Biggest tip: don't use the Codecademy course. Do the MOOC Python Programming 2024 from the University of Helsinki. Free, heavily practice oriented, top quality. More on reddit.com

I run the " Learn Python 3" course but after 3 steps it already asks me to pay for it. Is it free or not? More on discuss.codecademy.com

The way I 'learned' was by recognizing a problem, be it a common function I performed on a day to day basis, or something I thought could benefit by a script or program, and started asking questions as I went along. For me, the easiest way to learn is by coding what I need/want, so online courses, like codecademy and learn python the hard way, didn't fit my learning style. Those options are good for picking up basics and various syntax rules, so don't let my comment be taken as discounting of them, but I only got through five or so lessons and moved on. My advice would be to come up with an idea for a program, even if it's something freely available, and start from square one. If you hit a wall, ask questions. More on reddit.com

Awesome job sticking with and finishing a learning resource! You've started making good progress on understanding Python's syntax and you can already start on the next step: using Python to solve problems.

For the sake of learning, let's consider having some problem you want to solve or thing you want to make as the first step in a project. And let's consider the last step is actually making the project with Python. But what are the steps you take to go from idea to code? Problems, even the toughest, are usually just complicated combinations of many, many smaller problems. So my suggestion is that this is what you want to focus on learning: breaking down a problem into tiny, manageable, detailed parts and then writing these tiny parts as Python code.

If you haven't already, check out the problems on r/dailyprogrammer and try a problem you feel comfortable tackling. For example, the very first easy problem is:

create a program that will ask the users name, age, and reddit username. have it tell them the information back, in the format: your name is (blank), you are (blank) years old, and your username is (blank) for extra credit, have the program log this information in a file to be accessed later.

This one problem can be broken down into two smaller problems: getting the user's input and formatting the user's input. You can (and should) go further by breaking these two problems into even smaller parts. For example, getting the user's input involves three smaller parts: getting the user's name, age, and reddit username. These are much easier problems to tackle and I'm sure with what you know about Python, you can get user input. Then what about the second part about formatting the user's input? How would you break that down into more manageable pieces? If you run into something that you haven't learned yet, this is where a google search of "Python [whatever sub problem you're trying to solve]" will come in handy. For example, if you don't know about Python string formatting, I'm sure a google search of it will not only teach you more about Python, but also new approaches to how you would solve this problem.

I'm sorry for being long winded or redundant or not having sexy advice, but I find this helps me loads. When you do have the next billion dollar idea you're excited about, you'll be able to see its many smaller parts by breaking it down, and you will be able to solve it with not only Python, but any tool of your choice.

And here is the O.G. post that truly got me started learning; it says everything I tried to say, only better. Happy learning, friend!

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