Your Python Journey Decoded

Become an Expert in Python Programming

Rinu Gour
Towards Data Science
5 min readOct 10, 2019

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INTRODUCTION

Python is the fastest-growing programming language today. It comes as a little surprise: Python is extremely versatile and is an easy to learn language. If you want to build a career in programming, it makes sense to master this language.

According to the StackOverflow developers survey reports, Python is consecutively topping the Most Wanted programming language list for the last 3 years now. It is the Most Popular programming language after Javascript and Most Loved programming language after Rust. Whether you are a beginner or a professional this language is great for all purposes.

Do Have a Look!!
16 Most Fascinating Facts about Python

THE JOURNEY BEGINS…

Everything Starts with the Basics

Basics of a programming language are necessary for everyone to build strong foundations. Get well acquainted with these basic core programming concepts.

  • Numbers, strings, dictionary, list, and tuples:
    Dive deep into these data types. Understand the behavior of these data structures and the operations that you can perform on them, Ask questions like whether this data type is mutable or immutable?
  • Control structures (if-else, while loops, for loops):
    Use control structures and make small programs like calculating simple interest, check if a string is a palindrome or a program to print prime numbers.
  • Functions:
    Functions help in breaking the program into small modules used for a specific task. Learn everything about functions because they are literally everywhere! Even in your first program in python, you use the print() function.
  • Object-Oriented Programming:
    Object-oriented programming concepts include Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Polymorphism. They are based on real-world entities where everything is thought in classes and objects.

The Ideal Python Guide You Need for Your Journey

Decide your Area of Interest

Python is a general-purpose programming language. It is used for all kinds of jobs.

  • Data Analytics
  • Web development
  • Mobile apps
  • Data Science / Machine Learning
  • Automation
  • IoT applications, Robots

Each of these fields involves different career opportunities so it’s better to decide where your interest lies in and work hard to master that area.

Automate your Daily Tasks

There are many repetitive tasks that you can automate with python. Start building small applications where you implement your ideas of how you can automate a task.

For example, you can automatically search for a particular object on the web and download its content (also called data scraping), Update and format large Excel files, send reminder emails and notifications, creating chatbots, and fill online forms automatically through python scripts.

Building small scripts for these automation tasks will strengthen your basic programming logic and by integrating the parts together you will be able to build projects.

Data Structures and Algorithms

To become an expert in programming one just cannot afford to ignore the data structures and algorithms. These subjects need to be studied thoroughly and implemented in-depth. These data-structures will be with you throughout your journey.

Data structures include stack, queue, lists, trees, graphs, etc. You need to be able to decide which data structure is most suitable for a problem and you will be able to generate this ability only when you dive deep into it.

Algorithms for sorting, searching, dynamic programming, greedy approach, recursions, backtracking etc are concepts that enhance your problem-solving skills and improve your skills to become a better programmer and develop you as someone who has the capability to build optimal solutions.

Projects

Syntax and programming construct only tell you what are you allowed to do and what you aren’t. Making small applications will tell you how to approach and solve a problem. Building projects and implementing your ideas into real-world will make you an expert in programming.

Implementing projects is the best way to be an expert. There’s no alternative to it.

There are many frameworks that make building projects easier. For web development, Django and Flask are mainly used to create large and complex web applications.

Be a Top Python Contender with these Amazing Python Projects

For a Data scientist, you need to do lots of projects. Numpy and Pandas are very useful for performing operations on data and analyzing them for building machine learning models. Make projects related to different types of learning (supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning)

Try building unique projects that you can implement into the real-world and showcase in your portfolio and resume.

Take a Step Closer to Your Dream with these Amazing Data Science Projects

Python Advanced Topics

You might not know some of the concepts in-depth. To expertise in python, I’ve listed out some advanced topics to study in-depth. These are as follows:

  • List comprehensions
  • Dictionary comprehensions
  • Generators (class and method based)
  • How everything in python is an object
  • Lambda functions
  • Multithreading programming
  • PEP8 — style guide for python programming

EndNote

Now you know the details of how you can become proficient in python, its time to invest some of your time and commit towards learning. Learning python is fun and you can really go a long way if you are truly dedicated.

I hope this guide was resourceful. Good Luck on your Journey!

Make Your Commitment to Python

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Towards Data Science
Towards Data Science

Published in Towards Data Science

Your home for data science and AI. The world’s leading publication for data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence professionals.

Rinu Gour
Rinu Gour

Written by Rinu Gour

Data Science Enthusiast | Research writer | Blogger | Entrepreneur

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