Python is the most popular Programming language with multi-paradigm support. Python is easy to learn and code because of its extensive library. Python could be used in AI & ML, cloud computing, software development, data science, etc. In this post, we are going to cover the 10 best sites and resources to learn python for free.
If you are searching for where to learn python for free then, you are in the right place. This post covers the best places to learn python along with the best ways to learn python for free.
There are free courses on every topic on the internet. But finding the right courses can be difficult. Hence we have created this post to help you learn Python for free.
Table of Contents
- Things to do before learning Python:
- How long does it take to learn python
- Why learn python ? or Why should I learn Python?
- How hard is python to learn?
- Best Sources and Sites to learn python for free
Things to do before learning Python:
The first thing that you need to learn in python is consistency. When you start learning python it may seem easy at the beginning but, as the day passes you may take a break from the learning process, this ruins your whole process of learning.
So code daily and build a never-giving-up attitude. Schedule your time properly to learn, take breaks, and read articles about cool things built using python. This will cheer you up and push you more to learn python.
To Code python you also need an IDE(Integrated Development Environment), you can find tons of IDE but, we recommend Jupiter notebook, Pycharm, and visual studio code. if you love any other IDE you can also go with it. You can also use notepad to code.
How long does it take to learn python
It could take 2 to 6 months if you are a beginner. It entirely depends upon your knowledge, learning speed, method of learning, and learnings hours per week. If you already know another language it wouldn’t take much to learn the basics.
Why learn python ? or Why should I learn Python?
Python is the world’s most popular language. Python is extensively used for AI and Machine learning, Data science, web application. There is a huge upward trend in python adoption. It has massive community support. Any application can be easily designed using less syntax and it is easier to develop applications in python when compared to other languages.
Python has a well-built library for every sector. Below are some reasons why you should learn python:
- Automating tasks is easier in python
- Easier and simple syntax
- Massive communitiy and built-in support
- Used for Data science and machiene learning
- Python is high versatile language
- Fastest growing python language
- It has a $88K average salary
- Python is used in Big Data.
- Python is portable.
- Python is used in web development
How hard is python to learn?
Python programming is not hard to learn, when compared to other languages. It’s easier and more friendly to create programs and software.
Best Sources and Sites to learn python for free
1. Google
Google is one of the Best places to get python courses for free. These courses are taught by experienced Google employees. Google has a good resource for python learners. The free Python Beginner course is created by Nick Parlante.
Googles Python class is designed for beginners. This course contains video lectures, written tutorials, and Exercises to practice coding.
The Courses are divided into 7 sections starting with strings and ending with Utilities. The course can easily be finished within 2 full days. Knowing the little basics of programming languages will be helpful for this course. Google Itself uses Python for its Machine learning, cloud, and other applications.
The course starts with the installation guide and then the introduction to python. So, you don’t need to worry about installing and configuring IDE. The best part of this course is that the courses are taught using youtube, making you hassle-free of creating an account or registering for the course.
The course playlist contains 23 videos along with other materials that can be found on the google developers site. Its site consists of the best resources to learn python. The course range from 30 minutes to over an hour.
The sections are divided as follows. Each section contains materials and links to lecture videos.
- Python setup
- Python intro
- Strings
- Lists
- Sorting
- Dicts and Files
- Regular Expressions
- Utilities
2. Youtube
Youtube is the best site to learn python for free. Youtube contains a vast amount of free python programming courses taught by thousands of people. As you know youtube is completely free, you can get rid of ads by savings courses Offline. Youtube is the best place to learn python.
Youtube is faster and more user-friendly than other sites, you can even download the youtube app for free. Even google’s python course is provided through google. Youtube has the best python tutorials.
The courses are taught in different languages by different people for different levels of people and hence providing you a choice to choose from the huge amount of courses. We prefer a playlist that covers each python topic in detail, instead of a single long course. Youtube even has good free python advanced tutorials.
Below are some of the well-known youtube channels for programming
- Sentex – is for intermediate and advanced python programmers.
- The NewBoston – easy to follow up
- programming with mosh – It contains basic topics focused on beginners.
- freecodecamp.org -contains course on every topics.
- CS dojo, etc
3. Udemy
Udemy is one of the most popular online course platforms where anyone can launch their course. Udemy contains hundreds of courses on various topics.
Everyone considers free courses are not good on udemy. Yes, it’s true. But still, there are some good free courses on python that are very helpful for beginners.
Sometimes you can even get a Paid python course for free using coupons. You can also find some of these courses on youtube by searching the exact course names on youtube. Udemy has the best tutorial for python for free.
Udemy has around 10,000 free python courses in over 50 languages. Even the paid courses are available at very lower prices.
Some of the best Free Python courses available on udemy:
Introduction to Python programming
It is taught by Avinash Jain and the codex. This is a short course aimed at beginners. The entire course is only 1.5 hours in length. It has 55k ratings with over 630K students enrolled. if you are a beginner this course is for you. It even explains Object-oriented programming.
learn Python 3.6 for Total beginners
This free Python course covers basic and intermediate topics. It covers files, functions, and other topics. The course is 6 hours long and contains 39 lectures divided into 10 sections.
Python for Absolute Beginners
This free python course created by Joseph Delgadillo and Nick Germaine is 2 hours 16 minutes long. It has 4700 ratings and 76k students.
it also focuses on beginner and intermediate concepts. It contains intermediate concepts such as Built-in functions, Arguments, modules, etc along with a project.
3. Books
There is nothing like books. Books cover every topic in more detail. Python programming books may be difficult for some beginners. But if you Already Know the basics then no courses can replace books. You can get a free pdf of any book online.
Most of the advanced topics are only available in books. If you ask for the best resources to learn python on online communities like Reddit, Quora, etc then, most of the replies contain books. Python books are helpful if you have network problems. you can also learn from python’s official site
Best Books for Python Programming
Beginner Books for Python
- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners
- Building Skills in Python
- Building Skills in Programming
- A Byte of Python
- Computer Science Circles
- Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python
- How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition
- An Introduction to Python
- Python 101 – Introduction to Python
Intermediate Books for python
- Intermediate Books Sorted by Popularity
- Building Skills in OOP
- Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python
- Dive into Python (2004)
- Dive into Python 3
- Porting to Python 3: An in-depth guide
Advanced Books for python
- Effective Python,
- Python Cookbook
- Fluent Python
- dive into python
4. Microsoft’s Free Python Course
Microsoft provides a free python course similar to that of Google. At the first, the course was provided through Edx, but now it’s been removed. Microsoft free python course is provided through youtube. The course is well structured and covers all the important topics. The course is taught using Visual Studio Code IDE.
Microsoft also has self-paced python learning you can have a look at it. The Course provided through Youtube has 44 Lectures covering topics such as Decorators, Managing keys, Javascript Object Notation, API, Virtual Environment, and other Basic concepts of python. This series is known as python for beginners.
This course was recently updated in 2021. The course can be completed easily within few days. The lectures range from 5 to 20 minutes with more than a million views. Here is the link for the above python course playlist.
5. Coursera
Coursera is the best place to take a specialization in the course. Even the specialization course certificate has high value. Another good thing about Coursera is that the course is provided by bigger institutions and multinational companies. It contains courses created by MIT, IBM, Google, Standford, etc.
However, the specialization is not entirely free. You can only watch and learn from the python course for free. But, you won’t be able to get a certification or participate in the Quiz. Sometimes you can apply for Financial Aid and can get the entire course for free.
Coursera has a vast amount of python courses including Specialization and professional certifications. Python for everybody is a specialization from the University of MICHIGAN. You can start the course for free. It takes around 8 months to finish the entire Specialization. It is the best python tutorial for both beginners and advanced programmers.
Python for Everybody specialization is divided into 5 courses:
- Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
- Python Data Structures
- Using Python to Access Web Data
- Using Databases with Python
- Capstone: Retrieving, Processing, and Visualizing Data with Python.
6. Solo learn
Solo learn is an interactive learning app. You won’t forget what you learned using solo learn. It’s a self-paced lecture that is completely free. You can learn python and get a certificate for free in solo learn.
The free python course is structured into step-by-step tutorials making it easier to understand. It has a quiz at the end of each module to test your understanding. Instead of just teaching how to write code, you are taught to identify code, errors and understand topics.
7. CodeCademy
CodeCademy is similar to Sololearn. You don’t need to install IDE to learn. CodeCademy has a built-in editor and compiler. At the first, you will be introduced to the theory and then you are given to write code on that topic, Making it integrative learning.
At first, Codecademy was free but, now they slowly moving towards paid version. It covers Python tutorials in depth. Most python courses can be tried for free. Courses are divided into beginners and intermediate. There are around 50 Python courses. But, only a few are free. It even has a forum where you get your doubts cleared.
8. edX
edX is similar to Coursera. edX consists of more than 2000 free courses. The courses are provided by industry experts and trendings institutions. It has good professional certification courses on python.
Some of the free courses include Python basics for data science by IBM, CS 50’s by HarvardX, programming for everybody by Michigan, python data structure, etc.
The topics covered in free python courses are:
- Python Basics
- Python Data Structures
- Python Programming Fundamentals
- Working with Data in Python
- Working with Numpy Arrays
- SQL
- Functions and code review
- Sorting.
- Dictonary
9. Pulralsight
Pluralsight was completely made free during Covid Pandemic. It has a great array of courses. The free courses are limited But, Pluralsight keeps offering courses for free for some time. Hence having an account will help you get notified when they are made. Students can get a free Pluralsight Subscription for one year.
Pluralsight offers 2 free Python tutorials:
1. Python the Big Picture
It’s a beginner-level course which is completely free. The duration of the course is 1 hour 5 minutes. Its consists introduction about python nothing much.
2. Data Professional
It’s a 3-hour intermediate course covering some good topics. It has 6 lectures
Pluralsight doesn’t have many free courses. If you are a student consider buying the free student subscription.
10. LearnPython.org
learnpython.org is completely free and is fully dedicated to python. It has free python tutorials for beginners to advanced learners. It covers Python basic, intermediate, advanced, and data science Tutorials and courses.
Topics covered in LearnPython.org are:
- Variables and Types
- Lists
- Basic Operators
- String Formatting
- Basic String Operations
- Conditions
- Loops
- Functions
- Classes and Objects
- Dictionaries
- Modules and Packages
- Numpy Arrays
- Pandas Basics
- Generators
- List Comprehensions
- Multiple Function Arguments
- Regular Expressions
- Exception Handling
- Sets
- Serialization
- Partial functions
- Code Introspection
- Closures
- Decorators
- Map, Filter, Reduce
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Nice list here, Vikas! Another potential resource to consider is the free Python class from OpenClass