6 BEST Python Courses in 2023

Written By John Sonmez

Quick verdict

Codecademy

Learn Python 3 has you write your own code in an interactive environment through 12 lessons + 12 quizzes, completing 14 projects in the process & earning a certificate of completion.

An 8 month long deep dive – taught by a university professor – that takes you from the fundamentals to proficiency in web apps, databases and data analysis with Python.


To start learning with the simplest steps possible (zero experience required), look no further than this course a Udemy. It’s very affordable, and comes without unnecessary complexity, so you don’t have to worry about becoming frustrated with the material.


Learn Advanced Python 3 is perfect for getting into the realm of master-level Python programmer. The techniques taught in this course will lead you to the most efficient Python code you’ve ever written.


For the most ambitious learner who wants to score a job as a Python developer. 4 months of daily practice, weekly interactive live classes, 1:1 mentorship and peer assistance, building certified skills for your new Python-powered career.


Python is the most popular language for Data Analysis today. Codecademy’s course is a great vehicle for you to hop on that trend. Learn the ins and outs of Data Analysis with Python at Codecademy’s intuitive learning platform.

My review method

My background

I’ve worked as a Full-Stack Software Engineer, Software Consultant, and an online instructor in the field of computer programming for over a decade. 

During my career I’ve learned 15 programming languages to a level where I could teach others – which has led me to create 55 courses at a popular code-learning website.

John Sonmez teaching at code learning websites

The metrics I’ve used for this comparison

To establish the ratings for each course, I’ve looked at the following:

  • Content range, depth & quality
  • Structure & user experience
  • Instructor prestige & skill
  • Community
  • Price-performance ratio

The 6 best Python courses

Here’s my review of the 6 best resources you can use to take your Python skills to the next level.

With Codecademy, you’re learning Python in bite-sized pieces, and you start coding from the get-go. The popular gamified platform lets you complete code challenges for each topic – after solving each one, you advance to the next step.

Codecademy's most popular Python course
  • Time to complete: Around 25 hours (Self-paced)
  • Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
  • Special features:
    Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial
Overall Rating:
4.2/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

There’s intermittent quizzes and assessments for you to prove your new skills.

Every step of every project is completed inside the platform: The course gives you a split screen view of the training material & the built-in coding environment so you can translate what you’re studying into code, in real time.

Curriculum:

  1. Hello world (learning Python syntax)
  2. Control flow
  3. Lists
  4. Loops
  5. Functions
  6. Python code challenges
  7. Strings
  8. Modules
  9. Dictionaries
  10. Files
  11. Classes
  12. Python code challenges II
  13. Advice for your next steps

What I like - the Pros:

  • Codecademy offers the best learning experience out of all Python courses, because the specialized platform holds your hand through every step.
  • It’s a motivating and fun way to master Python from the ground up.

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • If you’re a very autonomous learner or/and prefer to gather knowledge of high-level or advanced concepts before you dive into coding, Codecademy’s pre-set, step by step structure might turn you off.

With this course from the University of Michigan on Coursera, you start with the basics – installing Python and coding your first simple programs. In five exhaustive modules, you’ll go much deeper into all aspects of Python than with most online code-learning programs.

Coursera's Python Specialization
  • Time to complete: 8 months (@ 3 hours / week, self-paced)
  • Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
  • Special features:
    Course videos, practice quizzes, assignments with feedback, hands-on learning projects, certificate of completion, subtitles for many languages, 7-day free trial
Overall Rating:
4.7/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

Over the course of 8 months, an accredited university professor will teach you to understand and use Data Structures, Databases & Data Retrieval at an intermediate level. In the process you’ll have gained skills in Json, XML, Tuple, Web Scraping, Sqlite, SQL, and more.

Curriculum:

  1. Getting started with Python
  2. Python Data Structures
  3. Using Python to access web data
  4. Using Databases with Python
  5. Retrieving, Processing, and Visualizing Data w/ Python

What I like - the Pros:

  • The Python for Everybody Specialization offers you coding education at a professional level of quality – you won’t have to worry about the material being incomplete in any way. 
  • You can transfer your learnings into tangible results with the projects included in the course, which you can show to other students to get valuable feedback.
  • The video lectures included in the specialization are excellent.

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • If you don’t want to commit to such a deep dive into Python deep dive, but are content only taking small first steps, you’re better off picking a simpler course option.
  • Coursera’s platform also isn’t as gamified as Codecademy, for example, so you’ll need a bit more intrinsic motivation to keep up your learning habit and see the course through to completion.

If you’re looking to learn Python from the very beginning, with simple exercises anyone can do, and don’t want to be distracted by fluff or too advanced instructions, this Udemy course is for you.

Udemy's best beginner Python course
  • Time to complete: 4.5 hours of video content, to be completed at your own pace
  • Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
  • Special features:
    Low cost for lifetime access to the course, certificate of completion, review exercises and challenges, 30-day money-back guarantee
Overall Rating:
3.25/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

Like most of Udemy’s trainings, Python for Absolute Beginners is one of the most affordable options to learn this language. 

The value you get in exchange is high: All basic concepts are covered, and taught in a way that’s easy for anyone – regardless of talent or experience – to understand. 

The quizzes and challenges in each module motivate you even more to keep coming back to the course, in addition to the quick wins you get from the simple instructions.

Curriculum:

  1. Python & Pycharm setup & first project
  2. Python basics
  3. Strings
  4. Functions
  5. Flow control
  6. Loops
  7. Strings part 2
  8. Lists
  9. Dictionaries
  10. Tuples

What I like - the Pros:

  • The no-fluff, practical teaching style is refreshing
  • Quizzes and challenges make the course more fun and hands-on
  • The instructional videos explain everything well and are of high quality

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • If you have decent experience in Python, you’ll feel like this course is moving through the topics too slowly, so you won’t get as much value out of it and should probably choose something more advanced
  • While the course has code challenges, you don’t get to complete a full software program like you do with some other Python trainings. It’s meant to be an introduction to the language. Expect to gain valuable skills – but not to be a complete Python developer after you’ve gone through it

Advanced Python 3 at Codecademy teaches you a new set of tools to bring better structure & efficiency, advanced database functionality, effective deployment, and debugging ability to your Python code.

Codecademy's advanced Python course
  • Time to complete: Around 9 hours (Self-paced)
  • Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
  • Special features:
    Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial
Overall Rating:
4.1/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

If you’ve moved past the beginner stage as a Python programmer – and are looking to overcome the intermediate plateau – this Codecademy course highlights the exact concepts you need to study to write programs that are a level above when it comes to functionality, code cleanliness, readability and maintainability.

The material is presented in their usual step-by-step manner, with different projects and quizzes for each module.

Curriculum:

  1. Introduction to Advanced Python
  2. Logging
  3. Functional Programming
  4. Database Operations
  5. Concurrent Programming
  6. Deployment
  7. Your next steps

What I like - the Pros:

  • Even though it’s an advanced-level course, Codecademy doesn’t bombard you with dozens of theoretical concepts to chew through. Instead it sticks with its simple, motivating style that has you put each piece of new knowledge into practice before moving on to the next challenge. 

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • I wouldn’t have minded more modules inside the course, which would have turned it into a proper online masterclass – it takes only around 9 hours to complete all modules. If you want to learn other intermediate/advanced skills like creating web apps with the Flask library, using advanced Data structures & Algorithms, or Data Analysis, you have to start over with another one of their courses.

If you're looking to go as deep as possible into learning Python, and building the foundation for a fruitful career as a Back-End Developer with Python, this 16-week online bootcamp could be for you.

Back-End Python Developer Bootcamp at NuCamp
  • Time to complete: 16 weeks (Scheduled) @ 12 hours / week
  • Prerequisites: Web Development fundamentals
  • Special features:
    1:1 career sessions, 4-week career development course, resume & LinkedIn assistance, hackathons, job board, free month of LinkedIn Premium & LI Learning, lifetime access to course content
Overall Rating:
4.2/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

NuCamp's Python bootcamp provides a tighter community because of the cohort-based structure. And -- in exchange to paying higher course fees than for any other training in this review -- you'll also get 1:1 mentorship and career assistance.

Curriculum:

  1. Loops
  2. Functions
  3. Complex data structures
  4. Classes
  5. Object-oriented programming
  6. Algorithms
  7. SQL databases
  8. Linking PostgreSQL to Python apps
  9. SDLC & Agile
  10. DevOps & CI/CD
  11. Cloud deployment (Amazon AWS, Azure, Firestore)

What I like - the Pros:

  • The cohort-based structure means you’ll learn alongside your peers, form a deeper connection to your teachers, and be motivated by meetings and exams with deadlines
  • A bootcamp like this will put you ahead even of others who’ve been using Python for longer, because the immersive environment has you learn more, much faster
  • The price isn’t excessive in comparison to other coding bootcamps

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • Because it’s “only” a 4-month program, it doesn’t teach you Python for web development from the ground up, but instead requires some existing knowledge of the topic. It’s therefore not recommend for total beginners

Data Analysts are in high demand. This skill path at Codecademy equips you with a range of skills needed to analyze data with Python and Python libraries.

Data Analysis Course with Python at Codecademy
  • Time to complete: 10 weeks (Self-paced)
  • Prerequisites: Beginner-friendly
  • Special features:
    Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial
Overall Rating:
4.1/5✨

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

This course provides the perfect basis to doing Data Analysis using today's most popular tools.

Curriculum:

  1. Why Data Analysis?
  2. Python Syntax
  3. Python Functions
  4. Lists
  5. Lambda Functions
  6. Files
  7. The NumPy library
  8. Data Manipulation with Pandas
  9. Data Visualization with Matplotlib
  10. Statistics for Data Analysis
  11. Hypothesis Testing with SciPy
  12. Final projects

What I like - the Pros:

  • Again, I love the learning experience and structure of Codecademy, and this course holds up to the standards set by their other courses
  • The many projects included in the course are great to transfer everything “into the real world” right away

What I don't like - the Cons:

  • I would’ve liked recommendations for some more theoretical resources you could choose to check out in addition to or after the course

That’s it for the 6 best Python courses. I hope you could pick the perfect one for yourself.

Happy Python coding!

FAQ

How long will the average Python course take?

The range for how long a Python course takes is between 4.5 and 196 hours. While the basic courses take no more than 25 hours, an immersive Python bootcamp can take almost 200 hours spread out over 4+ months.

How much is a Python certificate?

Prices for the certificates in Python ranged between $15 for a Udemy certificate to $2000 for a certificate of completion from a NuCamp online Python bootcamp. Of course these certificates differ in value, and some of them are accredited while others are not.