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Tracks · Beginner

Python for everybody

Dr Chuck's Python for Everybody: lessons for people with no programming background, through to databases and data visualisation.

Open the course on Charles Severance, University of Michigan See the walk-throughs

The course

Course
Python for Everybody (PY4E)
Made by
Charles Severance, University of Michigan
Cost
Free
Language
Python

This web site is building a set of free materials, lectures, book and assignments to help students learn how to program in Python.

The materials are licensed Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The same course also runs on Coursera, edX and freeCodeCamp.

Python for Everybody (PY4E) is made and run by Charles Severance, University of Michigan, and it is free. We do not host or copy it: you learn on their site. The live walk-through, where your instructor works through it alongside you, is ours.

Lessons, as Charles Severance, University of Michigan names them

  1. Installing Python
  2. Why Program?
  3. Variables, expressions and statements
  4. Conditional Execution
  5. Functions
  6. Loops and Iterations
  7. Strings
  8. Files
  9. Lists
  10. Dictionaries
  11. Tuples
  12. Regular Expressions
  13. Network Programming
  14. Using Web Services
  15. Object-Oriented Programming
  16. Databases
  17. Data Visualization

A suggested pace

17 weeks at 3 to 4 hours a week. This is our suggestion, not the provider's; go slower whenever you need to.

  1. Weeks 1 to 6Installing Python to Loops and Iterations
  2. Weeks 7 to 11Strings to Tuples
  3. Weeks 12 to 17Regular Expressions to Data Visualization

What you will build

  • Autograded assignments
  • Programs that read files, the web and databases

Instructor walk-throughs

Each day follows a free GitHub Skills exercise in your own GitHub account. GitHub Actions checks each step as you go, and the founder walks through it live.

  1. 01Installing Python, togetherInstalling Python, Why Program?
  2. 02Your first loopsLoops and Iterations

Dates and times: Dates, times and seats: To be announced. How the live sessions work

Checked on: PY4E, PY4E lessons (2026-11-03). Units listed in the provider's own words; the summary, pace and walk-throughs are ours.

All tracks