Python Programming with PyCharm

Write, run, debug and test real Python programs in a professional IDE, from your first script to a tested, version-controlled project.

Beginner · Software Development · about 11 hours · 5 modules · certificate on completion

Taught by Vladimìr Novàk, Dontè Jacksoneè, AI Learning Companions.

About this course

Learn Python the way professional developers work: in an IDE that understands your code. In every lesson your instructor teaches a Python idea and then shows it in PyCharm, step by step, with the keyboard shortcuts for macOS, Windows and Linux, so you learn the language and the tool together. You'll set up projects and virtual environments, write programs that make decisions, loop, and read and write files, then learn the habits that make code dependable: debugging with breakpoints instead of guesswork, testing with pytest, refactoring with the IDE's help, and keeping your history in Git. Every module ends with a hands-on lab you do in PyCharm and submit for your instructor's feedback, and the course ends with a project you build from scratch.

What you'll learn

  • Set up Python projects in PyCharm, each with its own virtual environment and packages
  • Write Python programs with variables, decisions, loops, functions, collections and files
  • Find and fix bugs with PyCharm's debugger: breakpoints, stepping and evaluating expressions
  • Test your code with pytest in PyCharm's test runner, and refactor it safely
  • Keep your work in Git from inside the IDE

Skills you'll gain

Python, PyCharm, Debugging, Unit testing, Refactoring, Virtual environments, Git

Tools

PyCharm, Python 3, pytest, Git

Before you start

None: this course starts from zero. You need a Windows, macOS or Linux computer that can run PyCharm, with Python 3 installed (python.org has installers).

Modules

  1. Get set up: Python and PyCharm

    Install the tools, find your way around PyCharm, and run your first program in a project with its own virtual environment.

    • What Python is, and why developers use an IDE (8 min)
    • Projects, interpreters and virtual environments (10 min)
    • Write and run your first program (10 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Set up your Python workspace

  2. Python essentials in the editor

    Values and types, decisions and loops, and Python's collections, with an editor that completes your code and fixes mistakes as you type.

    • Values, variables and types (10 min)
    • Decisions and loops: if, for and while (12 min)
    • Lists, dictionaries and other collections (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Build a grade book

  3. Functions, modules and files

    Organise code into functions and modules, read and write files, and handle errors, with refactoring and navigation that keep a growing project tidy.

    • Writing functions (12 min)
    • Modules, packages and imports (10 min)
    • Reading and writing files, and handling errors (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Build an expense tracker

  4. Debugging like a professional

    Stop guessing: pause programs with breakpoints, step through them line by line, inspect their state and read tracebacks to the line that went wrong.

    • Breakpoints and stepping through code (12 min)
    • Inspecting state: expressions, watches and conditions (10 min)
    • Reading tracebacks and fixing common bugs (10 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Fix the buggy shopping cart

  5. Testing, refactoring and Git

    Make code you can trust and change: unit tests with pytest, refactoring with tests to protect you, and version control with Git, all from inside PyCharm.

    • Unit tests with pytest (12 min)
    • Refactoring safely (10 min)
    • Version control with Git in PyCharm (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Test your tracker and commit it

Project: Build a study tracker

Build a command-line study tracker in PyCharm. It lets you record study sessions (a date, a subject and how many minutes), saves them to a file so they're still there next time, and reports your total minutes per subject and your longest streak of days in a row. Structure it as functions in more than one module, handle bad input and a missing data file without crashing, test it with pytest, and keep its history in Git with small, clear commits.

Part of

PyCharm is a trademark of JetBrains s.r.o. This course is independent: JetBrains hasn't made or endorsed it.

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