Diploma in Introduction to Programming with Python

Course Content

Week 0: Programming Basics & Functions

Understanding functions and arguments
Variables and variable assignment
Comments and pseudocode
Strings (`str`), methods (`.strip()`, `.title()`, `.lower()`)
Formatted strings (f-strings)
Defining functions using `def`
Parameters and default values
Return values
Scope and code readability
Debugging and common errors

Week 1: Conditionals

Week 2: Loops

Week 3: Exceptions

Week 4: Libraries

Week 5: Unit Tests

Week 6: File I/O

Week 7: Regular Expressions

Week 8: Object-Oriented Programming

Week 9: Et Cetera

Week 10: Final Project
Final Project Requirement: Every student must complete and submit a final Python project of their own design. The project must: - Be implemented entirely in Python - Contain at least one `main()` function and three additional custom functions - Include proper testing (`test_project.py`) - Be more substantial than any single problem set

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Course Content

Week 0: Programming Basics & Functions

Understanding functions and arguments

Variables and variable assignment

Comments and pseudocode

Strings (`str`), methods (`.strip()`, `.title()`, `.lower()`)

Formatted strings (f-strings)

Defining functions using `def`

Parameters and default values

Return values

Scope and code readability

Debugging and common errors

Week 1: Conditionals

Comparison operators (`==`, `!=`, `>`, `=`, `<=`)

`if`, `elif`, `else` statements

Logical operators (`and`, `or`)

Boolean values (`True` / `False`)

`match` statement for pattern matching

Modulo operator (`%`) for even/odd checks

Writing clean conditional logic

Week 2: Loops

`while` loops

`for` loops and `range()`

Lists and iterating over lists

`len()` function

Dictionaries and iterating over keys/values

`break` and `continue`

Nested loops

String repetition and formatting output

Input validation using loops

Week 3: Exceptions

Understanding runtime errors vs syntax errors

`try` / `except` / `else` blocks

Handling `ValueError` and other common exceptions

Defensive programming

Repeating prompts until valid input

Using `pass` for silent error handling

Creating reusable functions for safe input

Week 4: Libraries

Importing modules (`import`, `from … import`)

Standard libraries: `random`, `statistics`, `sys`

Command-line arguments (`sys.argv`)

Installing packages with `pip`

Third-party libraries (e.g., `cowsay`, `requests`)

Working with JSON and APIs

`__name__ == “__main__”` pattern

Week 5: Unit Tests

Writing tests using `assert`

`pytest` framework

Creating test functions

Testing edge cases

Organizing code into packages

`__init__.py` files

Week 6: File I/O

Reading and writing text files

`open()` function and file modes (`r`, `w`, `a`)

`with` statement for automatic file closing

Reading lines with `.readlines()` and iteration

Working with CSV files (`csv.reader`, `csv.DictReader`)

Sorting data from files

Basic image processing with Pillow (PIL)

Week 7: Regular Expressions

Introduction to regex patterns

`re` module

`re.search()`, `re.match()`, `re.fullmatch()`

`re.sub()`, `re.split()`, `re.findall()`

Character classes, quantifiers, and anchors

Validating and cleaning text input

Week 8: Object-Oriented Programming

Creating classes and objects

`__init__` constructor

Instance attributes and methods

`@property` and setters

Class methods and static methods

Inheritance

Operator overloading

`__str__` method

Raising custom exceptions

Week 9: Et Cetera

Sets

`name == “main”` pattern

`init.py` files

`init` constructor

`str` method