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Python Fundamentals for Beginners

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Beginnercourse

This Python course provides a beginner-friendly introduction to Python for Data Science. Practice through lab exercises, and you'll be ready to create your first Python scripts on your own!

Language

  • English

Topic

  • Python

Industries

  • Information Technology

Skills You Will Learn

  • Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Development, Numpy, Pandas, Python

Offered By

  • IBMSkillsNetwork

Estimated Effort

  • 5 weeks

Platform

  • SkillsNetwork

Last Update

  • September 1, 2024
About This course
Kickstart your Python learning and get started with data science at the same time with this beginner-friendly, self-paced course. No prior programming skills are required. Python is the standard programming language used by data scientists and the demand for skilled individuals who can apply their Python knowledge to data science has never been higher. 
 
You will learn basic programming concepts using Python such as native data types; data structures like lists, tuples, and dictionaries; programming logic including conditions, branching, and loops; and the gears that make up the engine of your application: functions and classes, those chunks of executable, reusable code that control the behavior of your application.  
 
You will use a variety of Python libraries commonly used in data science such as Pandas, Numpy, and BeautifulSoup. You’ll also automate data collection with Python using a technique called web scraping and application programming interfaces, or APIs. This course uses Jupyter Notebooks for your hands-on labs, another popular data science tool. By the end of this course, you’ll feel comfortable creating basic programs, working with data, and automating tasks using Python by producing several artifacts for your portfolio to prove it. 

What You'll Learn

  • Combine fundamental programming concepts such as data types, data structures, expressions, and variables to write Python code that executes simple tasks 
  • Write Python code using programming logic including branching, loops, functions, objects, and classes 
  • Construct data science models using Python libraries including Pandas, Numpy, and BeautifulSoup 
  • Import web data into a Python application using APIs and web scraping 

Prerequisites

Basic computer skills

Course Syllabus:

Module 1: Python Basics 
  • Types 
  • Expressions and Variables 
  • Hands-On Lab: Your First Program, Types, Expressions, and Variables 
  • String Operations 
  • Hands-On Lab: Strings 
Module 2: Python Data Structures 
  • List and Tuples 
  • Hands-On Lab: Lists 
  • Hands-On Lab: Tuples 
  • Dictionaries 
  • Hands-On Lab: Dictionaries 
  • Sets 
  • Hands-On Lab: Sets 
  • Python Data Structure 
Module 3: Python Programming Fundamentals 
  • Conditions and Branching 
  • Hands-On Lab: Conditions and Branching 
  • Loops 
  • Hands-On Lab: Loops 
  • Functions 
  • Hands-On Lab: Functions 
  • Exception Handling 
  • Objects and Classes 
Module 4: Working with Data in Python 
  • Reading Files with Open 
  • Hands-On Lab: Reading Files with Open 
  • Writing Files with Open 
  • Hands-On Lab: Writing Files with Open 
  • Loading Data with Pandas 
  • Pandas: Working with and Saving Data 
  • Practice Lab: Selecting data in a Dataframe 
  • Hands-on Lab: Loading Data with Pandas  
  • One Dimensional Numpy 
  • Hands-On Lab: One-Dimensional Numpy 
  • Hands-On Lab: Two-Dimensional Numpy 
Module 5: APIs and Data Collection 
  • Simple APIs  
  • Hands-On Lab: Introduction to API  
  • REST APIs & HTTP Requests  
  • Hands-on Lab: Access REST APIs & Request HTTP 
  • Hands-On Lab: API Examples 
  • Webscraping 
  • Hands-on Lab: Webscraping 
  • Working with different file formats 
  • Hands-on Lab: Working with different file formats 

Instructors

Joseph Santarcangelo

Senior Data Scientist at IBM

Joseph has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, his research focused on using machine learning, signal processing, and computer vision to determine how videos impact human cognition. Joseph has been working for IBM since he completed his PhD.

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