Learn Python For Free With These Courses and eBooks
Wondering how to learn Python for free? We list some of the best Python courses and books that you can use to learn Python online without spending any money.
Want to learn Python for free? Here, we list some of the best Python courses and books that you can use to learn Python online without spending any money.
Python is a popular programming language. It’s also preferred by sysadmins for writing scripts.
Python 3 is the latest major version available. Even though Python 2 was very popular among the devs, it is reaching its end of life on January 1, 2020.
So, if you’re trying to learn Python, I’d recommend you to start with Python 3. While I am trying to learn python – in this article, I focus on pointing out some of the best free Python learning resources I’ve come across.
Free Python Learning Resources
For this list, I’ve picked some websites that you can access without signing up and some online courses that you need to sign up for (which is free).
In addition to these, I’ve also included some free eBooks that should help you get started learning Python without needing to spend a penny.
1. Python for Beginners: Video Tutorials Series by Microsoft
Microsoft has created plenty of free programming courses lately. Python is one of them.
You can follow the Python for Beginners video course on YouTube for free. The entire series consists of 44 videos and gives you the foundation on programming in Python, starting from common everyday code and scenarios.
2. SoloLearn [Website]
If you do not prefer something that includes a lot of text-based information, SoloLearn is for you.
SoloLearn simplifies the learning by giving you a quick summary of every essential topic along with some important notes as well. In addition to the summarized information, it also includes questions in the form of fill in the blanks or MCQs after every lesson.
You don’t even have to utilize your computer, it lets you try the code in their online code playground. SoloLearn also offers an app for Android and iOS – which makes it easier to learn on the go.
3. Learn Python [Website]
Don’t want to sign up or log in to access the resources to learn Python? Fret not, there’s an option for that as well.
LearnPython.org is a free online resource to start learning Python while also being able to run the code online, powered by DataCamp (which we shall talk about in the later section of this article).
The mobile version of this site isn’t an optimal experience. So, it’s best-suited for browsing and learning online through a desktop browser.
4. Udacity – Introduction to Python Programming [Website]
Udacity is a pretty popular portal for learning tech skills and getting certifications as well. It’s usually known for the paid online courses that students/professionals opt for in order to get certified while learning a skill.
However, it also offers some free courses. For Python, I picked up a free course – “Introduction to Python Programming“, which is quite helpful. In this case, you won’t have an online code editor to try it out – so you will have to set up Python on your machine or use an online IDE to try out the code.
Do note that you do have to sign up / log in to access the free Python course.
5. How To Code in Python 3 by Digital Ocean [eBook/Website]
DigitalOcean is a cloud infrastructure provider. Just because there’s no proper customer support like other commercial managed hosting solutions, they offer tons of tutorials and documentation to help you set up and deploy what you need by using their infrastructure.
As part of those tutorials, you will find a series of articles that guide you to learn Python 3. You can go through the articles separately or choose to download the PDF or EPUB file for the complete series to read it offline.
The resource is completely free to download and covers a lot of details that help you set up Python and get started learning it.
6. Alison – Introduction to Python Programming [Website]
Alison focuses on providing free online courses from a variety of sources. For instance, the free Python course – “Introduction to Python Programming” is a resource published by Khan Academy.
After progressing through the courses available, you can purchase the official certification – if needed. The content offered isn’t too impressive – but it is still something useful that you get for free.
7. DataCamp – Python Programming Track [Website]
We’ve already seen DataCamp‘s free online resource LearnPython.org to help you get started with Python Programming for free.
However, on its own platform – it also offers a Python course with limited free content. In its Python programming skill track, you will be able to access the basic concepts for free and you will have to upgrade your account if you want to continue learning advanced stuff along with the certification.
I know it’s not the best way to learn Python, but Datacamp’s interface and code editor is impressive. So, I thought it is worth mentioning for some.
8. A Byte Of Python [eBook]
This is a pretty handy free Python eBook available on GitHub. You can download the PDF/ePub/Mobi file from the link below.
As my impression of this eBook, it presents the content in a way that makes it easy to grasp. The example code snippets add more value to what’s written. Overall, it is a concise eBook to have to refer to for learning Python programming.
9. The Official Python Documentation [Website]
How can I forget the official documentation for Python?
For obvious reasons, you may not find the resource intuitive enough compared to the resources mentioned above. No matter whether you’re a newbie or an experienced developer, the official documentation comes in handy to everyone who works with Python.
The key highlight of the official documentation is that you can browse through the content while you have the option to change the Python version to spot the exact changes between two different versions (if there’s any).
10. Udemy – Python for Absolute Beginners
Yet another popular platform for online courses – Udemy, is offering a free Python course from the available catalog of paid courses.
This is purely meant for beginners – so if you are an experienced dev, you will not find it interesting in any way.
11. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python [Website/Book/Kindle]
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python is a pretty useful resource that offers a series of posts addressing a lot of details in a concise format. It suggests and recommends the best practices while not just limited to what works.
It should be an interesting resource for both beginners and experienced devs.
You can continue using the website for free without needing to sign up or log in. However, if you want a paperback/kindle edition, you can find it on Amazon.
Bonus: Packt – Mastering Python [eBook]
Packt is a marketplace (or a web portal) to purchase and read eBooks or other materials (videos) available.
Here, I found a free PDF eBook – Mastering Python. You just need to sign up and log in to access the free resource.
It is worth noting that it is not for beginners, so if you want to explore the advanced side of using Python, I’d recommend you to check this out.
Wrapping Up
While you can still opt for premium resources like – Learn Python 3 The Hard Way, I’d recommend you to get started with anything that’s available for free to brush up the basics at least.
Moving forward, you can opt for a certification course or a premium resource where you can re-visit the basic concepts and learn advanced parts of it as well.
I’m sure there could be more awesome free Python learning resources. If you think I missed something, let me know in the comments below.
A passionate technophile who also happens to be a Computer Science graduate. He has had bylines at a variety of publications that include Ubergizmo & Tech Cocktail. You will usually see cats danc