👋 New to Python? Start here.
Never written a line of code? That's exactly who this is for. Follow this path in order.
Your learning path — step by step
1. Take the Course
→
2. Build your first project
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3. Keep the Reference handy
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4. Build more projects
The Complete Python Course is one guided journey from cradle to mastery — 89 lessons across 7 stages. The Reference is your encyclopedia to dip into any time.
Start from the beginning
Stages 0–1 of the course: from "never coded" to writing real Python functions. No experience needed.
Beginner · Stages 0–1
Build real skills
Stages 2–3 of the course: OOP, error handling, modules, and the standard library. For those past the basics.
Intermediate · Stages 2–3
Master the language
Stages 4–6 of the course: decorators, generators, async, the data model, and CPython internals.
Advanced · Stages 4–6
🎓 Python — Cradle to Mastery Course
One structured path from absolute beginner to professional. 7 stages, 89 lessons, 60 projects. Every lesson links to a reference page on this site.
📑 Reference Pages
Deep dives into each part of Python — read when you need to understand something properly, or use as a lookup while coding.
Python Overview
What Python is, how it works, the ecosystem, version history, and CPython internals.
Variables & Types
Python's 12 built-in types, mutability, type hints, and the difference between = and ==.
Control Flow & Loops
if/elif/else, for, while, range(), break, continue, and Python's indentation rules.
Comprehensions
List, dict, set, and generator comprehensions — concise collection-building in one expression.
Functions & Scope
def, parameters, return, default arguments, *args/**kwargs, and LEGB scope rules.
OOP — Classes & Objects
Classes, __init__, inheritance, dunder methods, dataclasses, and class vs instance.
Error Handling
try/except/else/finally, custom exceptions, raising errors, and exception hierarchy.
File I/O
open(), file modes, reading and writing, text vs binary, encodings, and the with statement.
Modules & Packages
The import system, __init__.py, the module search path, pip, and virtual environments.
Type Hints
Annotations, Optional and Union, generics, Protocols, and static checking with mypy.
Concurrency
threading, multiprocessing, asyncio, the GIL, and concurrent.futures — when to use each.
Testing
unittest, pytest, fixtures, parametrize, and mocking with unittest.mock.
Standard Library
11 essential modules: os, sys, pathlib, json, re, datetime, collections, itertools, asyncio, and more.
📦 Standard Library — Module by Module
Python's built-in toolkit — no install needed. Click any module to see what it does and how to use it.
os
File paths, directories, environment variables, running system commands.
sys
Python interpreter info, command-line arguments, stdin/stdout/stderr.
pathlib
Modern file path handling — cleaner than os.path for most use cases.
json
Read and write JSON data — load from file, dump to string, handle types.
re
Regular expressions — search, match, replace, and extract patterns from text.
datetime
Dates, times, timedeltas, formatting, parsing, and timezone handling.
collections
Counter, defaultdict, OrderedDict, deque, namedtuple — beyond plain dicts and lists.
itertools
chain, product, combinations, groupby — powerful tools for working with sequences.
asyncio
Async/await, event loops, coroutines, and concurrent I/O without threads.
unittest
Write and run tests for your Python code — TestCase, assertEqual, setUp.
logging
Add professional logging to your programs — levels, handlers, formatters.
🛠 Projects — Build Real Things
14 complete programs with full working code. Each one teaches something new. Start with Project 1 — you can finish it in under an hour.
🟩 Foundations
You know the basics. These projects use variables, loops, and functions — nothing more.
🔵 Practitioner
You're comfortable with basics. These use files, classes, and multiple functions working together.
🔴 Advanced
You know Python well. These use async, HTTP, complex data structures.
▶ Run Code & Copy Snippets
Write and run Python right here in your browser — no install needed. Or grab a ready-to-use code pattern and adapt it.
📊 Go Further
Once you know Python, these pages help you see the bigger picture.
Programming Glossary
Plain English definitions for 80 terms — variable, function, loop, class, API, and more.
Compare Python to Other Languages
See how Python syntax compares to JavaScript, Go, Rust, Java, and 7 more — side by side.
History of Programming Languages
How Python came to be, what it was built to fix, and how it's changed since 1991.
Python for Data & Backend
A curated path if your goal is data science, machine learning, or building backend APIs.