DEV Community

Cover image for Python for everyone: Mastering python the right way
AdaChime
AdaChime

Posted on • Updated on

Python for everyone: Mastering python the right way

So today I'm going to be talking about how to master coding the right way using python. I bet it's going to interesting read so sit back and relax. If you haven't read my previous post on getting started with python, I will really recommend you read it.

Before you start learning python, you need to ask yourself a few questions so that you don't get frustrated and give up. Getting constant errors in your code can be really frustrating, believe me.
You should ask yourself, why am I learning this language? , what do I want to achieve with?, what problems do I want to take active participation to solve using my coding skills?, these questions and lots more.

Another important thing you should have in mind before starting out are your goals, it could be long(2-5 years), medium(6 months- 1 year),or short(a week - 6 months) term goals. Those things you want to achieve within a specified time duration it will help you a lot.

*There are basic things you should know as a pythonista or a pythoneer *

  • Problem solving skills: The first thing you must know is that you must encounter challenges and problems, it's a must. What can help you to get solution to those problems are just good problem solving skills. Learn how to troubleshoot and debug codes, it will go a long way in helping you.
    If the problem is persistent, then you can reach out for help from google, stack overflow or any other python community.

  • _Know/learn how you learn:_This simply implies that you should know which learning patterns works best for you. You may love to read books a lot and view video tutorials as a waste of time, then go for books. There are many great books out there that can help you master python the right way. If you feel video tutorials work best for you, then fine. You can sit down for some couple of hours watching tutorials, and doing hands-on practice, that's still ok. It can be a mixture of both, any learning method is good as far as you know what works for you.

  • Commitment: You have to actually commit to learning python, it could be your long term goal to write at least one line of code everyday for maybe 6 months or more. From there you can see yourself becoming a pro, I know you like the sound of that. One thing that can really help you is to avoid procrastination, there's always a negative consequence for it.

  • Learn the basics first: Learn the first things first, learn how codes actually work, how the environment you're coding in works. Remember learn don't memorize, just know how it works. learn the data types, structures, strings etc. It's very important.

  • Code readability: Yes, this is very crucial. You don't write codes for just yourself that one thing you should take note of. Use the hash tags(#) to comment meaningful on the code you're writing so that other people can draw meaningful insights from it.

Another way you can master it well is by actually explaining it to someone else, you may have written a program you tell someone how the program actually works.
Having a coding partner or joining a python community is crucial, it makes you want to know more and makes you challenged thereby helping you grow.
You should also note that any and everybody can master python programming irrespective of whatever you can think of.
You can also get free materials that can be of value to you from different websites, udemy, coursera, code academy, solo learn etc to mention but a few.

You that join the challenge 100 days of code, it can help take you from where you are to where you want to be, if you are willing to do it consistently.

To download python, I would recommend python 3.7. You can also use anaconda or pycharm.

If you got one or two insights from this article, be sure to like and comment.
Remember google is your friend.
Thanks for reading!

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
enajciiru profile image
Immaculate Njoroge

Good read on mastering the Python language

Collapse
 
adachime profile image
AdaChime

Thanks dear ☺️