How long does it take to learn Python? (to get a Job)

The answer to this question depends on your goals. Some people learn everything about python. If you are a beginner and want to know how long does it take to learn python to get a job? You can expect to learn python for a few months spending a few hours every day. How many months this will depends on the requirement of the job you’re looking for. For example, if you want to work as a data analyst in python then you need to learn data analysis which can take at least three months.

If you begin to learn programming and python is your first language to learn then it may take three to six months to learn python programming.

To be clear, we can spend a lifetime learning python. There are hundreds of libraries containing python books and also the language itself keeps evolving over a period of time. So, there is no definite answer for how long to learn python? It doesn’t take long for being able to solve a problem using python, but being a python master means continuously learning and growing over the course of your career. So, let’s discuss How long does it take to learn python from scratch and Is python easy to learn?

What is Python?

Python is high level, interpreted, object-oriented programming language with dynamic semantics. Python language has a high built-in data structure with a combination of dynamic binding and dynamic typing which makes it very useful and attractive for quick application development and also uses scripting and two existing components. Python has easy syntax readability and hence reduces the cost of programming maintenance. Python has a large collection of modules and packages which encourages program modularity and reuse of code. Python extensive standard library and python interpreter are available in binary form as well as source code for all major platforms and can be freely distributed.

Why Python Programming is booming?                               

Often, programmers prefer using python language over another programming language because it increases the productivity of the programming. There are many reasons why python programming is booming nowadays and let us study them one by one:

• Easy to use and learn: For beginners starting to learn to program, python language is incredibly easy. The python language has simplified syntax and not complicated hence it is the most accessible programming language which gives more emphasis on natural language. Due to ease of learning and simple syntax, python programming is much faster than other programming language.
• Supportive Python Community: Python has developed at least 25 years ago and hence with all this time any community of programming languages to grow support developers ranging from beginner to experts. There is plenty of documentation, videos, and guides for python language are present that any developer of any skill can receive the support required.
• A large collection of python libraries and frameworks: Python programmers have a big supportive community and hence it has excellent libraries that can save a large amount of time and effort in the initial stages of development. There are many frameworks and libraries are available for python languages such as matplotlib to plot graphs, SciPy for science and mathematics, Beautiful Soup for XML and HTML parsing, Django and Flask for server-side web development, NumPy for scientific computation. Libraries with specific focus are also available like sci-kit-learn for machine learning applications.
• Efficiency, reliability, and speed: Python language can be used in almost all kinds of environments and one will not face any kind of loss issue irrespective of the platform one is working.
• Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, and Big Data: Python language is the second most trending tool after R language for data science and analytics. Due to many types of research that takes place in python due to many applications, includes ease of analyzing and organizing the usable data.
• The flexibility of python language: Python language helps to try a variety of problems and hence the developer perusing it will not stick to some kind but can also try something new. This kind of flexibility is not available in another programming language hence python is most preferred over others.

Is Python easy to learn?

The answer to this question differs from person to person but generally, python is widely considered an accessible programming language to learn even when you are just a beginner and starting with a programming language or have a background in a different programming language. But there are many reasons why Python is easy to learn like syntax is easy and code is readable, allows writing code in fewer lines of code in comparison to another programming language, etc. It has many libraries and modules that help us for developing web applications, data science, and rapid application development, and so on. So, how long to learn python, and if you are a complete beginner, let’s find out.

How long does it take to learn python from scratch?

So, how long does it take to learn python from scratch? It takes on an average of 8 weeks i.e around 2 months to learn basic python. Basic python includes syntax, a conditional statement like if-else statements, and loops like for loop and while loop, variables, functions, and data types. Learning duration depends on your daily schedule and what you want and how much you want to learn. 2 months enough time to learn basic Python programming. If you are working professionally learning basic python can take much more time than learning it as a student.

If you want to become an expert in the field of data science then months and years of learning are required. Another option is to devote python for 5 months but this is for the one who works full time. For this, you must spend 3-4 hours on the computer every day. The schedule must be learning a topic one day and practicing the same on another day. This schedule must be followed regularly so that you can learn consistently and efficiently.    

But, if you’re talking about level 0 or level 1 of learning python, and then assuming you are good at other languages too, it may take two weeks to a month at max to learn python language.  For levels 2,3 and 4 of python language, it may take you around six to eight months. But, of course, at last, it depends on how much time you dedicate to learn python in a day and how fast a learner you are. Level 2,3 and 4 of python language contains essential libraries like Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Seaborn, etc. Also, Django and Flask framework is used for web development if you want to learn advanced python. Find out the differences between Django vs Flask as well.

Here is also a great guide to what a python programmer should know about.

Beginner-level Topics

Python programming language uses an object-oriented programming approach and a very efficient high-level data structure. Python programming language is a dynamic type with concise and simple syntax. Some of the basic beginner's topics in a python programming language are as explained below:

1. Variables Types: Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store data. This means when you create a variable you are reserving some space in memory of your system.
2. Data Types: Python programming language comes with an extensive set of data structure which holds a different type of variables. Some of them are number, string, list, tuple, set, dictionary, Boolean, etc.
3. Typecasting: We can convert one data type into another data type using the typecasting approach. Different functions can be used to convert strings into integer, float, or numeric values into string type.
4. Operators: Operators are special symbols that help the compiler to perform some specific mathematical and logical operators. Some of the operators are arithmetic operator, relational operator, logical operator, bitwise operator, assignment operator, etc.
5. Conditional statement: There comes a point in programming where some specific statement is to be executed if certain conditions are true. The conditional statement helps to perform such kind of task. There are many conditional statements like if, nested if, if...Else, if-elif, etc.
6. Loops: Loops are the conditional statement that is executed as long as the conditional statement returns true. There 3 types of loops in a python programming language are while loop, for loop, and nested loop.
7. Functions: The functions can be defined as a group of the statement in a program performs a specific task. It is the reusable code used to perform a single related task. Using function reduces the error in code as it is possible to test individual function at a time and also it helps in reducing the size of code instead of writing the same code again and again in the program.
8. Recursion: The recursion function is the function that calls itself. Now when the function keeps calling itself the function turns into an infinite loop or we can say a never-ending loop. Hence, there are two conditions to follow while recursion function a) Every time the function calls itself, the function should be approaching more towards the solution b) To avoid recursion into infinite loop we need to define terminating condition.

Important Topics to Learn in Python or a Job

Basic python will not be the only thing to learn if you are interested in having a job in python programming. How long does it take to learn python to get a job? 3 months is enough if you want to start with a basic job. A basic job only requires you to know the basics of python. After learning the basic python programming, you will have to learn some advanced topics to be professional in it and have a job. Making projects is also important. Here are some good python projects for beginners for you to build and showcase in your resume.

 Some of the skills required to become a python developer are as explained below:

1. Web Technologies: A good python web developer always prefers to go with any of the two web technologies supporting python language i.e either Django or Flask. Some may also choose to go with both of them. Django is a high-level python web frame that helps with clean and pragmatic designs whereas flask is mostly used as Python micro web framework. Along with this some of the front-end knowledge of technologies like HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap is also recommended.
2. Object Relational Mappers: This is the technique that comes into the picture when we want to convert data between two systems using object-oriented programming (OOP). It creates the “virtual object database” that can be used by any programming language.
3. Data Science: Data Science is the most useful technology trending in today's market. To get expert knowledge in Data Science, its practice must be started from high-school itself like the study of mathematics, statistics, and probability. Other important aspects of data science are Visualization of data, Analysis of data, Good knowledge of SQL, etc.
4. Machine Learning and AI: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence fall under the category of data science. It consists of a good understanding of data from datasets and analyzes data visualize data and produce insights into the same data, etc. Here is a quick guide to machine learning algorithms for beginners.
5. Deep Learning: Deep Learning is the fastest growing technology of today's era. There are aspects of deep learning too. Before learning deep learning, it is recommended to dive into the study of neural network architecture.

Conclusion

So, as explained above, we conclude that learning python differs from people to people. I hope you got the answer to how long does it take to learn python to get a job? Also, it differs from the course and level of python programming you want to learn. However you need any python help online or need a python tutor, we are here for you. And learning python demands dedication and honesty but the learning process is worth spending time since it drastically improves job prospects.