<p>The Python community is amazing at sharing detailed resources and helping
beginners learn to program with the language. There are so many resources
out there though that it can be difficult to know how to find them. </p>
<p>This page aggregates the best Python resources with a brief description of
how it fits one's learning purpose. </p>
<p>Looking for information on Python development environments? There's a
<ahref="/development-environments.html">whole other page for editors and IDEs</a>.</p>
<h2>New to programming</h2>
<p>If you're learning your first programming language these books were written
with you in mind. Developers learning Python as a second or later language
should skip down to the next section for "experienced developers".</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>If you've never programmed before check out the
<ahref="http://learntocodewith.me/getting-started/">Getting Started</a> page on
<ahref="http://learntocodewith.me/">Learn To Code with Me</a>
by <ahref="https://twitter.com/lebdev">Laurence Bradford</a>. She's done an
incredible job of breaking down the steps beginners should take when
they're uncertain about where to begin.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>To get an introduction to both Python and Django at the same time, purchase
<ahref="http://www.realpython.com/">Real Python</a> by Fletcher, Michael, and Jeremy.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/">Learn Python the Hard Way</a> is a
free book by Zed Shaw.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://www.diveinto.org/python3/">Dive into Python 3</a> is an open source
book provided under the Creative Commons license and available in HTML or
PDF form.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://pymbook.readthedocs.org/en/latest/">Python for You and Me</a> (pym) is
an online book for people completely unfamiliar with the Python programming
language.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/python/">A Byte of Python</a> is a beginner's
tutorial for the Python language. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Code Academy has a <ahref="http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python">Python track</a>
for people completely new to programming.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://opentechschool.github.io/python-beginners/en/index.html">Introduction to Programming with Python</a>
goes over the basic syntax and control structures in Python. The free book
has numerous code examples to go along with each topic.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The O'Reilly book
<ahref="http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/index.html">Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist</a>
is available in HTML form for free on the web.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://anandology.com/python-practice-book/index.html">Python Practice Book</a>
is a book of Python exercises to help you learn the basic language syntax.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Looking for ideas about what projects to use to learn to code? Check out
<ahref="https://medium.com/learning-journalism-tech/five-mini-programming-projects-for-the-python-beginner-21492f6ce0f3">this list of 5 programming project for Python beginners</a>.</p>
lecture videos and exercises for learning Python.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Check out the <ahref="http://www.realpython.com/blog/">Real Python! Blog</a> for a great
set of relevant posts about Python web development topics.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Beyond the basics</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://mirnazim.org/writings/python-ecosystem-introduction/">The Python Ecosystem: An Introduction</a>
provides context for virtual machines, Python packaging, pip, virutalenv
and many other topics after learning the basic Python syntax. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <ahref="http://www.reddit.com/r/python">Python Subreddit</a> rolls up great
Python links and has an active community ready to answer questions from
beginners and advanced Python developers alike.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://jessenoller.com/good-to-great-python-reads/">Good to Great Python Reads</a>
is a collection of intermediate and advanced Python articles around the web
focused on nuances and details of the Python language itself.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The blog <ahref="http://freepythontips.wordpress.com/">Free Python Tips</a> provides
posts on Python topics as well as news for the Python ecosystem.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><ahref="http://pythonbooks.revolunet.com/">Python Books</a> is a collection of freely
available books on Python, Django, and data analysis.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Videos, screencasts and presentations</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><ahref="https://twitter.com/heddle317">Kate Heddleston</a> gave a talk at PyCon 2014
called
"<ahref="http://pyvideo.org/video/2591/so-you-want-to-be-a-full-stack-developer-how-to">Full-stack Python Web Applications</a>"
with clear visuals for how numerous layers of the Python web
stack fit together. There are also <ahref="https://speakerdeck.com/pycon2014/so-you-want-to-be-a-full-stack-developer-how-to-build-a-full-stack-python-web-application-by-kate-heddleston">slides available from the talk</a>
<h4>Interested in major updates to this site or an alert when a complete Full Stack Python book with detailed example code is released? Sign up here and you'll an occasional email only when there's big news to report.</h4>