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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Python Programming by University of Pennsylvania

4.5
stars
1,140 ratings

About the Course

This course provides an introduction to programming and the Python language. Students are introduced to core programming concepts like data structures, conditionals, loops, variables, and functions. This course includes an overview of the various tools available for writing and running Python, and gets students coding quickly. It also provides hands-on coding exercises using commonly used data structures, writing custom functions, and reading and writing to files. This course may be more robust than some other introductory python courses, as it delves deeper into certain essential programming topics....

Top reviews

SB

Mar 26, 2021

Great explanations and lots of examples to follow on. The course built throughout so I had confidence in completing assignments though they were not easy. Great interaction in discussion forums.

AD

Aug 25, 2022

The course was extremely entertaining and informative. The concepts and code files were great. Discussions and helps on the homework were provided in a great manner. Recommend the course.

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201 - 225 of 330 Reviews for Introduction to Python Programming

By Ruinan C

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Sep 7, 2022

Great!

By Cristina M

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Sep 12, 2021

Great!

By Jiahao H

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Jul 27, 2021

great!

By Abdallah M M

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Apr 7, 2021

great

By Sudip D

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Oct 29, 2024

Good

By ADITI S P

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Oct 23, 2024

Good

By Ariyan A

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Jun 22, 2024

good

By Areeha G

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Jun 8, 2024

good

By Dr. D P

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Apr 26, 2024

GOOD

By CHINTALA S B

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Oct 15, 2023

good

By NANDU V M

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Jun 16, 2023

nice

By ramlal k

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Aug 11, 2022

Good

By DUDDU V

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Jun 27, 2022

good

By Vivekanand H

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May 1, 2022

good

By IT_1121_Nikhil R

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Jan 12, 2022

Good

By HARSHAL P

•

Nov 2, 2021

Nice

By Arshdeep S

•

Oct 27, 2021

good

By Richard C

•

Sep 9, 2022

This is a good course for someone who has already spent some time using Python and needs a refresher. It will not be a fun experience if it is your first time using Python. The course dumps a lot of information on you very fast--it can overwhelm you if you don't already have a grasp on Python. My worry is that if you don't already know most of the material, it comes at you too fast for it to really stick.

I find the quizzes really easy. The exercises are difficult. I found the last assignment in the fourth week to be absolutely miserable. The exercise asks you to build a banking system, but it requires you to define large numbers of overly complicated functions. Pseudocode directions are provided to help, but it's just so much at once that it's really hard. It is passable, but it is really difficult and probably needlessly so. I probably spent more time working on the final assignment than I spent on the entire course prior to that. I think that's kind of ridiculous. The same material could be broken up into smaller exercises and it would be a lot less daunting. I don't know why so many programming courses do this, but it would be unfair to pretend that this is the only one with this difficulty. It's still a decent course and you'll learn the material, even if it's not as fun as it could be.

I really like the instructor and the quality of the lecture videos. I'm probably going to take the rest of the courses.

By Michael G

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Apr 20, 2022

I'd like to echo some things said in other reviews:

1, this course is very fast and is mostly about learning python syntax and very basic programming concepts.

2, many of the lectures are very consise and straight forward.

3, the quizzes are relatively easy but I think its best to admit that to get a 100% you really need to use references outside of the course material to understand certain syntaxs and exceptions.

4, the assignments have an annoying and sudden difficulty spikes. these spikes are usually because the question prompts don't clearly explain what is being checked by the grader clearly and one of the prompts the grader gives doesn't work with your solution properly.

5, Assignment 4 is particularly difficult and has a massive difficultly spike. I found myself spending way longer playing with my code to make it work. and many of the future questions use prior answers to build their solution. this caused a few of my previous answers to have issues since new questions give prompts that my previous answers code didn't account for.

Overall though I think this course is excellent if you are already somewhat familar with basic programming and computer logic. it might however be a bit difficult for people who have never done any programming.

By Hamudi J

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Sep 30, 2022

I've just finished week3 and I really like what I'm learning. This course, however, lacks one crucial element--solutions to assignements after you've completed the minimum to pass them. Why is that important? There are 2 reasons.

1. Even if the job of a programmer is to find out what's wrong with the code using the internet + trial and error, the job of a course is to teach us how to think about code and improve our thinking, which this course doesn't do.

2. There are multuple ways of solving each problem. Say, the student figures out one or two of them, but not the one which is required by the testing mechanism. The problem occurs when the next assignment requires you to use the solution that you haven't come up with. Then you start the next task with gaps in your knowldge that could be easily filled by the course creators.

Overall I don't mind the testing mechanism. It is designed to check for corner cases, so I do like the idea of adjusting my code so that it withstands all tests. However, I find it frustrating that I only need to rely on trial and error, as the course doesn't improve the way I think about code.

Despite all that, I still think the course is worthwhile and I'm looking forward to the last assignment.

By Iris L

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Mar 20, 2022

This course is pretty doable if you pay close attention during the lectures or code-along-exercises. I find it helpful to think about the solution before continue watching it in the lecture (just pause and think first before seeing the answers). If you have some basic programming knowledge, it would become tremendously helpful. Otherwise, discussion in Forum is top-notch. I've been able to tackle all the assignments just by following the instructions and help from staff and the teacher. However, if you truly want to learn more and understand "why it works that way", as I do, I will recommend the course "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python" by MIT on edx. The course is very comprehensive and suitable for absolute beginners. There are many mini assignments between lectures to strengthen old topics before moving on to the new ones. I've been doing both courses at the same time. I like Python after taking these courses, to be honest. What an intuitive and helpful language! Good luck everyone! You will enjoy it!

By Theo R

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Apr 22, 2021

Overall a great course, especially for beginners! If you have a little experience with programming you can easily knock this out in a week or two. The only issues with the course were:

1) the Jupyter Labs were down at one point for ~24 hours. Not a huge issue because I was ahead of schedule and I'm not super busy, but for someone on a tight schedule this would be very problematic.

2) Although the last homework assignment was effective, a few of the function requirements weren't exhaustive. It's fine if the student is meant to come up with some on their own, but that should be made clear -- if you're expecting all of the requirements to be explicitly outlined (because so far they have been), then it's frustrating when you realize something has been intentionally left out as a "gotcha". If that's not the intent, then add a note saying there could be additional requirements beyond the thought starters on each function

By Sarah S

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Apr 15, 2022

The lectures were clear and coding demonstrations were really helpful. The homework assignments were challenging, but I felt like I really learned a lot through working on them. I just wish that questions about the HW would have been answered in a more prompt way. It would sometimes take several days for a reply to be posted, and sometimes the reply was very helpful (giving a good hint about how to fix a line of code) and sometimes the reply was too vague and unclear. In the latter case, if you asked for clarification, it would take another few days for the response to come.

By Tasmiya K

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May 26, 2021

My course is still in progress, when i reached at the stage of quiz and assessment ... i was unable to sublit because i have not completeld the subscription rules

As i am from india, and a student persuing bachelor degree, and i am not earning yet. Due to lockdown in karnataka state of india our parents have no work to do an t is not possible for me to afford to complete this course by paying. So,please let me to access this course for free which will indeed helpme to add this certificate to resume

By Charisse W

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Apr 30, 2022

THe course overall is great! The final assignment is the most difficulut and has infact been changed a few times since it's original creation. That being said I'd say the final assignement doesn't fully pull in everything you've learned in the final week and what's more is a bit too advanced and doesn't seem to fit like the other assignements. Moreover, if you're looking for achallenge but still consider yourself a beginner I'd recommend this course even if you wanted to just audit it.