Learn Python for Beginners

Yes. You can complete the early chapters with full interactivity for free, and all lessons remain available in read-only mode. A paid membership unlocks the full interactive course, projects, quizzes, and certificate.

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You'll learn Python syntax, variables, functions, scope, comparisons, loops, lists, dictionaries, sets, type hints, testing, debugging, and error handling. The exercises make you use each concept instead of just reading about it.

Python's syntax is about as beginner-friendly as programming languages get. It reads close to plain English and you can run useful code in your first lesson. Learning to think like a programmer is the hard part, and that is what the exercises in this course drill into you.

This course has about 30 hours of lessons and exercises. At a few hours a week, that works out to a few weeks for the fundamentals. Deeper mastery comes after that, from larger projects and the rest of our Python curriculum.

You earn XP for every lesson you complete, keep a streak going by showing up, and clear quests and achievements as you go. The game mechanics are there to keep you consistent, not to replace the work.

No. Lessons run Python in your browser, so you can start writing code immediately. You will set up Python on your own machine later in the curriculum when you build projects locally.

Yes! It's free to create an account and start learning. You'll get all the immersive and interactive features for free for a few chapters. After that, if you still haven't paid for a membership, you'll be in read-only (content only) mode.

We use AI more than most tech companies - not just to build Boots and the Training Grounds, but also to assist us in our coding work... and we're still hiring developers! The demand for technical talent hasn't gone away. Companies need developers that are AI savvy and can modernize their codebases. The way developers work is changing rapidly, but the demand for developers who can build great software remains high. We teach software development skills for the modern AI assisted world, and also have some AI specific courses like how to build your own Agent.

It's completely up to you. The time it will take you to be "job ready" will depend on how much you already know, how often you study, and how long you study for. That said, the backend career path takes many people about 12 months.

• How long to become a backend developer

Absolutely! If you built it, use it. You'll build several personal projects while completing our curriculum, and our final course about finding jobs will show you how to construct a job-ready portfolio.

We're not a $10,000 bootcamp. We're not a $50,000 university degree. We are a self-paced, gamified online learning platform for learning back-end web development and computer science. You can learn with us for the price of a gym membership.

We focus on teaching backend-development and data-related skills, which is somewhat of a rarity in online learning. We're also focused on solving what we believe is the hardest problem with online learning: boredom. If you prefer coding rather than watching, and your struggle with online learning is staying motivated and engaged, we think you'll like learning with us.

• Read about our methodology