Learn to program in Python (English)

Lesmethode :

Klassikaal

Algemeen :

The Python Programming Fundamentals course, developed by the open-source experts at AT Computing and exclusively available via Vijfhart, teaches you the basics of programming in Python and introduces you to Python’s unique features, from algorithmic thinking to object orientation. Python is easy to learn and widely applicable across many IT disciplines, including Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Cyber Security. It’s used for everything from system administration scripts and installation software on Linux to web applications, graphical user interfaces, and automation. Thanks to its built-in object-oriented design and extensive standard library, Python is ideal for rapid application development: building quickly and efficiently without reinventing the wheel each time. This course is perfect for anyone with little to no programming experience.



Over the span of five days, you work toward writing Python code independently. You start by learning the fundamentals of programming itself: how to translate a problem into a solution using algorithms. Along the way, you become familiar with key programming terminology and concepts that apply to any language. From there, you dive into Python learning the syntax, working with variables and data types, and understanding flow control. You also explore commonly used structures such as strings, lists, and dictionaries, and learn how Python handles mutable and immutable objects. The course also covers bits and bytes, number representation in binary, octal, and hexadecimal, working with files, and encoding.



Because theory and practice are closely connected throughout the course, you quickly start to truly understand the concepts. You practice writing your own functions and modules, learn how to handle errors with exception handling, and get to know the powerful Python Standard Library. On the final day, you explore GenAI and vibe coding, learning how to write effective prompts to generate useful code, how to assess AI-generated code, and how to combine it with your own work. You also practice identifying and handling errors, since AI sometimes produces code that is inefficient or incorrect, and it’s important to stay in control and think critically.

Doel :

After completing the course, you can independently write Python programs and contribute to development projects with confidence.

Doelgroep :

This Python course is designed for anyone without programming experience who wants to learn Python and start programming independently, such as (future) software developers.

Voorkennis :

There is no prior knowledge required.

Onderwerpen :

- Introduction to algorithms:
   - algorithms for everyday human versus programming algorithms. The life cycle of computer programs.
- Introduction to Python:
   - Positioning, properties, applications, practical use, version2 vs. version 3, Python shell, scripting.
- Basic data types:
   - Constants and variables. Data types. Choosing names. Comment notation. Strings and numbers. Expressions and operators. Elementary string operations. Cutting slices. Overview of the data types and their properties. References. Mutable vs. immutable.
- Program structures:
   - Indentation as block structure, code style (PEP8). Booleans. Extensive coverage of control structures if-elif-else, for-else and while-else. break and continue statements. enumerate and range functions. Best practices. Introduction to exception handling (EAFP). Dummy statement pass.
- More about sequences and strings:
   - Operations on sequences. Specific string methods. Two ways of string formatting.
- More about lists:
   - Specific list methods. Operators for lists. List comprehension. The sorted and reversed functions.
- Bits and bytes:
   - Decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal representation. String formatting for these representations. Bit manipulations (and, or, xor, shift). Introduction to encoding. Little versus big endian (endianess).
- Files:
   - Binary versus text files. Open modes. Reading from and writing to files. Changing the current offset. Using stdin, stdout and stderr.
- Encoding:
   - Unicode sandwich. Encode versus decode. Different encoding standards. Default encoding. The 'bytes' and 'bytearray' data types.
- More about dictionaries, tuples and sets:
   - Applying dictionaries. Methods for dictionaries. Applying tuples and tuple notation. Using sets and frozensets.
- Functions:
   - Purpose and definition. Calling a function. Docstrings. Parameter passing and default values. Call-by-value versus call-by-reference. Return values.
- Modules:
   - Applying modules. Importing modules. Provenance of modules. Test code in module. Docstrings.
   - More about functions:
   - Nested function definitions. Name spaces. Scope rules and examples. Function as parameter. Standard functions map and filter. Lambda expressions. Generator functions.
- Exceptions:
   - EAFP motto (Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than Permission). Standard exception types. Own exception types. Catching exceptions. Actions upon catching exceptions. Generating exceptions with raise. Statement with.
- Global overview of the Python Standard Library:
   - Accessing command line parameters. Program exit. Time functions. Filename-globbing. File system tree walk. Using subprocesses. Elementary network facilities. Serialisation.
- Introduction to object orientation:
   - Classes and instances. Data abstraction. Inheritance, Polymorphism. Dynamic binding. Procedural versus object oriented programming.
- Object orientation and classes in Python:
   - Designing classes in Python. Constructor and destructor methods. Inheritance (derived classes). Polymorphism and dynamic binding. Special class methods. Operator overloading. Subclasses for built-in data types.