Python from Zero: Course Outline

Overview

Learn Python by building a practical command-line flashcard application. Progress through hands-on exercises that introduce core programming concepts while creating a fully functional multi-user learning tool.

Course structure

📚 Learning approach

  • Incremental building: Each exercise adds new functionality to the same project
  • Learn by doing: Hands-on coding with immediate practical application
  • Checkpoint system: Git commits after each exercise for safe progress tracking
  • Flexible pacing: Self-directed learning with structured break points
  • Reference materials: Linked guides for each concept introduced

🎯 Target audience

  • Complete beginners with no programming experience
  • Self-learners who prefer project-based learning
  • Anyone wanting to build practical Python skills from scratch

Milestones

🎯 MILESTONE 1: Interactive command line dialog (Exercises 0-8)

What you’ll build: An interactive menu system with user input, calculations, and conditional logic

Core concepts:

  • Variables and data types (strings, integers, floats, booleans)
  • User input/output with input() and print()
  • String formatting (f-strings, concatenation)
  • Arithmetic and comparison operators
  • Control flows (if/elif/else, while loops)
  • Input validation patterns
  • Menu system patterns

Programming patterns:

  • Input → Process → Output
  • Menu loop pattern
  • Input validation loop
  • Sentinel loop pattern

By the end: You’ll have an interactive program that greets users, performs calculations, validates input, and provides dynamic feedback based on performance metrics.

🎯 MILESTONE 2: Basic flashcard app (Exercises 9-16)

What you’ll build: A functioning flashcard practice application with randomization

Core concepts:

  • Data structures (lists, tuples, dictionaries)
  • for loops and iteration
  • Dictionary methods (.items(), .keys(), .values())
  • Random module (random.shuffle(), random.choice())
  • Functions and modules
  • String methods (.lower(), .strip())
  • The accumulator pattern
  • Loop control (break, continue)

Programming patterns:

  • Collection processing (for loops)
  • Dictionary lookup pattern
  • Counted loop with break
  • Accumulator pattern
  • Randomization pattern

By the end: You’ll have a complete flashcard app that presents questions, checks answers, tracks scores, and randomizes card order for effective learning.

🎯 MILESTONE 3: Multi-user flashcard app (Exercises 17-22)

What you’ll build: A robust, file-based multi-user application with data persistence

Core concepts:

  • File I/O (reading and writing files)
  • File context managers (with statement)
  • Text file formats (CSV/plain text)
  • JSON format (structure and syntax)
  • Nested JSON structures
  • Error handling (try/except)
  • Common file exceptions (FileNotFoundError, JSONDecodeError)
  • Data validation and graceful degradation

Programming patterns:

  • File reading pattern (with error handling)
  • File writing pattern
  • JSON load → modify → save pattern
  • Multi-user data structure
  • User authentication/identification

By the end: You’ll have a production-ready application that loads flashcards from files, saves user progress, handles errors gracefully, and supports multiple users with individual preferences and history.

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