Updated June 2026

Mastering Python Programming

Class Duration

35 hours of live training delivered over 5 days.

Student Prerequisites

Some prior exposure to any programming or scripting language is useful
Comfort with Unix/Linux, macOS, or Windows at a user level is assumed
No prior Python experience required

Target Audience

The course is aimed at experienced technology users who are adding Python to their toolkit. That typically includes developers moving into web or backend projects, administrators maintaining server environments, and anyone who wants to automate routine work through scripting. Participants who prefer a gentler ramp, or who only need part of this material, may want to look at Introduction to Python and Intermediate Python instead.

Description

This course covers the Python language from the ground up through material that is useful on the job. It starts with writing and running simple scripts and moves through file handling, regular expressions, binary data, and the parts of the standard library that most programmers reach for every day. Python-specific constructs - tuples, slicing, comprehensions, formatted output, and the like - get a close look. The emphasis is on using the language to do real work rather than on grammar for its own sake, so participants finish the week ready to apply what they have learned.

Class time is split roughly evenly between discussion and lab work. Each topic is introduced, demonstrated, and then exercised through guided coding. Participants write Python throughout the course and leave with working examples they can adapt to their own projects. The course is taught on a current Python release (3.13+, with 3.14 features highlighted where relevant).

Learning Outcomes

Write Python scripts that follow idiomatic conventions
Choose and apply Python's built-in data types effectively
Read from and write to files containing text or binary content
Match, extract, and transform text using regular expressions
Navigate and use commonly needed modules from the standard library
Apply specialized container types beyond the basics
Structure applications suitable for day-to-day production use
Manipulate dates, times, and calendar data
Select the right collection type - list, dict, set, or otherwise - for a given task
Work comfortably with comprehensions, iterators, and generators
Build reliable code using exception handling

Training Materials

Comprehensive courseware is distributed online at the start of class. All students receive a downloadable MP4 recording of the training.

Software Requirements

Permission to install Python 3.13 or later (installing with uv is demonstrated in class)
Text editor or IDE (VS Code with the Python extension recommended)
Terminal/command-line access on Linux, macOS, or Windows
Internet access for installing packages
If a local environment is not possible, a cloud-based environment can be provided

Training Topics

Introduction to Python

Python at a glance
A short history of the language
Strengths and trade-offs
Looking things up with pydoc

Running Python Code

Launching the interpreter
Interactive sessions
Executing script files
Cross-platform execution on Unix and Windows
Choosing an editor or IDE

Language Basics

Assigning and using variables
Working with built-in functions
Strings
Numeric types
Converting between types
Printing to the screen
Reading command-line arguments

Conditionals and Loops

Overview of control flow
Indentation as syntax
if / elif / else branching
Comparison and logical operators
while loops
break, continue, and else on loops

Sequences

Sequence concepts
Lists and their methods
Tuples as immutable sequences
Indexing and slicing
Looping over sequences
Nested data
Built-in sequence operations, keywords, and operators
List comprehensions
Generator expressions

File Input and Output

File objects overview
Opening text files
Reading text content
Writing text content
Reading and writing binary data
Interpreting binary layouts with struct

Mappings and Sets

Dictionary fundamentals
Constructing dictionaries
Looping over dictionary contents
Set fundamentals
Constructing sets
Set operations

Defining Functions

Function syntax
Arguments and parameters
Scope rules
Nested functions
Return values

Sorting Data

sorted() basics
Custom key functions
Lambdas as keys
Sorting different collection types
Using operator.itemgetter()
Descending order

Exception Handling

Syntax errors versus runtime errors
Raising and catching exceptions
try / except / else / finally
Handling several exception types
Suppressing exceptions safely

Organizing Code with Modules

The import statement
How Python finds modules
Writing your own modules
Packages and init.py
Renaming imports with aliases

Object-Oriented Programming

Object orientation in Python
Class syntax
Constructors with init
Instance methods
Attributes and instance state
Property decorators
Class-level attributes and methods

Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

Regular expression syntax
Compiled pattern objects
Searching and matching
Compilation flags
Capturing and named groups
Substitution
Splitting on patterns

Standard Library Essentials

The sys module
Running external programs
Math operations
Generating random numbers
Reading CSV data

Dates, Times, and Calendars

Using datetime objects
Converting timestamps
Parsing dates from text
Formatting dates for output
The calendar module

File System Operations

Paths and filenames with pathlib
Testing for files and directories
File permissions and metadata
Traversing directory trees
Input pipelines with fileinput
Copy, move, and delete with shutil

Advanced Data Structures

defaultdict and Counter
Pretty-printing with pprint
Archive formats: zip, gzip, tar, and friends
Persisting data between runs

Networking and Remote Access

HTTP with requests
Fetching web content
Sending email
Running commands remotely over SSH
Transferring files with FTP

Building Complete Applications

Reading input files Unix-style
Parsing command-line options
Detecting the current platform
Adding logging