Python Programming
A Concise Introduction

My Python skills may have been overestimated and I have one month to learn as much as possible

I made a minor fuck up and I think I might be a bit in over my head. I am a Mechanical Engineering student minoring in Computer Science. I started my CS minor this semester by taking an intro to Java programming course that covered the basics of programming. I've been trying to learn Python alongside the course, but haven't been able to make much headway due to my workload.

 

So, the fuck up. I interviewed for a research assistant job with a ME professor whose project I want to work on. He was extremely excited about my CS minor, because he has been doing all the coding for his research lab by himself. He asked me if I knew any Python, and I told him I have been trying to learn it by myself. He asked me some (what I thought were common knowledge) questions about Python, and it seemed to excite him even more each time I answered. Note: these were answers I knew because I have been on /r/learnprogramming and /r/learnpython frequently over the past few months.

 

Apparently all of the guy's code is in Python and he has three of his four projects at a standstill because he hasn't had time to program. He agreed to higher me at the same wage I am making right now (currently a research assistant at a different lab). He expects me to do mostly coding for him, and tests his ME labs to make sure they are short enough for his students (A Junior/Senior level lab, I’m a second year). So my situation right now is this. I won’t start working for him until January 9th, exactly one month from today. I will spend about two hours a day working on Python and 1-2 hours studying mechanics of materials for strengths (ME course). Right now I am working my way through this course, but I don’t know where I should go after, or what would be most beneficial to me given my short time range. Also, I have two Python books downloaded, Python 101 and Python Apprentice.

 

TLDR: Might have oversold my capabilities in an interview; need help.

Like, completely from scratch? If you have previous programming experience then just playing around with the syntax and a couple tutorials is typically enough. But for a programming beginner, going through some free web course might be a more viable option. Platforms like coursera.org or edx.org offer free first year university python intro courses. Like this or this.

I'm a beginner. Just finished a Coursera course which introduces basic python commands, which can be found in this link. After that, with the basic information that I know. I managed to create my own Hangman game. This week, I'm working on my version of a CLI-based TicTacToe.

So honestly I tried a lot of these code-academy, wiki pages etc.. but I literally had zero idea where to start, and zero direction... I wasn't in a prepared state to self-learn. So I know what it means to be an absolute beginner.

It wasn't until I had video-lectures of someone doing examples infront of me, with deadlines that I really began to get a grip and then could take off on the road of self learning. As an engineer I use it like crazy in my job now (I don't know how I got away without for so many years). I'd recommend the same course that got me going.

Python Programming: A Concise Introduction:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-programming-introduction

Este curso introductorio es gratis en Coursera:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-programming-introduction

All free courses: Started w/ this one - it's good but gets really difficult towards the end: https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-crash-course

I loved this one but it was good I took the Google one above first to really understand what was going on: https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-programming-introduction/home/welcome

I'm taking this one now - he goes really quick which is fine since it's my third course going over a lot of the same concepts: https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/scientific-computing-with-python/python-for-everybody/