Python

5 Levels of Using tqdm in Python: Build Elegant Progress Bars

A comprehensive guide with practical examples

Image from Wallhaven

When you’re running long loops, processing large datasets, or waiting on I/O-bound tasks, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening. Without feedback, users (or even you as a developer) may assume the program has frozen or failed.

That’s where a progress bar comes in.

tqdm (from the Arabic word "taqaddum", meaning "progress") is one of the most powerful and widely used progress bar libraries in Python.

In this hands-on tutorial, you’ll explore 5 progressive levels of mastering tqdm, from simple loops to advanced use cases involving asynchronous programming.

Let’s start the journey now.

Level 1: Basic Progress Bar for Iterables

The simplest way to use tqdm is just to wrap your iterable with it.

For example, the following code simulates processing customer orders in an e-commerce system and tracking the progress with tqdm:

import time
from tqdm import tqdm

# Simulate customer order data
customer_orders = [
    {"id": 1, "customer": "Yang Zhou", "amount": 299.99},
    {"id": 2, "customer": "Bob"…