A five star course, that actually could be even a lot better than it already is.

The instructors are fantastic - enthusiastic, engaging, interesting, clearly motivated and motivating. The lectures are fun - educational without being dry. I appreciate the light humor. Concepts are taught in a generally fun way, although perhaps not quite as rigorously as one would like.

Here are the main issues: much of the course is build on Python 2; while a Python 3 interface is included, it is still jarring - and almost certainly confusing to beginners - to see print statements without () and such. The course needs to be redone in Python 3, particularly since as of 2020 Python2 is officially dead.

Second - and this is true of -all- courses that try to assist beginners by creating a custom interface to do all the work - none of the work can be done outside of the custom interface (CodeSkulptor) without a fair amount of work that would be far beyond a beginner at first (and as noted, CodeSkulptor was built on Python 2). I get the desire to ease the onramp in the beginning, but I think it causes more issues down the road. People that are really motivated to learn want to work in their own IDEs.

I am torn on the peer-reviewed aspect. On the one hand - yes, seeing other code is interesting and educational. On the other hand - how motivated are all students in doing a thorough review? How motivated are people to actually look over other people's code? How educational is it to see code from other -beginners-? The best courses I've taken so far have all had comprehensive, automated programming tasks. I think that's the better way to go.

I think the course needs more 'finger exercises' to really build up muscle memory for key concepts. Each section has lots of excellent 'practice exercises' - have those as automated grading exercises!

Consider breaking up the video into shorter snippets; I think the videos are too long for people learning at home: eight 2-minute videos is better than one 16-minute video.

You would be hard-pressed to find an Introduction to the python programming as lucid and as fun as this course. Personally , I took this course to practice python programming as I had a bit of programming experience in my first sem of college. But , I must say I wish I had taken this course earlier ie. as a complete beginner. The approach followed by the professors is "Just in Time" and not flooding the lectures with as much info as they can.

The highlight of the course are ofcourse the Games that you get to make using SimpleGui. ( My personal favourite is the Black Jack - taught me a great deal of things about OOPS). After completing both IIPP-1 and IIPP-2 I now feel a lot more comfortable while reading other people's code. So, all in all even though you will be making games here, the skills you learn will be applicable everywhere.

One thing I was worried about before taking this class was that it is in Python 2. I can assure you this won't be a problem as-

The only difference you will notice in Python 3 is that print is a function now and / is used a little differently that's all.

For advanced and semi-advanced people this course may be a bit dull just like any Introduction Course. But for beginners and those who are not yet comfortable in writing long lines of code this course is simply one of the best.

At last, I would like to Thank all the 4 professors to create this gem.

Thank you for a comprehensive and above all FUNCTIONAL coursework. There was another course I registered around the same time for another language on a competing platform. It was just long lecture video, stereotypical mono-tone lecturer with heavy accent. I ended up dropping that course and getting a refund since their instruction(s) on installation / operation of the IDE seemed to be outdated and just NOT FUNCTIONAL! Despite how boring that course was I dropped it since I couldn't do the practical studies. Also call me racist to my own East Asian background but Caucasians especially SMART Americans really know how to teach and make learning fun. They always have great personalities and characters backed by passion which can be felt on the coursework itself. Thanks again and instructors of RICE University Texas YOU ROCK......... Scissors, paper, lizard, Spock :) See you more on the following 6 courses to follow for the specialization!

I love how the instructors have the students create games for the programming assignments. Even though these programs are very simple, the excitement of making something interactive helps carry me through the frustrating parts. I also like that there are many videos, example programs, templates, and "tip" pages to help if you are not getting it--other Coursera courses I have taken had very little in the way of assistance, so if you were really struggling, you probably wouldn't finish. This course isn't like that. The rubrics for grading assignments are also very specific, so you get clear feedback on what did and did not work in your program. If you are interested in learning programming, I would highly recommend this course!

I've taken several different online Python courses, completing some and not others. This one works for me. The interactive aspect allows you to see the results of your coding graphically. Other courses tend to start with theory and basic concepts detached from practical application or illustrated in isolation. This course has you applying the basics that make simple actions happen (programs) in their interactive interpreter.

If you're like me and have tried the other courses by MIT (edX), Udacity, those offered on StackSkills, CodeSchool, Pluralsight, codecademy, et. al., this one rises to the top because of the balance of academic instruction and graphical interactivity (and despite the lame jokes! -just kidding, guys).

Best computer programming series I've taken in Coursera so far (I've done principles 1 and algorithm thinking 1 already and in paralell). You can start in this very basic course and end in Algorithm Thinking which is a great course full of insights even for an experienced programmer as I'm (same is valid for the principles of programming, especially regarding the testing assignments) with no previous experience. My nephew is 15 years old and in high school and he is loving this course (having hard time though). To me, this specific course was very basic but as I didn't know anything of Python and as I love games I enjoyed a lot even though I already knew all of the material except for the Python part.

An Introduction to Interactive programming in Python is an excellent and master piece course which I have ever learned. The trainers showed new way of developing codes and feel the easiest way of writing program. As a beginner I simply felt the teaching is so easy to learn and courses are well articulated. The python programming using the software codeskulptor is so exciting. It gives multiple features like visualizing the code and understand how the object and classes are defined and how the state changes. How the transitions take place. I thank coursera and the professors of Rice university for their tireless effort for making such a wonderful learning experience. Thank you all for helping me.

as a starter and never write programming before, it is quite tough. I wrote in to ask question, but reply is quite general to ask me to re-go thru video or document. Definitely i did not get it or understand it, thus ask the question but the reply is ask me to read the book again.. something like that. Is this a good answer?

I hope the respond can be more specific. Other then the reply, i quiite enjoy it and like the way it structure the programming. At time, i am very struggle and forum reply can be quite technical to me. But so far, i manage to get thru. I spent more than 10 hours to do the mini project.... hahaha..

I thought this program is no min skill requirement, right?

Best programming python course and course on general that I have seen so far (it ties with Andrew Ng machine learning course) . Rather Challenging event driven programming mini projects.

Audit the course and see by yourself.

Best teacher that I have ever had. Meddling masterfully distraction and hard-work. We clearly can see that they spent countless hours on the creation of this course. (building a python environment into the browser during summer holidays) They efforts has not be in vain, they created a peace of art of a course.

Deep thanks to them from the bottom of my heart and to the many others that worked in this.

Hope we will see Stefen in forth coming lectures!!!!

Best python (or programming) course for beginners I have seen (and I tried a lot of them).

1) Codesculptor helps a lot (no need for endless saving, running IDLE etc) - you go immediatelly

2) Interesting examples + exercises with templates (where you just fill in some part of code) maintain motivation and interest high. No basic boring stuff like "print fibonacci sequence". Also - more focused on actual programming than on mathematical/logical solving of exercises (as I viewed in some courses)

3) Small enough increments to not being overwhelmed, yet still motivated by new stuff.

To sum it up, I am looking forward to subsequent courses in this series.

This course is certainly interesting, especially the games you get to try each week. It has several problems/exercises to help you better understand the concepts. Only tiny point to make is, you should watch from "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" (stanford) the videos in the first or second week about True/False statements, it really helped me better understand this, since it's quite more complex than at first glance. Although you don't need it for this course I found it helped me better grasp the idea, which is used in python programming. Lastly, the instructors are really great, and I found the jokes they made actually funny!

This is an amazing course. It's both joyful and useful in terms of information and the way it presents. I'm very thankful to Rice's professors and Coursera team for an opportunity to study this course. I'm about to use the knowledge I've got here to pass the exams and enroll in university. Though I still didn't complete the whole course because I have to concentrate on some particular themes for the exam I definitely will continue learning here after exams or even sooner. Can absolutely recommend this course for beginners and for the ones who have some misunderstanding in some particular fundamental topics in programming on python.

Great professors and great design of the course. It does not only cover all the main elements of how to code with python, it also incorporate them into game design so our interests of learning can keep high as always. I found this course very interesting and the guidelines and code clinic tips are very helpful. Especially the peer assessment, it provide opportunities for me to learn from other people's codes and provide advice to others' works meanwhile I can also think about my own code and enhance next time. Overall, I will strongly recommend this course to others that like to learn python or computer science.

I took this course because it seemed like the best intro to Python for my goals that Coursera had to offer. While the content lived up to its expectations, the video lectures by the professors made the course stand out. Their sense of humor and watching them compete against each other, playing the games that we were assigned to program, added a human touch to the learning experience. It made you feel attached to the course the same way that you feel attached to watching characters of your favorite TV show. I highly recommended this course for people who want to learn Python from scratch.

This is the first MOOC course I have ever taken. And this course allowed me to make the largest step in my Python knowledge. This very course helped me to move from state"What? Python? What is that?" to the state "I know what Python is and I know how to use it".

A that time I was able to complete only this course of the specialization. I regret that I did not continue the course, if you have possibility, take the whole course and you will be the Master of Python, I promise!

Joe Warren, Scott Rixner, you are my heroes! If I ever become programmer, that is mostly your achievement, not mine!

This is an excellent course, the teachers are skilled, while the course material is very well-organized. The level of guidence for the assignments is just right for a beginner course. Humor is present throughout the course - which is a good motivator - and references to all-time classics like: Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Big Bang Theory are nice bonuses. This is the second beginner course for Python that I take, the first one being more popular at the time, and - while the other one is great too - I feel that I've learned more from this one and I've also enjoyed it more.

It is a wonderful course, I have Been trying to learn Python since a long time, solving problems, but this course helped me to use all the things like lists, strings and functions into a project. Unless you know how to implement, learning is waste, and hence I loved this course alot. I made few of my wonderful projects , and well played too :).

The instructors are good, the speed of course is nice, its not fast nor too slow, and the best thing is, instructors know about the mistakes made by fresh people, they will help to learn from them too. Thanks you all for making this course:).

The way I see it, this course has been carefully crafted to assist the beginner with developing practical proficiency in building things in Python. I love the fact that this course doesn't leave you hanging with so many references to sift through and go "figure out" on your own as other training platforms tend to do. That leaves beginners confused and lost, and demotivated. But because there is more handholding, yet the perfect balance to give the confidence needed to actual build in python, I think this course is a masterpiece so far. Looking forward to completing the course.

Python is a popular programming language that’s easy to learn and use. It’s great for beginners and can be used for many things like building websites, analyzing data, and creating smart computer programs. Python’s simple code makes it easy to understand, and there are many helpful tools and libraries to make coding even easier. Thanks Coursera, learning Python has never been easier. Coursera offers excellent courses that guide you from the basics to advanced concepts, helping learners master Python and apply it effectively in real-world projects.

It's a very helpful class. Teachers give clear introductions and detailed explanations of all issues. As a beginner, I can see my progress every single day. I found the most helpful part is the practical exercises and mini projects. Once you start doing them, they are not perceived as homework anymore. I can't express enough how satisfying I felt every time I finished a project. It doesn't matter if it is a rock paper game, a screen saver or a stopwatch, they are all the stable stages on which I can see a higher myself. Enjoy the class guys!

This class was SO HARD. Every assignment left me staring blankly at the screen, before running back to check the documentation or re-watch the relevant lecture. But then, as I started writing, I would realize I could do it! It's a lot of work and a lot of time, but the instructors are obviously committed to helping students actually learn real-world skills, instead of just getting more Coursera clicks with an easy class.

A+ and thank you to all the instructors for such a well-designed class. Can't wait to continue on with the specialization!

This course was very interesting in that it is centered around gaming. I have had previous experience with other coding languages (Fortran and C++) , and I found this a refreshing way to learn Python.

The course structure is very concise and well organized.

The quizzes and mini-projects are helpful in solidifying specific concepts.

The professors are engaging and well-spoken. You are given a lot of useful information in a condensed time period, so sometimes it's helpful to be able to re-watch the videos.

All-in-all, this was a great course!

These courses are very well-designed and ask you to do a fair amount of work in the weekly coding projects. That is much preferred (in my book) to too much spoon-feeding / hand-holding which can happen in online courses. The instructors do a great job. The event-driven / graphic-oriented (i.e. Tkinter - lite) context to programming sets this specialization apart from other python courses on Coursera. I'm having a lot of fun extending lessons learned here to tkinter. With a bit of extra syntax learning, the translation is natural.

Definitely one of the best courses if you want to learn python deeply. I started learning python with the first two parts of Dr. Severance specialization (python for everybody) and then I watched this course. My advice to you is that even if python2 annoys you, or if you think this course is outdated, please don't make the mistake of not watching this course because it just gives you such a deep insight of programming (also watch Dr. Severance's python for everybody! These are the 2 best courses for python in my opinion)

Great material and learnt a lot.

The thing that makes this course really insightful and great is that Professor Joe and Scott made us learn the Interactive programming without going into the deep libraries of Python such as 'pygame' by making a custom development environment CodeSkulptor for us.

And the thing that makes this course interesting is how both Professors Scott and Joe play the game with each other at the end of each module.

Looking forward to join part 2 of this course to learn more cool and amazing things.