Getting better at Python / becoming a professional developer

I’m often asked by candidates and people trying to break into the industry how much programming knowledge they need to be success at the entry level.

My go to answer has been:

1. go through this course and really understand the basics https://learn-python.adamemery.dev/

• the basics are extremely useful. i use dictionaries & lists & combinations thereof wherever possible.
• you can use chatgpt like it’s documentation, but don’t write code with it (yet). you need to struggle and get a lot of reps right now!

2. build a basic project to show you can pull json from an api (such as SWAPI - https://swapi.dev/) and manipulate the data to answer questions like: what is the average height of the first 10 creatures who have brown hair/fur?

but now I’m adding this as an optional Intermediate step..

3. watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zml0rTMJVXg and understand / feel comfortable with these concepts.

that’s a really solid base for you to get started!