Charles Severance
9.2/10
(Our Score)
Product is rated as #37 in category Python
This course will introduce the core data structures of the Python programming language. We will move past the basics of procedural programming and explore how we can use the Python built–in data structures such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples to perform increasingly complex data analysis. This course will cover Chapters 6–10 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. This course covers Python 3.
Instructor Details
Votes: 0
Courses : 2
Specification: Python Data Structures
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40 reviews for Python Data Structures
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| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Provider | |
| Duration | 21 hours |
| Year | 2020 |
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Yes |
| Quizzes | No |
Jason Michael Cherry –
An outstanding conclusion to the fundamentals of Python. This class, combined with the first in the specialization, are a great start to programming w/ Python, and I strongly recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning how to program. I’ve been doing Python for a few months in advance of this class, but the fundamentals covered here were exceptionally useful for me.
Sergio Miguel Valente –
A natural sequel for the first part of the specialization, Getting Started With Python. My opinion remains the same of that of the first part, I am very satisfied with everything in this course. Dr. Chuck explains all topics in a very calm and pleasing way. It’s very easy to follow everything. If you have any doubts, just post it in the forums, you’ll get a prompt answer. The book for the course is very concise and explicit. All in all, again, a great course.
Brandt Pence –
This is the second course in the Python for Everybody specialization, and corresponds to the second half of the previous course of the same name. As with the first course (Getting Started with Python), I found Dr. Chuck’s thorough approach to the material to be likely to be very approachable for a beginning programmer. I have some experience with Python, including the previous course and a course in the Genomic Data Science specialization, and I have a fair amount more experience programming using R, so I found this course very easy.
The course introduces the common data structures in Python (lists, strings, files, dictionaries, tuples) and the functions used to manipulate them. Dr. Chuck does an excellent job of introducing each piece, although the course is a bit light on practice problems, and there are probably better resources for actually getting comfortable using these on a regular basis. The book “Learn Python the Hard Way” and the EdX course from MITx (6.00.1x) are supposed to be two of the best resources out there. I recently bought the first and enrolled in the second, so I’m hopeful that they will help me to become as comfortable programming in Python as I am in R.
Overall, four stars. A gentle introduction to data structures in Python, but a little light on the exercises needed to become really proficient in using them.
Omprakash –
This course starts off easy. When it nears the end, then it starts getting more interesting as we are required to use list, dictionaries and tuples. Prof. Severance does a wonderful job in explaining how to apply the concepts we have learnt in the worked exercises.
The book which he provides for free is very useful to understand the concepts. Along with the assignments by Coursera, I also in parallel solved the problem sets from the book which led to a better understanding. I recommend the course highly !
Anonymous –
This is course is very good! But also rather difficult. It takes a lot of time to think through the problems and find a solution, but I think that is what most of Computer Programming is, learning by trial and error and then eventually understanding. Through this course I think I gained enough knowledge to understand all of the lecture slides, but I will definitely need to review quite a bit, to really understand the concepts thoroughly. You only use by doing with programming, so you really need to look at the practice lessons and think about it a lot. Overall good though. Nice to see a prof. with some personality 🙂
Anonymous –
My background is computer science and I consider myself as a programmer but since I don’t get a lot of time at work to program i keep myself busy by taking different programming classes or just do simple programming. Time was an issue for me and the course was simplified enough just to understand it without going through the lesson more than once. The quizzes were reasonable and When I do it right after going through the lesson I make at least 80.
I really enjoy the programming assignments and even struggle debugging them every now and then. Good way to learn programming.
Anonymous –
I am relatively new to programming, but know perl from graduate school and use it frequently. I found this course and textbook to be very easy to follow. This has not been the case for other Python courses on Coursera. I tried another course and gave up from being overwhelmed by too much info that was not framed in a well structured way.
I completed the first two courses in this series in a week, and will complete the whole series.
Love all the Monty Python and Harry Potter references by Dr. Severance!
Anonymous –
Class 2 of the python specialization. Unlike other programming paths I’ve tried, this one continues at a manageable pace. I’ve taught myself some statistical package syntax over the last decade so I’m not 100% new to programming and I found this course to be relatively easy and a lot of fun. Beginners will likely find it slightly challenging but absolutely within their ability to complete.
After completion, you know most of the basics of the language and have completed a handful of fun programming assignments that give you a hint at some of the cool powerful things python can do. I recommend this course to anyone wanting to learn python.
Valerie Lui –
I have no background with regard to programming, and the first course from Coursera I took was Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python), which is the prequel to this course. I must say that the classes are easy to follow and it really helped pique my interest in programming and computer science. Python is a really simple language to pick up but the downside is that one may get to reliant on the functions that are already built into the program, and it’s better to expose oneself to more languages so that this does not happen. I’m hoping to find more free online courses that will allow me to expand my knowledge with regard to these!
Raymond Jolly –
The approach that Dr Chuck takes to teaching Python has been the best experience when trying to learn a computer language. Everything he uses are building blocks to other very relevant areas. His book and lectures are very relevant. I have been analyzing data and building business intelligence solutions for years but I always wanted to learn data analysis with Python. The examples in Dr Chuck’s course may seem trivial due to the file examples being used but the process is very relevant for other meaningful exercises. Also, I have to commend the instructor for his great sense of humor and ability to stay on topic. Finally the best thing about this course is that he will demonstrate WHY code will fail and how to debug. In other courses, I had to drop because the lecturer was giving only power point presentations without even going into an IDE to write code. I really look forward to completing the other sections.
Anonymous –
I thoroughly enjoyed the course and would happily recommend to anyone who is (like myself) new to programming. I think Charles Severance does a great job, I really like the way he explains the logic of the language. The assignments are excellent and were great fun to solve my only comment would be that they could have been a little bit more difficult maybe. I believe that it’s definitely important to practice outside of the course as well to get comfortable with the material. A fantastic course overall for beginners, I cannot wait to move on to the next specialization!
Anonymous –
Let’s be realistic with yourself in finding and completing a MOOC. There are probably less than 10 courses on this subject that are worth taking because it has all the material you are looking to use in your job. However, there are fewer still that not only explain all the material you’re looking for, yet also make it interesting. Then there are the 1% of courses that have all the material you need, is interesting and challenges you in the exercises. All too often, you’ll see a MOOC that is easy to digest but the exercises are too theoretical and/or laughably easy. This course won’t let you down with exercises that don’t apply to what you’d really use in real life. This is clearly the best course on the subject for the beginner programmer. Really. It’s seriously the best on the internet today.
Anonymous –
The course is well thought out. The chapters are sequential and the home works build up on the previous piece of code you wrote. Dr. Chuck exactly understands how much new info can be shared and does not cram tall of it in the same video and lecture. The lecture weeks are short and concise which give you ample time to catch up even if you miss a week in the middle (other coursera course builders need to think about this as well). Overall I enjoyed the class and i am hoping to become an expert python coder by finishing the specialization. Thanks Dr. Chuck for making the lessons enjoyable
Anonymous –
Amazing course for an introduction to programming in Python. I had not known how to program at all before I took this course and the one before, and now I am confident in my ability to program and I feel that I have a solid foundation which I can build my programming/data analysis skills upon. The supplementary materials are great, and best of all cheap or open source. Amazing part on the side of the instructor, he made the course very relatable and very enjoyable. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn python or who wants to learn how to program at all.
Anonymous –
This is the second course in the Python for Everybody specialization. The course is really structured for beginning programmers, but programmers experienced in other languages will find it useful as well.
Dr. Severance (Dr. Chuck) does an excellent job of making the concepts clear and understandable. The exercises included in the course are somewhat limited, however. I strongly recommend using outside activities (Dr. Chuck provides a few sources) to reinforce basic syntax and methods, as you will be using them often.
Dr. Chuck has an unusual sense of humor, but I think most students will enjoy it as I have.
Overall, the previous course together with this one serve as an exceptional introduction to the Python language. I commend Dr. Severance for placing them online.
Trias Moodley –
As a current Economics and Finance major who needed to learn programming fundamentals to supplement my knowledge and understanding of financial models and computerised business processes, this course was extremely effective for a beginner . The lecture videos, downloadable slides and textbook as well as the curated notes and bonus material were all very effective in helping me come to grips with the course content. The discussion forum also allows you to submit any questions and queries regarding the course material and the homework assignments. I found the tutors to be exceptionally helpful
Anonymous –
The best part of Dr. Charles Severance’ courses are the pdf with all the necessary explanation summarised that you can keep it and review. You can almost take a course per day if you have the basics. I strongly recommend taking “An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (part 1 and part 2) first that allow you getting the fundamentals of Python in a funny way. This is a great course too with a really good lecturer, but I would rather prefer videos more specific.
Anyway, thank you for your great lessons Dr. Charles!
Anonymous –
I enjoyed taking this class and looked forward to completing the exercises at the end of each chapter. I thought Dr. Chuck was a great teacher, and I found his personality really fun and engagingly silly, which I personally enjoy. I would have preferred more practice problems, but I did learn a lot about Python. I liked that Dr. Chuck taught pieces of code that are often used in common programming problems. Overall, I was pleased with the course and would like to go farther with Python.
Antonio Serrano –
This course is a little bit tougher and tedious than the first one within the specialization. This is due to the contents themselves, which are basic and a bit boring. However, they are quite important since are the building blocks for future tools and apps to be developed using Python. Luckily, Dr. Chuck makes it quite easy and bearable, as always. So it is not difficult at all to complete the course (Dr Chuck rules!). So, you should have already signed up for the course. Came on, you are running late!
Kyriakos Zervoudakis –
This is a course targeted on beginners. The instructor shows a deep understanding of how newcomers approach a programming language and what makes their life difficult. So, he exposes people to python in a cheerful, feather weight style emphasizing on the ‘basic laws’ of programming and not on formal definitions, rigid standards etc.
Although I expected something more advanced, I really enjoyed following the course and, among others, saw the nicest presentation of the minimum element in list algorithm.
And of course, the bonus material showing all these great and important people is a great motivation not only towards completion of the course but also of appreciating programming in general as an art and as a great way to have fun with a computer!
Anonymous –
This is the second in a series of courses on learning Python for the beginner.
I find that the internet is being well used when great teachers like Dr.Chuck can democratically distribute their teachings.
Dr.Chuck is really fun and I find that I am more comfortable with technology after taking his class. He provides bonus video interviews with technology pioneers and i found it interesting that they were all interested in breaking down barriers of access for the masses.
If you are new to programing this series is great!
I will take the next one!
Anonymous –
Awesome course. Took it via coursera after taking his first course. He does a great job of teaching the content succinctly, walking through a relevant example, and then giving assignments that actually teach you how to apply the knowledge. Way better than other online courses I’ve tried in the past. Highly recommend it as a way to learn programming from near scratch. Thanks Charles, really appreciate that you took the time to create this and offer it out to the world.
Danielle Brown –
This is my second of these Python based courses. Dr Chuck is great fun and makes learning easy. It was a delight to take his courses as he has taken what I thought might be a very stale and bland subject matter and made it digestible for beginners. Having videos alongside lecture slides made it seem more like I was in a classroom learning environment. Having a face to the name is definitely a plus. Great course. Will definitely be taking more!
Anonymous –
A great course for a programming dummy like myself. The first course in this specialization was good too, but in this one I really felt like I was writing programs (although very basic ones). The assignments really made me think about finding a solution and gotta admit, a time or two I made really stupid mistakes and then took ages to fix them, which was quite frustrating, but that’s the very nature of coding. Plus, getting it right in the end felt really nice.
Chuck was great as usual, and I quite enjoyed the HP references 😀
Anonymous –
The Python Data Structures course run by Dr Charles Severance has been informative, instructive and overall just great. Having tried to learn Python from a book before and had trouble with it I decided to start Dr Chuck’s course, which I can say has really paid off. Dr Chuck provides a casual yet very educational way of teaching, and teaches/guides you through every step of learning the fundamentals of Python programming. I also found the student curated notes catered for the course very helpful for when I forgot something in the lecture.
Overall a fantastic course and I hope to do more of Dr Chuck’s courses in future!
Johnny Lam –
This course is so fantastic that I am a beginner with no prior programming and Python knowledge who can follow easily and learn things effectively. This course lays a very good foundation to Python basics. Dr Chunk, the instructor has a very good and professional voice and teaching style. I love to listen and learn from the class which the teacher is native speaker.
Also, thank you Dr Chunk if you may or may not see this review, I may not be able to have the chance to see you in my life, but your generosity and heart of teaching whose I am really really appreciated. The graduation part of the course means something to me since for a beginner of any skill, growth and advancement and recognition are all important forces to drive the momentum going forward. Thank you and take care.
Ningchao Wang –
I am a new in both programming and Python. Before this series of classes, I attempted to find some appropriate materials which are friendly to the zero basis man. The result was that I failed until I met this course. The most attractive point in this curriculum for me is that it teaches me how to think in programming, and well combines with the Python language. Also I like the structures of this course, I completed all the lectures and tests in three week within 7 hours. In not a long time, it makes me well understand the differences between three key ‘collections’ (list, dictionary and tuple) and the basic programming structures like for loop, while loop, how to build a function and so on. It is really helpful and friendly to the guy who never touches the programming and Python. Thank you very much to the professor Charles Severance !
Frederick N Numbisi –
I found the course and teaching method very comprehensible for a beginner (like me) and other interested students. I have learned quite much within a short time, though needed to persist and allocate learning time. I am beginning to fill confident in working my way around with python and using recommended tools (notepad++, python, snipping, using interactive python through cmd prompt), after series of writing, testing and correcting my codes prior to submitting my course assignments. In conclusion, I am feeling confident and will continue to build this confidence by taking upcoming courses. Thank you Dr Charles Severance for such inspiring and comprehensive lesson. I look forward to continuous learning in up coming courses, and an opportunity to meet!
Anonymous –
Dr. Chuck is great and I really wanted to give this course four stars but I felt that with the content’s importance (lists, dictionaries, tuples, et al) as part of the fundamental foundations of programming going forward (along with algorithms via the previous course) that it should go into greater explanation depth and include more examples.
With Data Structures you’re dealing with more moving parts and it took awhile for the ‘a ha’ to click with re watching the videos, going through the Informatics textbook, external research and readings. Even now, I would like more practice with Data Structures and am concerned about progressing to the next course with only a cursory understanding vs really feeling that I have it down.
An added bonus would be to include more anecdotal use application examples beyond parsing the mailbox and Shakespeare passage, e.g. you could use data structures like these to address an everyday work problem like , or if you’re building a web application you would use data structures to . Putting more real world context to how professional programmers / developers use data structures (even if we don’t know all the mechanics yet) would help to see the big picture of where this is going and its future applicability.
Anonymous –
I’ve just completed this second course in the “Python for Everybody” specialisation, and I think it’s great. The assignments are good tests of each week’s material, and progressively build on each other on a couple of occasions I used snippets of code in successive weeks which, while a small point, helped with my understanding of the material.
The auto grader proved simple to use. I would write my code in IDLE first, then paste it into the auto grader, and never had any problems.
Dr Chuck is very good at what he does, and clearly enjoys his work. This makes a big difference as a student.
I recommend this course for beginners. I have already done parts 1 and 2 of Rice Universities Intro to Interactive Programming in Python, but feel I would’ve benefitted from doing the Pyyhon for Everybody courses first.
Andrea Refatto –
This is the second course in the Python for Everybody specialization. The course introduces the data structures in python giving clear explanations and making a great job at selecting the most useful ones so that it is easy to later build knowledge on top of them.
One thing I like to highlight, the examples and the excercises are very meaningful and well structured along the course, so that, in the end, complex results are achieved gradually.
I believe that, for mastering the content, some part of the material might need to be reinforced with additional excercise; references are given during the classes for useful resources.
One possible improvement to the course itself could adding some excercise or assignment.
Same as with the first course, I really enjoyed the classes: the content was explained very clearly to the point of making it look easy. I already had some programmming experience, so, some part of it was on the easy side for me, nevertheless I found it interesting all along. Dr. Severance Dr. Chuck added to this some great sense of humour that made it also fun to learn.
I will proceed with the next course in the specialization and I am looking forward for learning more python.
Anonymous –
This course builds on the first course: ‘ Python for everybody’ and covers chapters 6 10 of the open source book ‘Python for Everybody’ by Charles Severance. The course is open source as well and together with the ppt presentation and video’s guides you through the main applications of Python. The teaching approach is down to earth, building on the already acquired knowledge from previous chapters. Each assignment uses a ‘ real world’ example and allows for trial and error, building on the learning experience.
The Coursera Forum however does not provide a proper platform to search for answers to problems that I encountered. Also, staff on the forum is only answering individual questions without painting the general type of problems they are addressing. If you are looking for answers in the forum you have to ask the staff specifically rather than looking for answers to others. The Forum is not user friendly either. Therefore no additional star.
That said, the instructor, Charles Severance, does a proper job in taking students through the course chapters in a light hearted and optimistic manner. This course, as a non native English speaking mature student with little experience in programming and IT, took me approximately 6 12 hours of study per week. I would advice this free course (the paid version is $42, / month) to everyone with an interest in Python.
Lily Dong –
This is the second course I took for Python for Everybody specialization and I will continue to take the third one soon. Dr. Chuck has definitely intrigued my interests on Python programming with easy to understand approaches. I have a little bit knowledge of programming with C before and I’m totally new to Python.
I think the course content has been set up in a just right level for beginners. I have read through some comments and find some people were expecting to have more practices or more in depth content. For practices, I think there will be never enough. I trained myself from some practices found online or sometimes I just made up some challenges and tried to find the answer from any file. I also had lots of fun coding on websites like pythonchallenge, codewars and codingbat. So my point here is that we should never rely too much on one single course there are always ways for practicing as long as you are really interested into coding.
As to the difficulty level, I’m glad that this course didn’t set the level too high to freak me out from the very beginning. I don’t want to get lost in some “hard” ways to use Lists or Dictionaries before I didn’t even know where to use them. And when I took the challenges from codewars or codingbat, I can solve all the problems by far with exactly what I learned from this course. Although I also could find more smarter ways to solve them after checking other solutions, I’m happy with where I start and I know I’m making progress by keeping learning.
All in all, I give 5 stars to Dr. Chuck and this course. And thank you for the graduation ceremony. It makes me smile : )
Anonymous –
This is the second course I have taken from this series and with Prof Dr. Chuck and I loved it as much as the first one! I had (have) no prior experience with Python but Dr. Chuck makes the lectures so interactive and understandable that even I was able to follow.
I have to admit that I was struggling a bit during the first course when completing the exercises and found myself going back to the notes all the time. This time around, I definitely felt more comfortable and was able to write code without using my notes too much. I could definitely see an improvement from the first course and expect this to continue with the next ones.
I would definitely recommend this course to anyone interested in learning more about Python and how to use it efficiently for data manipulation and analysis!
Anonymous –
The course is absolutely one of the most useful online courses which I have already taken. Dr. Chuck’s teaching style make me feel in love with programming. Furthermore, although I had been stuck on the assignments for several days, I did not feel helpless because there are lots of teaching assistant in the discussion forum that I can ask questions whenever I can not solve the problems on my own. Thanks for the assignments and teaching assistants, I have progressed a lot in my programming skills. Overall, I believe the course will give every python learners an unforgettable experience. Hope everyone can enjoy the course.
Anonymous –
Very good course. Well explained. Builds perfectly on course 1. Instructor explains things very well, communicates very well, very humorous, is very engaging. Course is not difficult, except maybe slightly towards the end, but understandable.
The bonus videos in each week are also extremely fun and great to watch; all the way from the interviews with the creators of various languages, to Dr Chuck’s trips to Paris, or eating great tacos.
And the final video, the graduation video, was also simply great to watch. Thank you very much, Dr Chuck, for the great course, and I’m excited to begin the next course in the series!
Anonymous –
5 stars ? isn’t it too much ? I don’t think so.
First : i’m neither a superman, nor a genius, but i completed this course and got my certificate. conclusion is thatit’s worth to do it whatever you interest in python is: curiosity, improving your skills, help your child who is interested in computers.
Second: what you learn in this course is not obvious if you never REALLY used a programming language whatever it is. But with just a bit of experiment and maybe some advice or help from forum, you can do it. And this concepts you’ll learn are the real basis of ANY computer language, these are kind of patterns which structure our interactions with machines. These are the keys, the basis upon everything else id built.
You hear it on news channels : “this is the data age”, so, get the keys !
Anonymous –
The course is fantastic. Prof. Charles not only shared his profound knowledge of Python structures, but also encourage student to learn more in challenging situation. I am inspired by his course and graduation speech. Honored and blessed to learn this course, which reminded me programming when I was in university two decades ago. Thanks Prof. Charles for the interesting course, from which I have learned a lot through the wonderful instruction, well organized exercises and interviewing with computer pioneers. Would recommend to other friends.
Anonymous –
it was very helpful . very good knowledge i gain form here. excellent teaching way. simple and easy method.regular assignment makes me more confident. it help a lot. i would like to thanks coursera for giving me this coursera for free. it helps me a lot to learn data structure in python. n quiz there are very good question and assignment are very difficult and pretty good it enhance my knowledge of data structure. it is very good platform for learning for everyone. i will recommend you all to join this course as soon as possible.
Anonymous –
This is one of the best course you can take if you want to learn programming for fun.
This course primarily focuses on programming and it will help you to introduce you with python data structures.
The exercises are beginner friendly and you will enjoy while solving them. Quizzes are also good and help to understand everything.
The main part of the course is an instructor. Believe me Dr. Chuck is the one of the best teacher you can ever learn from. Their way of explaining complicated concepts in easy way is very good. Their explanation will simplify most of the things and soon python will be your favorite language.
I will not recommend this course if you are not new into python data structures. Also if you are student and want learn python along with logic, this course might disappoint you.