Review: Python 101: Develop Your First Python Program

This was a guided project on Coursera that promised to cover the absolute basics. True to its promise, it lasted about an hour.

Everything was provided for the course, and the format was side-by-side. On the right, you had a video walking you through the steps in Anaconda, while you actually had an Anaconda notebook to type into on your left. This point brings me to my first item of feedback:

Coursera has an excellent learning UI. While I think it’s missing a lot of core tool training for BI, there is no doubt that it knows the best way to teach people how to do things: hands-on while watching something directly pertinent.

You won’t learn much in an hour or so (and you’re not exactly going to have a “project” that is resume-worthy, but the guided project will certainly get the nerves out, if you have any fear of programming.

On my end, I briefly paused my Meta Programing in Python course and took this project because I felt I was missing a couple conceptual pieces in the way that Python code is written. I wanted to get a solid sense of fundamentals before I dove in much further.

I can’t say I learned a ton beyond getting a better understanding of the distinction between for loops and while loops, but it was only an hour. I would have probably wasted that hour watching YouTube or something. Hardly a loss of time.