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Python by Example: Learning to Program in 150 Challenges
Python is today's fastest growing programming language. This engaging and refreshingly different guide breaks down the skills into clear step-by-step chunks and explains the theory using brief easy-to-understand language. Rather than bamboozling readers with pages of mind-numbing technical jargon, this book includes 150 practical challenges, putting the power in the reader's hands. Through creating programs to solve these challenges the reader will quickly progress from mastering the basics to confidently using subroutines, a graphical user interface, and linking to external text, csv and SQL files. This book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to program with Python. In particular, students starting out in computer science and teachers who want to improve their confidence in Python will find here a set of ready-made challenges for classroom use.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
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89 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 14, 2020
I like this book very much! What the title says is what you get. Whereas most books dedicate long sections to explain key concepts, rationale behind the lines of code, etc before a final page with some exercises, this book explains everything you need in one page per chapter and the rest is dedicated to exercises. In some chapters, the exercises require from you to go beyond what was briefly explained.. but don’t worry, in most cases you will solve the problem one way or another and you will be mooore than satisfied with yourself! Turtle, SQL.. there is room for so many things..
Forget the formalisms, open Python in your computer and go through all these exercises one after one. It will be an enjoyable experience.
Forget the formalisms, open Python in your computer and go through all these exercises one after one. It will be an enjoyable experience.
November 8, 2020
If you want to learn Python in a hands-on way, this book is the way to go. I tried teaching myself Python last year, but all the books had explanations that were way too detailed and practice problems that were way too hard that I got discouraged. This book is short, simple, and sweet. You get to write code from the very beginning, and the problems are just the right difficulty that you don't get bored or frustrated. The special "hard" problems at the end of the book were great, too!
August 25, 2022
those chunky challenges hit hard af ngl
March 6, 2022
توی یه ساعت میشد همشو خوند. من که سطحم بالا نیست ولی این کتاب دیگه خیلی ساده بود.
November 6, 2021
This is book is unlike any book I have seen about Python. The first thing I had to overcome was 'Who is this book for.' It seems like it is for kids, but are kids learning SQLite?
The answer is: it does not matter. If SQLite is something you wonder about, this books gives you an exercise and the basics you need. It does not make you read pages and pages about things you may or may not know, and may or may not want to know. But The Basics. An exercise, and what you need to accomplish the task. As to introduction to SQLite, creating a two-table relational database is just the right amount initial skills, on which to build.
This book is for anyone. Including kids. The great thing about it is, it does not assume the kids will just want to walk turtles on the screen. It takes me back to when I was a kid playing with an Atari, if someone had showed me how to write a database, I could not wait to create a database of my books, or my videotapes or whatever there was to catalogue at the time. This is a book that inspires to go on and learn more.
I may not be as easily excited as I were back in the days, but this books offers something very valuable not only for kids, but for all of us who are learning a new programming language: An idea about what the programming language is good for. Too many programming books go on and on about trivial constructs and loops and conditions, but failing to teach the most important thing: What am I supposed to do with what I just learned.
The answer is: it does not matter. If SQLite is something you wonder about, this books gives you an exercise and the basics you need. It does not make you read pages and pages about things you may or may not know, and may or may not want to know. But The Basics. An exercise, and what you need to accomplish the task. As to introduction to SQLite, creating a two-table relational database is just the right amount initial skills, on which to build.
This book is for anyone. Including kids. The great thing about it is, it does not assume the kids will just want to walk turtles on the screen. It takes me back to when I was a kid playing with an Atari, if someone had showed me how to write a database, I could not wait to create a database of my books, or my videotapes or whatever there was to catalogue at the time. This is a book that inspires to go on and learn more.
I may not be as easily excited as I were back in the days, but this books offers something very valuable not only for kids, but for all of us who are learning a new programming language: An idea about what the programming language is good for. Too many programming books go on and on about trivial constructs and loops and conditions, but failing to teach the most important thing: What am I supposed to do with what I just learned.
December 27, 2020
If you a) have a sincere interest in learning Python and b) have absolutely no knowledge of programming at all, this book is for you. It skips over the theory and you’ll need to get at least somewhat familiar with that at some point, but it gets you to actually start coding which I think is the most important thing.
Before I started working through this book, looking at lines of code felt like seeing an alien language, it felt daunting, like I would never get the hang of it. I now feel equipped to head out into the big, scary world of coding!
Before I started working through this book, looking at lines of code felt like seeing an alien language, it felt daunting, like I would never get the hang of it. I now feel equipped to head out into the big, scary world of coding!
June 18, 2025
This is the book you want.
If you’ve studied Python and still don’t feel confident writing code—despite learning a lot of syntax—this book fills that gap. It bridges the space between knowing how Python works and actually using it. I’m not sure it’s the best place to start your Python journey, but I wouldn’t rule it out either.
If you’ve studied Python and still don’t feel confident writing code—despite learning a lot of syntax—this book fills that gap. It bridges the space between knowing how Python works and actually using it. I’m not sure it’s the best place to start your Python journey, but I wouldn’t rule it out either.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews