for beginners. Learn Python for machine learning and web development.
16. The Python Tutorial by Python Software Foundation
This tutorial introduces the reader informally to the basic concepts and features of the Python language and system. It helps to have a Python interpreter handy for hands-on experience, but all examples are self-contained, so the tutorial can be read off-line as well.
17. Practice Python by Michele Pratusevich
There are over 30 beginner Python exercises just waiting to be solved. Each exercise comes with a small discussion of a topic and a link to a solution.
18. A Complete Python 3 Tutorial by Witspry Technologies
This is a complete Python (updated to Python 3.7) course where you can learn Python from scratch. It covers almost all aspects of Python programming language from a professional development perspective.
19. Python Tutorial for Beginners: Learn Python Programming in 7 Days by Guru99
Python has deep focus on code readability and this class will teach you Python from basics.
All tutorials in this series:
| Free Programming Tutorials | |
|---|---|
| ABAP | Advanced Business Application Programming |
| Ada | ALGOL-like programming language, extended from Pascal and others |
| Agda | Dependently typed functional language based on intuitionistic type theory |
| Alice | Educational language with an integrated development environment |
| Arduino | Inexpensive, flexible, open source microcontroller platform |
| Assembly | As close to writing machine code without writing in pure hexadecimal |
| Awk | Versatile language designed for pattern scanning and processing |
| Bash | ‘Bourne-Again-SHell’ is both a shell and programming language |
| BASIC | Family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages |
| C | General-purpose, procedural, portable, high-level language |
| C++ | General-purpose, portable, free-form, multi-paradigm language |
| C# | Combines the power and flexibility of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic |
| Chapel | Parallel-programming language in development at Cray Inc. |
| Clojure | Dialect of the Lisp programming language |
| ClojureScript | Compiler for Clojure that targets JavaScript |
| COBOL | Common Business-Oriented Language |
| CoffeeScript | A very succinct programming language that transcompiles into JavaScript |
| Coq | Dependently typed language similar to Agda, Idris, F*, Lean, and others |
| Crystal | General-purpose, concurrent, multi-paradigm, object-oriented language |
| CSS | CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) specifies a web page’s appearance |
| D | General-purpose systems programming language with a C-like syntax |
| Dart | Client-optimized programming language for fast apps |
| Dylan | Multi-paradigm language, supports functional & object-oriented programming |
| ECMAScript | Best known as the language embedded in web browsers |
| Eiffel | Object-oriented language |
| Elixir | Relatively new functional language that runs on the Erlang virtual machine |
| Elm | Functional language that compiles to JavaScript |
| Emacs Lisp | A dialect of the Lisp programming language. |
| Erlang | General-purpose, concurrent, declarative, functional language |
| F# | General purpose, strongly typed, multi-paradigm language. Part of ML |
| Factor | Dynamic stack-based language |
| Forth | Imperative stack-based programming language |
| Fortran | The first high-level language, using the first compiler |
| Go | Compiled, statically typed programming language |
| Groovy | Powerful, optionally typed and dynamic language |
| Hack | For the HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM), created as a dialect of PHP |
| Haml | HTML Abstraction Markup Language |
| Haskell | Standardized, general-purpose, polymorphically, statically typed language |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language |
| Icon | High-level, general-purpose language |
| Imba | Full-stack language that compiles to performant JavaScript |
| J | Array programming language based primarily on APL |
| Java | General-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, high-level language |
| JavaScript | Interpreted, prototype-based, scripting language |
| Julia | High-level, high-performance language for technical computing |
| Kotlin | Statically typed, general-purpose programming language with type inference |
| LabVIEW | Designed to enable domain experts to build power systems quickly |
| LaTeX | Professional document preparation system and document markup language |
| Less | Backwards-compatible language extension for Cascading Style Sheets |
| Limbo | Designed for applications running distributed systems on small computers |
| Lisp | Unique features - excellent to study programming constructs |
| Logo | Dialect of Lisp that features interactivity, modularity, extensibility |
| Lua | Designed as an embeddable scripting language |
| Markdown | Plain text formatting syntax designed to be easy-to-read and easy-to-write |
| Nim | Statically typed compiled systems language with syntax resembling Python |
| Objective-C | General purpose language which is a superset of C |
| OCaml | General-purpose, powerful, high-level language |
| Octave | High-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations |
| OpenCL | Open Computing Language |
| Pascal | Imperative and procedural language designed in the late 1960s |
| Perl | High-level, general-purpose, interpreted, scripting, dynamic language |
| Pike | Interpreted, general-purpose, high-level, cross-platform, dynamic language |
| PHP | PHP has been at the helm of the web for many years |
| Pony | Pony is an actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance language |
| PostScript | Page description language in electronic and desktop publishing |
| Prolog | General purpose, declarative, logic programming language |
| PureScript | Small strongly, statically typed language with expressive types |
| Python | General-purpose, structured, powerful language |
| QML | Hierarchical declarative language for user interface layout with a syntax to JSON |
| R | De facto standard among statisticians and data analysts |
| Racket | Platform for programming language design and implementation |
| Raku | Member of the Perl family of programming languages |
| Ruby | General purpose, scripting, structured, flexible, fully object-oriented language |
| Rust | Ideal for systems, embedded, and other performance critical code |
| Scala | Modern, object-functional, multi-paradigm, Java-based language |
| Scheme | General-purpose, functional, language descended from Lisp and Algol |
| Scratch | Visual programming language designed for 8-16 year-old children |
| Solidity | Object-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts |
| SQL | Access and manipulate data held in a relational database management system |
| Standard ML | One of the two main dialects of the ML language |
| Swift | Powerful and intuitive general-purpose programming language |
| Tcl | Dynamic language based on concepts of Lisp, C, and Unix shells |
| TypeScript | Strict syntactical superset of JavaScript, adding optional static typing |
| V | Statically typed compiled language to build maintainable software |
| Vala | Object-oriented language with a self-hosting compiler that generates C code |
| VHDL | Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language |
| VimL | Powerful scripting language of the Vim editor |
| XML | Set of rules for defining semantic tags that describe the structure and meaning |