Python. If you’ve heard that name spoken in hushed tones in programming circles, it’s because it’s one of the most popular and efficient coding languages. Python is everywhere, and for good reason—it makes things like scripting and automation simple, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

If you’re a beginning programmer or coder, the good news is there are some great free resources to help you learn how to code in Python, and it’s a fairly easy language to pick up. Here are a few things you should know about it first. 

What is Python?

When we talk about Python, we’re not talking about the scaly, bus-length reptile you view from a safe distance at the zoo—obviously. However, when it comes to coding languages, you could call Python a different kind of animal. 

Python is a versatile, high-level programming language that’s used for web development (server side), software development, mathematics, and data science. One of the biggest draws of Python is that it allows developers to work more quickly, because it requires fewer lines than other programming languages.

Python runs on every major operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi, etc.) and platform and most minor ones, and it’s considered a “glue” language, because it allows developers to integrate different applications and database systems and have them talk to each other. Not only is Python general-purpose, but it can interface freely with many major libraries and API-powered services.

Python’s most basic uses are for scripting and automation—people like to call Python the language that takes care of the boring stuff—but where it’s particularly helpful is in data science. Python handles big data and performs complex mathematics, eliminating the painstaking work it would require for a human to do it, and it’s often used for scientific research. It’s also great for back-end web development, because it comes with pre-built libraries and frameworks like Pyramid, Flask, and Django. These help shorten the time developers spend on projects. 

Python is a popular language in FinTech, for startups, for machine learning—it’s considered the most popular command interface for machine learning libraries—and it powers websites for companies like PBS, Nasa, and Reddit.

‍How to code in Python

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Python’s syntax is designed to be concise and easy to read. One thing that sets it apart is it encourages programmers to program without boilerplate code (this is code that’s repeated multiple times with very little variation). Python also allows you to use English keywords instead of punctuation marks, so your code looks cleaner. One of the simplest commands in Python is the ‘print’ directive, which, as its name suggests, simply displays a specified message on the page. 

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How to learn Python for free

Have we overwhelmed you yet? Hopefully not. This is the part where you can learn how to become a Python pro at no upfront cost.

You don’t have to take an intensive, four-year college course to learn Python. You can learn it in your PJs and from your bedroom, if you really want to. That’s because there are hundreds of free classes, tutorials, and challenges online that give you instant feedback and can help you become well-versed in this highly-accessible coding language. The best way to learn Python, of course, is to practice. 

Many PCs and Macs come with Python already installed, but you can also run Python for free from your browser. Go to the Python website, and you’ll find a Beginner’s Guide that offers dozens of links to Python resources, interactive tools and lessons, video tutorials, and free courses. There are also different Python “cheat sheets” you can access to play with on your own.

Aside from Python’s site itself, there are other great bootcamps and courses you can take to learn the language. Codeacademy is a great place to start. They offer a 30-hour, interactive Python beginner course on the latest version of Python (Python 3) that you can test out free for seven days, as well as a variety of courses on different Python applications.

To give you a sense of the breadth of what you can learn with this language, here are just a few of the Codeacademy Python courses you can take right now:

• Analyzing Data with Python
• Build Chatbots with Python
• Learn the Basics of Blockchain with Python
• Build a Machine Learning Model with Python
• How to Clean Data with Python

Udemy is another great place to find free Python courses. Udemy offers lots of video resources—over 130,000, in fact. It’s less interactive than courses like Codeacademy’s, but it will give you tips from the experts.

CheckiO is a different kind of resource. It gamifies Python learning by giving you fun programming tasks to solve as you make your way from destination to destination.

That’s one of the refreshing things about learning Python—there are literally hundreds of options for different learners, so you can find something out there that will make learning easy and enjoyable. The most important thing to note is that you can learn it without spending a lot of resources learning it.

How to take your Python skills to the next level

Let’s say that learning Python isn’t enough for you. You’re in it for the major leagues: a career in back-end web development or data science, for example. Free online tutorials can help you learn and practice Python, but they can only get you so far, and truth be told, you’ll often sacrifice either depth or breadth if you rely solely on free tutorials to teach you everything you need to know. Happily, there are other options.

You can get an immersive and extensive coding education on Python and every other language, framework, and program you’ll need to become a data scientist or developer right here at Bloom Institute of Technology (formerly known as Lambda School). At BloomTech, we invest in you. With our popular income share agreement, or ISA, you invest in yourself, too. When you pay for your BloomTech education with an ISA, you’ll start by paying for a fraction of your tuition up front. Once you graduate, we’ll help you land a well-paying job—and then you’ll pay for the rest of your tuition with a percentage of your income for a limited time. 

In other words, an ISA funds your tuition so you can pay back BloomTech later.

Here are some of the basics about ISAs at BloomTech.

1. Know what you owe. No monthly interest. Unlike with a typical loan, the maximum amount you owe will never increase with an ISA doesn’t accrue monthly interest. In other words, what you owe never increases. Your total payment amount is capped at $40,000*, andmaximumso you won’t pay more than that amount . you may end up paying less. No monthly interest.

2. It scales with you. Your goal is to get a great job; that’s our goal for you, too. Once you start earning at least an annualized $50,000** a year, you’ll pay us back with a percentage of your income each month. If your earned income falls below the minimum total amount, your payments will be deferred until your income reaches the minimum again.

3. No lingering obligations. Your contract is finished once you complete the ISA payment schedule or reach the payment cap, whichever comes first. And if you aren’t making the minimum average monthly income, and have had deferred payments for a total of 48 months, then your ISA expires and you don’t owe anything else—even if you’ve paid nothing up to that point.

At BloomTech, we are committed to providing more people with a direct and lower-risk path to a rewarding tech job. That’s why we offer flexible options to pay your tuition—and launch your new career.

We offer two different courses: full-stack web development and data science. In both courses, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about Python and Python application, but we don’t stop there. BloomTech’s full-stack web development course will teach you HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node, React, Redux, and SQL. BloomTech’s data science course will teach you SQL, data visualization, machine learning, linear algebra, databases, statistics and modeling, and natural language processing. If you're interested in more in-depth Python instruction, the Data Science program is a great choice for you.

Both courses give you the opportunity to learn from industry experts and get experience building your own real-life projects with a team of students just like you. Both courses also come with built-in career development. That means you have the opportunity to work with job trainers and career coaches so that, when the time comes, you’re prepared to get your dream job in the field.

Apply to BloomTech now to start learning Python and preparing for an exciting career!