I use black & isort for code formatting and flake8 for style checking and linting. Pylint is a great addition too, it's stricter and provides detailed feedback - great for improved code quality over time.

EDIT4, 14 Apr 2024

Enable format on save option in UI setting globally.

EDIT3, 13 Apr 2024 Its just enough for 1.88.1 version

{
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
}

EDIT2, 27 Mar 2024

Just only use this config to real time linting.

{
    "python.defaultInterpreterPath": "/usr/bin/python3",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
}

Installed extensions are

• python
• pylint
• pylance
• python debugger
• autopep8

EDIT1 Update 4 Jul 2022 New version of python extension deprecates "python.pythonPath" and suggest to use this instead.

"python.defaultInterpreterPath": "/usr/bin/python3",

Put these lines in .vscode/settings.json

{
    "python.linting.pylintEnabled": true,
    "python.linting.enabled": true,
    "python.pythonPath": "/usr/bin/python3",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
}

And install autopep8 package.

Use pip to install it

python3 -m pip install autopep8

Or in Debian based as python3-autopep8 exists in repo you can run

sudo apt install python3-autopep8

And then python linting on vscode will work.

Also, the Warning menu will activate.

Hint that I set run linter onsave.