learn-python-2025

Welcome!

This repository contains the course material for the Python Crash Course - pt I of Introduction to Data Science and Programming (IDSP) at ITU, fall semester 2025.

Course structure

The Python course consists of 11 units. Each unit consists of a lecture and an exercise. All material for each unit is stored in the folder of the same name (unit01, unit02, and so on). To complete a unit, go first through the lecture (new material, with short in-class hands-on exercises) and then through the corresponding exercise (longer, self-paced practicing of the lecture material).

Course contents - what you will learn

After completing the course, you will be familiar and comfortable with the following topics:

• Working with Anaconda, Jupyter notebook, and VS Codium
• Python objects (the "building blocks" of Python)
• Fundamental data types: int, float, str, bool, further data types and how to work with them: list, set, dict, tuple
• Operators (mathematical, assignment, comparison)
• Boolean logic and operations
• Conditional statements (if/else/elif)
• Loops: for and while
• Writing your own functions
• Interacting with the command line interface (CLI)
• Writing your own Python scripts
• Running Python scripts from the command line interface (CLI)
• Creating interactive Python scripts with user input
• Reading in and processing data in different file formats
• Importing, using, and creating Python modules
• Installing, importing, and using Python packages and libraries
• Data wrangling with pandas
• Package management with conda
• Measuring the runtime of your code
• Sending HTTP requests with requests and webscraping with beautifulsoup4

Additional resources

In the folder books, you will find the PDF versions of 3 books: "Python Crash Course" by Eric Matthes, "Python Projects For Beginners" by Connor Milliken, and "Automate the Boring Stuff" by XX. All three books are great to look up any of the topics from this Python course. Which one will speak most clearly to you is a manner of personal taste, and depending on the topic. Therefore, if you are struggling with a topic or want a more in-depth explanation, make sure to check it out in any or all of the three books!

Exercise content

Exercise 01 is all about installing the necessary software for this course. From exercise 02 onwards, you will find 2 versions of each exercise notebook: exerciseXX and (uploaded later) also exerciseXX_solved. Start with exerciseXX, and give yourself a couple of hours (and plenty of tries!) to solve the exercises on your own, before you check out the exerciseXX_solved notebook.

How to download the course material

todo: insert instructions (Or, if you're familiar with Git, just git clone this repository to your local machine, and remember to git pull to get the newest version of the repository!)

Questions? Feedback? Something's not working?

Get in touch with me by email.