There is no shortcut to fluency; the only way to get there is through repeated, directed practice. This means making lots of mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes.

The benefits of such fluency are huge: You can solve problems more quickly, with less code, and in a way that's easy to maintain. You save time, avoiding hours of searches through Stack Overflow.

When you're fluent, it's faster to solve the problem yourself than to search for, evaluate, copy, and paste solutions that you found on the Internet. You become a more powerful programmer, and more valuable to your employer and/or clients.

Pratice Makes Python gives you 50 programming assignments, each of which aims to get you to think like a Python developer. After doing these exercises, you will feel more comfortable developing in Python. You will have gained not only experience, but perspective that will allow you to create Python programs for work and pleasure.

The exercises are designed to make you think not about Python's syntax and capabilities, but when it is appropriate to use different data structures, function argument types, and object-oriented capabilities.

Practice Makes Python stresses the use of Python's built-in data structures and capabilities. Among other things, you'll learn:

• How to make your code shorter and more maintainable, by taking advantage of Python's fundamental data types — integers, strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets.
• How functional programming techniques, such as list comprehensions and passing functions as arguments, can make your functions shorter, easier to debug, and more expressive.
• How to work with files in Python, reading and writing data in a variety of formats, and reading them into Python data structures.
• How to create and work with Python's classes, defining your own types in a way that represents best practices. Understand how Python's attributes work, and how to put inheritance and composition into practice.

Each exercise contains a problem, a sample solution, and a discussion. If you purchase a package, and not just the ebook, then you also get a 5-10 minute video for each exercise (yes, 50 videos), in which I walk you through the process of solving the problem. That's more than 300 minutes (5 hours!) of Python screencasts!

These exercises have been tested with my students at some of the best-known companies in the world:

These exercises address issues that Python programmers find confusing. You'll likely find them to be interesting, challenging, and even (I hope) somewhat entertaining.

If you have read a Python tutorial, or took a Python programming course, but have used Python for less than one year, then you are just the person for whom I've aimed the ebook. You need to have a basic understanding of data structures and functions, but the ebook assumes that you're still a bit unsteady on these topics.

I have found that many experienced Python programmers also benefit from these exercises, helping them to understand such topics as passing functions as creating complex data struturess, parameters, list comprehensions, and object-oriented techniques.

What is in the book?

Here is the table of contents:

1. Numbers (4 exercises)
2. Strings (4 exercises)
3. Lists and tuples (6 exercises)
4. Dicts and sets (4 exercises)
5. Files (7 exercises)
6. Functions (3 exercises)
7. Modules (2 exercises)
8. Functional programming (8 exercises)
9. Objects (7 exercises)
10. Iterators (5 exercises)

What is in the videos?

The two higher-level plans include access to each of the 50 videos that I am creating, one for each exercise. In the video, I live-code the solution that is presented in the ebook, discussing it along the way and mentioning additional options and considerations.

47 videos are currently available, each of which is 5-10 minutes long. I expect to release more each week, until the entire set is complete. Customers who purchased the higher-tier packages will receive updates via e-mail, indicating when new videos are available.

Students in my live classes know that my live-coding demonstrations and explanations are a critical part of my lectures, in that they demonstrate not just the solution, but also the way to reach that solution. Consider the difference between seeing the answer to a math problem, and watching someone solve it, step by step, with commentary, and you'll understand the difference.

Does this ebook use Python 2.x or 3.x?

The examples should all work with both versions of Python. The ebook assumes usage of Python 2.7, albeit with many mentions and descriptions of Python 3.x. The files included with higher-level tiers contain solutions that have been tested in both Python 2.7 and Python 3.4.

Is the ebook DRM protected?

No, it is not.

Do you offer special group and site-license pricing?

Yes, absolutely, assuming that you wish to buy at least 10 copies. Please contact me at reuven@lerner.co.il, and I will be happy to provide you with pricing and licensing information.

Do you offer student pricing?

Yes, indeed! I was a student (for way too many years), and I understand that students are often short on cash. Contact me privately at reuven@lerner.co.il, and I'll send you a coupon code that you can use for a significant discount.

I am an instructor, and would like to license the ebook for my classes. Do you offer special pricing for such use?

Yes. Please contact me at reuven@lerner.co.il, and we can discuss pricing and licensing.