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Setup — Install Python & Run Your First Program

You have two ways to use this course. Pick whichever suits you.

Option A — No install (run in your browser) ✨

The fastest way to start. The course has a built-in interactive site that runs real Python in your browser — nothing to install.

From the project folder, start a tiny local web server:

python3 -m http.server 8000

…then open http://localhost:8000/web/ in your browser. Read a lesson and click ▶ Run on any code block.

"But that needs Python to run the server!" — true. If you don't have Python yet, follow Option B first (you'll want it installed anyway).

Option B — Install Python (recommended for real practice)

1. Install Python 3.10 or newer

Windows

  1. Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/ and download the latest Python.
  2. Run the installer and tick "Add python.exe to PATH" before clicking Install.
  3. Verify in a new terminal (Command Prompt or PowerShell): 
    python --version

macOS

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3
python3 --version

On macOS/Linux the command is usually python3. On Windows it's usually python. Use whichever prints a version number.

2. (Optional) Pick an editor

VS Code with the Python extension is a great, free choice. Any text editor works too.

3. Run your first program

Create a file called hello.py with one line:

print("Hello, Python!")

Run it from the terminal, in the folder where you saved it:

python hello.py      # or: python3 hello.py

You should see:

Hello, Python!

🎉 That's it — you're running Python.

How the course is organised

course/      the lessons, in order (01, 02, 03, …)
  NN-topic/
    README.md      the lesson — read this first
    examples/      runnable example scripts
    exercises/     practice files with TODOs
    solutions/     worked answers
projects/    capstone projects that combine skills
web/         the interactive in-browser version

Working through a lesson

  1. Read course/01-variables/README.md.
  2. Run the examples: python course/01-variables/examples/01_first_variable.py.
  3. Do the exercises in course/01-variables/exercises/ — edit the file, then run it.
  4. Compare with the matching file in course/01-variables/solutions/.
  5. Move on to 02-data-types, and so on.

Start here → course/01-variables/