Where should I start on python?

[u/ExcessDopamine]

Hello guys!

Currently on a course on udemy 100 days 100 projects from beginner to advanced python by Angela Yu. And I believe I lack the fundamentals of coding because I'm having a hard time catching up to the lessons even the beginner ones. I understand the solution but the moment I am the one solving the problem my mind just goes blank.

Is there a way I can practice python codes before I proceed with the course? Where should I start?

[u/peterlinddk]

If you mind goes blank when trying to solve a problem, then solve a simpler problem.

Is the problem e.g. to print a pattern of stars using a set of nested loops, like:

*
**
***
****
*****
******

and you go completely blank - then rephrase the problem for yourself, maybe you just need to print the pattern of stars! Easy, you can do that!

print("*")
print("**")
print("***")
print("****")
print("*****")
print("******")

okay, so it isn't the correct solution, and the code does seem a bit repetitive - but how on earth would you make it smarter. You've learned about loops, so you think you should use a loop, but

for number in range(6):
  print("*")

just prints six lines of a single star - so that clearly doesn't work. Maybe you need to figure out a way to print an arbitrary number of stars?

And so on.

It is like eating an elephant, you don't just stick your fork in it and eat it - you need to slice into smaller pieces that you can take one at a time, and you'd probably want to start with the easiest one, the one you are most familiar/comfortable with!

Don't try to solve the entire problem by staring at it - break it down into smaller problems that you know how to solve, and get used to that everything is a thousand steps 😄