about this book
Python Workout isn’t designed to teach you Python, although I hope and expect that you’ll learn quite a bit along the way. It is meant to help you improve your understanding of Python and how to use it to solve problems. You can think of it as a workbook, one whose power and learning potential depend on you. The more effort you put into this book, the more you’ll get out of it.
In other words, this is a book that you should not just read or page through. For the learning to happen, you’ll have to spend time answering the questions and making inevitable mistakes. There’s a world of difference between reading a solution and writing the solution yourself. I hope you’ll invest time in addressing the problems; I promise it’s an investment that’ll repay you handsomely in the future.
By the time you finish Python Workout, you will have solved many problems having to do with core data structures, functions, comprehensions, modules, objects, and iterators. You will understand how to use them effectively and will know how to use them in various idiomatic ways. Once you’ve finished with these exercises, you’ll find it easier to design and write Python programs for work and pleasure.
Note that it’s not cheating to get help from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. However, I encourage you to avoid asking them to write code for you; instead, ask specific questions about your problem-solving strategy or aspects of Python you’ve forgotten.