Best Python Courses for Absolute Beginners

Picking your first Python course is a classic trap.

You go to Udemy, Coursera, or just Google “learn python,” and you’re hit with a tidal wave of options. There are 100-hour “mega-bootcamps,” 2-hour “crash courses,” and university-led specializations. They all have 4.7-star ratings, thousands of reviews, and a 90% off “limited time” sale.

So you freeze. Or worse, you pick one at random, spend $15, and drop out by video 12 when they start talking about “object-oriented-what-now?”

I’ve seen this happen countless times. The problem isn’t the course, not really. The problem is that “beginner” doesn’t mean just one thing.

First, “Beginner” Doesn’t Mean One Thing

 

This is the most important realization, and it’s where most “best of” lists fail. Which of these are you?

1. The True Beginner: You have zero programming experience. Maybe you’re good with Excel, but the idea of a command prompt or a “variable” is totally foreign. You’re smart, but you’re starting from a true zero.
2. The Data-Curious: You work in marketing, finance, or science. You’re a wizard with Excel or SQL, but you keep hearing “automation” and “data analysis,” and you know Python is the next step. You’re not scared of logic; you just need the syntax.
3. The “Other Language” Coder: You’ve built a website with JavaScript or tinkered with C# for a game. You understand loops and functions, but Python’s syntax (def what? Where are the curly braces?) is new.

This article is primarily for The True Beginner. If you’re in the other two groups, your path is different—you can likely skip the hand-holding and jump into more project-focused work. But for the true beginner, your first course choice is critical. It’s not about learning Python; it’s about learning how to think like a programmer without getting so frustrated you quit.

The $10 Udemy Course Graveyard

 

Let’s talk about the biggest mistake I see. You find a “Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in 100 Hours” course on sale. It has 800 lectures. “What a value!” you think.

You’ve just bought a ticket to the “course graveyard.”

Here’s the thing: a 100-hour video course is an awful format for a true beginner. It’s a passive experience. You watch, you nod, and you think you’re learning. But you aren’t. Learning to code is like learning to play guitar; you can’t learn by watching someone else play.

Your brain can only absorb so much theory before it needs to do.

The momentum dies around the 6-hour mark. You hit the first truly hard concept (maybe for loops or dictionaries), your little “hello world” code breaks, and you have no idea why. The instructor in the video types perfectly, and his works. You get frustrated, you close the tab. You tell yourself you’ll come back tomorrow.

You don’t. That $10 course is now sitting in your account, 8% complete, forever.

 

So, What Actually Works? Projects, Pacing, and Purpose.

 

The best python courses for beginners aren’t the ones with the most content. They’re the ones that masterfully blend three things:

1. Pacing: They introduce one concept at a time and immediately make you use it.
2. Projects: They force you to build something. Not just a calculator.py file. Something tangible, something fun. A (simple) game. A web scraper. A password generator.
3. Purpose: They explain why a concept exists. They don’t just say, “This is a dictionary.” They say, “You know how you need to store a list of users, but you need to look them up by their email fast? A list is bad for that. You need a dictionary.”

With that in mind, here are the courses I actually recommend to people. They each serve a different type of true beginner.

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1. The University Approach: “Python for Everybody” (Coursera)

 

This is my default recommendation for the person who is patient and truly wants to understand the fundamentals.

It’s taught by Dr. Charles Severance (“Dr. Chuck”), and it’s less a “Python course” and more a “computer science and programming 101 course” that uses Python. This distinction is crucial. You don’t just learn syntax; you learn why the syntax exists.

• The Vibe: It feels like a real, no-fluff university course. The videos are simple, direct, and Dr. Chuck is a fantastic, unpretentious teacher. It’s based on his book, which is available for free.
• The Pace: It is slow. Methodical. Some might even say boring. But it’s solid. You will learn about variables, conditional logic, loops, and functions, and you will understand them inside and out before you move on.
• The “Ah-ha!” Moment: The course is brilliant at connecting code to the real world. The first major section focuses on using Python to fetch and process data. You immediately see the point of it all.
• Who It’s For: The academic learner. The person who wants to know “why.” The patient beginner who isn’t in a rush to build a website by tomorrow.
• Who It’s NOT For: The person who gets bored easily and just wants to build stuff. The pacing will feel agonizing.

You can “audit” the entire specialization on Coursera for free (you just watch the videos and read), or pay to get the graded assignments and certificate.

 

2. The ‘Just Build It’ Approach: “100 Days of Code” (Udemy)

 

This is the polar opposite of Dr. Chuck’s course, and it’s the one I recommend for people who learn by doing.

Taught by Angela Yu, this course is built entirely around one concept: momentum. The goal is to get you to code for an hour every single day for 100 days. Every day, you build one (or part of one) small, tangible project.

• The Vibe: It’s a high-energy, encouraging, and extremely polished bootcamp. Angela is a great instructor who explains things clearly, and the “one day, one project” structure is addictive.
• The Pace: Incredibly fast, but project-based. One day you’re building a “Tip Calculator.” A few days later, you’re building a functional “Blackjack” game. Then you’re moving on to API-driven projects, web scraping, and even data science and web development.
• The “Ah-ha!” Moment: About a week in, you’ll build a “Hangman” game. You’ll have to combine loops, lists, functions, and conditional logic. When it finally works, you’ll realize, “Wow, I just built a complete, working program.” It’s a massive confidence boost.
• Who It’s For: The “hands-on” learner. The person who needs to see immediate results to stay motivated. The person who wants to build a portfolio of small, fun projects.
• Who It’s NOT For: Anyone who gets overwhelmed easily. It moves fast. While it’s geared for beginners, it throws a lot at you. It also doesn’t go as deep into the “why” of computer science theory as “Python for Everybody.”

 

3. The Frictionless Start: Codecademy’s “Learn Python 3” Path

 

Remember the “I got stuck on setup” problem? Codecademy solves that.

The single biggest hurdle for many beginners isn’t the code; it’s the environment. Installing Python, setting up a text editor (like VS Code), running a file from the terminal… this is where millions of potential programmers quit in the first 20 minutes.

Codecademy’s big advantage is the “sandbox.” You sign up, and you are writing Python code in your web browser 30 seconds later.

• The Vibe: It’s an interactive textbook. You read a small concept on the left, type the code in the middle, and see the result on the right. It’s a tight, satisfying feedback loop.
• The Pace: It’s self-paced, but based on micro-learning. You get a little “green check” for every tiny task you complete, which feels great.
• The “Ah-ha!” Moment: The first time you complete an exercise and the “Next” button lights up. It feels like a game, and it builds an “I can do this” attitude.
• The Catch (and it’s a big one): Codecademy is like learning to swim in a 3-foot-deep pool. You’re safe, and you’re learning the strokes, but you’re not really swimming. The moment you try to write code on your own computer (the “deep end”), you’ll feel lost. You have to, at some point, leave the sandbox.
• Who It’s For: The absolute true beginner who is intimidated by the “tech” side of coding. It’s the perfect “first 10 hours” to build confidence before moving to something like the “100 Days of Code.”
• Who It’s NOT For: Anyone who wants to build real-world projects immediately. It’s a learning environment, not a building environment.

 

A Free Option: The freeCodeCamp YouTube Firehose

 

If your budget is zero and your self-discipline is high, just go to YouTube and search for “freeCodeCamp Python.” You will find a 5, 10, or 12-hour-long video that covers everything.

These are not “courses” so much as “video textbooks.” They are incredibly comprehensive, well-taught, and… well, free. But they have the same problem as the Udemy mega-course: they are passive. You must force yourself to pause the video, open your own text editor, and replicate the code. Don’t just watch it like a movie.

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A Quick Note on Using AI to Learn Python in 2025

 

You’re going to be tempted to use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to help you. Do it. But do it smart.

• Don’t: Paste the problem and ask, “Write me the code for this.” You will learn absolutely nothing.
• Do: Write the code yourself. When it breaks, paste your broken code and the error message and ask, “Explain this error message to me like I’m 10.“
• Do: After you finish a project, ask, “How could I make this Python code more efficient or ‘Pythonic’?“

Use AI as a patient, 24/7 tutor who explains things, not as a robot that does the work for you.

 

I Finished a Course… Why Do I Still Feel So Lost?

 

This is the last and most important thing. You’ll finish “100 Days of Code,” you’ll get your certificate, and you’ll sit down at a blank .py file… and your mind will go blank.

This is normal. It’s called “Tutorial Hell.”

You’ve learned to follow instructions, but you haven’t learned to solve problems. The real learning starts after the course ends.

Your next step is to pick a project that you care about. Something small.

• Want to track your favorite stocks? Figure out how to get stock data.
• Love a certain subreddit? Build a bot that scrapes the top 10 posts every day.
• Want to organize your downloads folder? Write a script that sorts files by type (images, videos, etc.).

It will be hard. You will spend 3 hours on Google figuring out one line of code. This is the job. This is programming. The course just gave you the tools. Now you have to learn how to build the house.

So, stop looking for the perfect course. There isn’t one. The best python course for beginners is the one you actually finish.

Pick one from this list that matches your learning style. “Python for Everybody” if you’re patient and academic. “100 Days of Code” if you’re hands-on and need projects. Codecademy if you’re intimidated and just need to start right now.

Pick one, and start today.