This is my response to the Session 3 Task of the Hashnode Technical Writing Bootcamp by IDO Shamun.
Outline:
Why should we work on projects as beginners?
Tips to get started in python projects as a beginner.
When do we start working on python projects? And some popular companies that started off as a side project.
Python projects for Beginners.
Conclusion: templates to get started on python projects.
Why should we work on projects as beginners?
When there is so much to learn, so many concepts to understand, how do we get them all to stick? When we move from tutorial to tutorial, courses to courses, textbooks to textbooks but not fully understanding what we are learning, popularly known as Tutorial hell, how do we escape from it?
Simply, by working on projects. This way, you are actually learning by applying the knowledge from all those learning to building or creating something.
Building projects also keeps you in good faith. When we pick a project or topic that excites us, we stay motivated and this is very important, so we don't give up when things get rough.
While working on projects, we gain a key programming skill, problem solving. To solve the problems involved with your project, you will have to come up with ways to solve them.
Another reason why you should build python projects while starting out in python programming is that these projects can be included in your portfolio. As an entry level candidate employers want to see that you have the skills they need and what is the best way to demonstrate those skills, by having a portfolio showing those relevant projects.
Tips to get started in python projects as a beginner.
To start building python projects, learning the basics or the fundamentals of python programming is very important. This will help you know how good you are working with python.
The next step will be to familarize yourself with the syntax or control flow of your code, that is, the order in which the function calls will be executed.
Lastly, find projects that will help your learning and challenge your current knowledge, also, it will be helpful if you find those projects interesting or in line with your end goal, web development, machine learning, app scripting, data science etc.
When do we start working on python projects? And some popular companies that started off as a side project.
I believe there should be no set time for this, when you notice you are stuck in tutorial hell or you just want to improve your learning, then, by all means start building.
Github started off as a side project for its creators (Chris Wanstrath and PJ Hyett). They found it difficult to change open source code and decided to build their own repository. Now, it serves more than 20 million users and it is a billion dollar company too.
Appsumo is another amazing startup that started out as a side project but became a million dollar company in few years.
Same as Unsplash, this side project enabled other company (The Crew Team) to generate referral traffic to it.
Python projects for Beginners
Build a Rock, Paper, Scissors Game Clone
Create a URL Shortener using Python
A scientific Calculator
Build a simple web page with Django
A Password Generator
Build a Snake Game with Pygame
Email Slicer
Contact Book
YouTube Video Downloader
Hangman
A Product Landing Page with Python Flask
Create a Crypto App with Python
Python Story Generator
Guessing Game
Mad libs generator
Python projects for Experienced developers.
Python Chatbot
Face Mask Detection using OpenCV Python
Text to Speech using Python
Speech Recognition using Python
Web Crawler
Music Player
Plagarism Checker
Python File Explorer
Instagram Photo Downloader
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Conclusion.
In this article, you have learnt how important it is to start building Python projects as a beginner, tips on getting started and examples of some of the projects itself. Now, we will briefly look at some helpful resources for these projects:
Codecademy - has a guide on how to make some simple games using Python.
Python Projects for Beginners by Milliken 2019 - great book for beginners looking to start python projects.
Python for Data Analysis - this book is an introduction to analyzing data in Python.
CS109(Harvard Course) - teaches Python for Data Science.
For developing websites : read documentaion on Flask, Bottle and Django.
Making Games with Pygame - this book teaches you how to make games in Python.
Automate the Boring Stuff - learn how to automate daily tasks with Python in this book.