Intermediate Python for Developers
This intensive training course will teach you in-depth about Python's powerful language features, modern best practices for Python app development in teams, and how to use Python for building and maintaining API services, back-end websites, and interactive web-based dashboards.
Prerequisites
Expected Outcomes
Days 1–2: You will learn about powerful Python features and best practices for writing maintainable code in teams.
Days 3–4: You will learn the essentials of creating RESTful APIs in Python, including handling requests and sessions, and interfacing with databases. You will also learn about templating and creating dynamic websites and interactive web-based dashboards, as well as debugging, deploying, and scaling them.
Overall: You will gain in-depth understanding and useful practical experience in a popular and powerful language and technology stack (Python / Flask / SQLAlchemy / Dash). This will help you immediately to contribute more to any Python development team.
Course Syllabus
Session 1: Intermediate language features
Day 1 will teach you powerful Python language features and help you fill the gaps in your knowledge as a foundation for developing larger real-world systems:
- Files, bytes, and encodings
- Defining custom data types with classes; properties; inheritance; OOP
- Iterators and generators, with applications
- Decorators, closures, lambdas, args in depth, with applications
- Idioms and elegant features of Python; newer Py 3.x features
- Elegant code beyond PEP8: special methods, context managers
- Raising and handling exceptions
- Creating modules and reusable packages; structuring projects
Session 2: Best practices and deployment
Day 2 teaches you some “best practices” for developing maintainable, robust systems in teams:
- Python style and docstring conventions; linting: pylint, Black
- Automated unit-testing with pytest and hypothesis
- Intro to continuous integration pipelines and TDD
- Intro to Git and best practices: branching strategies; tagging; semantic versioning
- Python packaging and deployment options and practices; virtual environments and tools
- Tips and tricks for writing elegant Python; functional idioms with toolz
- Integrated development environments; debugging tools
- Further resources
Session 3: APIs, websites, databases
Day 3 teaches you how to create database-backed websites and RESTful web APIs using Flask, an elegant, thriving Python web framework used by companies like Pinterest to power billions of requests per month:
- Consuming web APIs in-depth with requests (sessions, OAuth)
- Background to creating dynamic websites and APIs with Flask;
- Handling GET and POST requests and parameters;
- HTTP responses and status codes; MIME types
- Templating with Jinja2
- Sessions; debugging
- Using SQL databases with SQLAlchemy; database migrations
- Introduction to CRUD apps and RESTful APIs
- Navigating and documenting web APIs with OpenAPI (Swagger)
Session 4: Real-world example: web-based dashboards
Day 4 illustrates the concepts from days 1-3 with a real-world example: developing and deploying interactive web-based dashboards using Dash (which builds upon Flask). We apply best practices to building, deploying, and maintaining a complete scalable web dashboard app:
- Introduction to Dash layouts: HTML, Markdown, core components
- Input components and callbacks
- Forms and buttons: stateful callbacks
- Interactive visualizations with Plotly
- Multi-page apps; integrating Dash with Flask apps; debugging
- Deploying and scaling Python apps
- Worked example / extended projects
Personal help
We are happy to offer on-the-spot problem-solving after each day of the training for you to ask one-on-one questions — whether about the course content and exercises or about specific problems you face in your work and how to solve them. If you would like us to prepare for this in advance, you are welcome to send us background info before the course.
Other information
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Format:
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Courses are conducted online via live video meeting and using Python Charmers' cloud notebook server for sharing code with the trainer(s).
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Computer:
Hardware: we recommend ≥ 8 GB of RAM and a webcam. Preferably also multiple screens and a quiet room (or headset mic).
Software: a modern browser: Chrome, Firefox, or Safari (not IE or Edge); and Zoom.
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Timing:
Most courses will run from 9:00 to roughly 17:00 (AEST) each day, with breaks of 50 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes each for morning and afternoon tea.
Certificate of completion:
We will provide you a certificate if you complete the course and successfully answer the majority of the exercise questions.
Materials:
You will have access to all the course materials via the cloud server. We will also mail you cheat sheets and a USB stick with all the materials for reference.
Testimonials
“The course was delivered by trainers who were extremely knowledgeable in their field. It was really good to learn from the best!”
“Great course. Enjoyed it and will follow up with some practical implementation of some of the work.”
“One of the best training courses I've been on.”
“I loved it. Ed was inspiring.”
“Really impressed by Python's capability and excited to use as alternative to MatLab, as is free and better supported.”
“Very comprehensive intro to every aspect of python. Highly qualified trainer. Beyond my expectation on every aspect.”
“The VM setup and USB is great. Ed is an excellent instructor - he presents well and welcomes any questions. He is clearly a super smart guy who has a great grasp on what he is teaching - able to just prototype on the fly and the course overall really opened my eyes to python.”
“Course content was well presented and easily digested. Practical exercises were an essential part of the course – a good ratio of lecture/play was achieved. Well done Ed and Henry!”
“Simply awesome!!”
“Both Ed and Henry presented well…. The course structure was adjusted to suit the participants quickly and easily.”
“Excellent training course, excellently presented. Perhaps the best that I have had in the area of IT / programming.”
“One of the best programming courses I have attended - thanks!”
“This course has shown me how I could have done the work I was doing just last week 10x more efficiently in Python.”
“It was a pleasure ... Shared feedback from all involved was that it’s been one of the most beneficial and well delivered training courses we’ve been a part of.”
“Was the most fulfilling and rewarding class I have taken since "general relativity" at uni. Was extremely well run. Excellent all round!”
“Very impressed with the course, delivery. And depth of knowledge of Ed and Henry. Far exceeded my expectations and has greatly improved my core skills as well as inspired so many new ideas for my current work / projects. Thank you!”
