Practical Python Projects

What will we be making?

Glad you asked! There are 12 chapters in total and in each chapter, I will be guiding you from start to finish on how to implement an end-to-end project. I will show you how I take an idea and do the required research before writing any code. A few of the projects that we will be implementing in this book are:

• 👉   A Twilio bot that keeps you updated with the latest match scores from the FIFA World Cup
• 👉   A Facebook Messenger bot the shares latest memes, jokes, and shower-thoughts scraped from Reddit
• 👉   An automated invoice generator and deploying it using Flask
• 👉   Making automated cinema-preshow by downloading and stitching together related movie trailers using moviepy
• 👉   Generating automated article summaries and overlaying them on top of images
• 👉   Understanding and decoding JPEG images using vanilla Python
• 👉   Creating a GUI application using PyQt for downloading online videos
• 👉   Implementing a TUI email client that allows reading emails in the terminal

Is this book for you?

You will benefit from this book if you fall into one of the following categories:

• You are a beginner and have read the intro-level Python books. You are trying to figure out how to get to the next level and don't feel confident writing a complete program from scratch.
• You are an experienced Python programmer and are looking for fun new project ideas. Maybe you have been focused too much on the back-end or front-end programming and want to create more end-to-end projects.
• You are a Data scientist and have more experience with data-oriented programming. Now you are planning on getting into the "engineering" side of things
• You are well versed in another programming language and want to quickly get started with Python. You want to see what generally useful libraries are out there in the Python world.
• You learn by building projects and want to read a book that teaches you exactly how experienced developers tackle projects. You want to learn the process of breaking down a seemingly complex project into small chunks.

Are there any prerequisites?

It might already be clear that this book is not for complete beginners. I do show you every single line of code but I don't teach you the basics of Python. I expect you to know and be comfortable with the idea of functions and basic classes. I will give you a quick refresher on some concepts before we use them (e.g. list comprehensions) but will not go into too much detail. If you don't know the basics of Python then I recommend you read Automate the Boring Stuff With Python by Al Sweigart. He does a good job at teaching the basics. The online version of the book is free but do buy the paid version if you find it useful.

Most of the projects we will work on are public-facing and this requires some HTML and CSS knowledge. Only a few projects require it and you only need to know the basics. If you are completely new to HTML and CSS then you can take a codecademy course. I have audited one of their courses in the past and I liked it.

What are people saying?

You don't have to take my word for it. Listen to what these wonderful people are saying about my work.

Yasoob’s book really embraces the idea of building small practical projects. He takes the reader on a tour of over a dozen projects, reinforcing research and coding skills along the way. His technical acumen combines with unbridled enthusiasm to make for a delightful and informative book.

Daniel Feldroy
Author Two Scoops of Django

Often, especially as a mentor for budding programmers, I get asked where and how can one identify projects to begin with. I usually point them to open-source repositories or a web blog, but I believe now I have this book as the perfect resource to point to. The book contains a bunch of carefully crafted projects with step-by-step instructions and code snippets on how to carry out the execution. Yasoob has put in extra efforts to include many useful tips throughout the course of the content. I especially appreciate the pointers at the end of each project regarding how one could build on top of it, customize, and take it forward from there.

If you are fairly new and looking to gain some experience in building end-to-end Python projects, I would highly recommend using this book as a stepping stone to further your skills.

Jigyasa Grover
Author Sculpting Data for ML | ML Engineer at Twitter

I’m a fan of Yasoob’s work. His previous work ‘Intermediate Python’ has helped me enormously in my Python career so far, so it was a no brainer to purchase his latest book ‘Practical Python Projects’. On first inspection, this looks like a very thorough, and modern treatment of how to create projects, and I look forward to coming up with my own projects spawned from ideas in this book.

Ant L
Reader

Very neat book. Thanks for writing it @yasoob!

Trey Hunner
Truthful Technology LLC.

Just encountered the online book Intermediate Python recently. Fills a void, I think. Rather impressed by @yasoobkhalid's work. https://book.pythontips.com

Jonathan Bowman
Candoris

😥 I was missing out so much for not knowing this book before...
🐍 Recently I stumbled across the book Intermediate Python, which has many useful tips and tricks for coding more efficiently. Beginner Python classes don't quite cover intermediate concepts like these. I wish I had found this book earlier.

Travis Tang
Data Analyst at Gojek

Who am I?

👋   Hi there!

My name is Yasoob Khalid. I am a writer, programmer, and public speaker, currently living in NY, USA. I have been programming for around 10 years and started when I was 13 y/o. I have worked on and successfully deployed Python, Node, Go, and C# projects to production.

A couple of years ago, I published the free and open-source Intermediate Python book. It has been read by 5+ million people and has been translated into Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. I have previously worked at Microsoft and different startups. My open-source work has benefited people at Intel, Google, Apple, and Cisco (among others) and my books and articles have been used as supplementary material at different universities. I have written 150+ articles on programming, most of which you can find on my blog.

You can follow @yasoobkhalid on Twitter or hang out on my blog to see what I am up to. You can also take a look at my GitHub or follow me on LinkedIn.

FAQ

🐍   Which Python version is required?
I use Python version 3.8+ in the book but you can use any Python 3.5+ version and the code should work.

😕   What if I don't like the book?
I am giving you a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. If you don't like the book within the first 30 days, simply send me an email with your order number and I will return your money. You don't have to assume any risk while buying this book.

📖   Can I get a print version?
I am so sorry but I don't have a print version yet. If there is enough interest I might try and get one out. I will keep you posted once it comes out. All pre-existing customers will receive a discount coupon if it does come out.

🌎   I am in country XYZ and can't buy the book!
If you are from Iran or India (+ a few others) and do not have access to payment options that work with my merchant then please send me an email and I will make sure we can figure something out. I don't want you to be left out because of stupid regulations.

📩   Will I receive updates?
I have done a good faith effort to release an error-free book but I am sure there must be some lingering errors in the text and code. If I publish an update, you will receive an email with the changelog. All such updates will be 100% free.

📚   What formats are included in my purchase?
You will get a MOBI, an EPUB, and a PDF with your purchase.

🚢   Can I look at final projects?
Yes, you sure can! I have uploaded all the projects and the code samples to GitHub. This repository is also used to submit and track all bug reports.

🐛   I found a bug!
If you find any mistakes in prose or code, please open an issue on GitHub. I will fix the issue and acknowledge you in the book and on this website. It can be as small as a punctuation error!

💸 Are there any discounts?
If you are a student or simply can not afford the book, please send me an email at hi @ yasoob.me, and I will see what I can do.

❓  Wait! I have more questions.
You can reach out to me at hi @ yasoob.me and I will make sure I respond to you as soon as possible 😊

Acknowledgment

The following people helped make the book better by submitting bug reports in the alpha version of the book:

• Trey Hunner
• Jeff Czarniak
• Audrey Feldroy
• Jorge Alberto Alvarado Segura
• Peter Huynh
• Chris Hill