A Bill Splitter
Four friends, an $86.40 dinner and a 15% tip: everyone’s share in a few seconds, right every time.
Bill before tip: $86.40Tip: $12.96Total with tip: $99.36People: 4-------------------------------Each person pays: $24.84
Write your first program tonight.
Python for Beginners · by the Python For Beginners team
PDF + example files
Write your first program tonight.
The Python book for complete beginners. Start from zero, learn to fix your own errors, and build four programs that do real jobs.
- PDF ebook
- Example files
- Real projects
- Instant download
Run the first program in the book.
This is hello.py from Chapter 1. Run it, then change print on line 2 into pritn, as if your fingers had slipped, and run it again. Python tells you what’s wrong, where it is, and often how to fix it.
hello.py
output
Python loads when you press Run
ctrl/⌘ + enter to run · real Python, running in your browser
What readers say.
What they built, fixed and kept using.
From zero to my first program
I had never written a line of code, and math was never my thing. By the end of Chapter 1 I had Python installed and my first program running, and when the installer did something odd, Appendix B had the exact fix.
Laura Bennettadministrative assistant Errors don’t scare me anymore
Error messages used to make me close the laptop. Now I read them from the bottom up, find the line, change one thing and run it again. That habit alone made the book worth it.
Daniel Okaforretail store manager It fits around a full-time job
I work full time, so I did one section most evenings after dinner. Each section is short enough to finish in one sitting, and I never felt lost when I picked the book up again.
Priya Ramanlogistics coordinator Dinner bill, split in seconds
The bill splitter was the first program I actually used. At a dinner with friends it worked out the tip and everyone’s share before anyone had found the calculator on their phone. It also explained why my first answer came out as 24.840000000000003.
Marcus Halegraphic designer I can see where my money goes
I swapped the book’s categories for my own in the budget checker, and the report flagged eating out as over budget for the third month running. It’s the first budget I’ve actually kept up with.
Sofia Morenophysiotherapist My job search, finally organized
I built the job application tracker while I was looking for work, then kept using it for my real applications. The follow-up reminder flagged two companies I’d forgotten to chase.
Tom Whitfieldformer restaurant manager, now changing careers My monthly report builds itself
Every month I copied sales figures from three files into a spreadsheet by hand. My version of the report builder now does it in seconds, formatted and with the totals checked. That’s about three hours a month back.
Aisha Rahmanbookkeeper Years of clutter, sorted safely
My Downloads folder had years of clutter. The Chapter 14 program sorted it into folders, and I trusted it because it showed me its plan with a dry run before it moved a single file.
James Callowayfreelance photographer Now I trust my totals
I didn’t expect a beginners’ book to teach testing. Now, whenever I change my report script, pytest tells me in a second whether the totals are still right.
Elena Petrovaoperations analyst Slow at first, but it sticks
Typing every example felt slow at first, but it’s why the code stuck. Working out the answer on paper before writing the program means I know when my program is right, not just when it runs.
Kenji Tanakaparalegal Practice I can check on my own
Every chapter ends with a practice program, and the full solutions are at the back of the book and in the example files. I could try on my own first and still check my work at midnight without waiting for anyone.
Grace Lindqvistcustomer service team lead I know what to learn next
I finished with four programs I actually use, and Appendix G gave me a clear next step. The budget project got me hooked on data, so I’ve started learning pandas.
Omar Haddadmarketing coordinator
Four programs you’ll build.
Each part of the book ends with a project: one complete program that does a real job. You build it in four steps, and it runs after every one.
A Monthly Budget Checker
Log your spending as you go and see, category by category, where you stayed on track and where you went over.
groceries 343.45 300.00 114% <- over by 43.45eating out 168.90 150.00 113% <- over by 18.90Total 1,434.35 1,500.00 96%Over budget: groceries, eating out
A Job Application Tracker
Every application saved from one day to the next, and a flag when an employer has gone quiet for 10 days.
Applications on file: 4Follow-ups due: 2. Choose 4 to see them.Greenfield Library: no news for 14 daysCopperline Logistics: no news for 11 days
A Monthly Report Builder
A bakery’s three shops send their sales files. Your program turns them into one formatted spreadsheet, archives them and tests the sums.
15 rows from 3 files.Sales by shop Harbour 6,534.60 Market 4,649.50 Station 5,447.20Total sales: 16,631.30
Small programs, real answers.
Each section adds one idea, shows it in a few lines of code and has you run it. These six come straight from the book, with the output they print.
print("Two coffees:", 2 * 2.80) print("Three coffees:", 3 * 2.80)Two coffees: 5.6 Three coffees: 8.399999999999999
Numbers, honestly
Three coffees at 2.80 come to 8.399999999999999. Nothing is broken, and Chapter 2 shows why, and how to round money.
age = int(input("How old are you? ")) if age < 12: print("You get the child price.") print("Your ticket costs $6.") print("Enjoy the film!")How old are you? 8 You get the child price. Your ticket costs $6. Enjoy the film!
Decisions with if
A child’s cinema ticket, free museum entry, free shipping from $50: your program picks the right path.
thickness = 0.1 everest = 8849000 folds = 0 while thickness < everest: thickness = thickness * 2 folds = folds + 1 print("Folds needed:", folds)Folds needed: 27
Loops that keep going
How many folds until a sheet of paper is taller than Everest? A while loop finds out: 27.
prices = [2.49, 3.10, 0.99, 4.25] total = 0 for price in prices: total += price print(f"Total: {total:.2f}")Total: 10.83
Lists that add up
Keep a whole receipt in one list and let a loop total it, however long it gets.
def greet(name): print(f"Hello, {name}!") print("Nice to see you.") greet("Ana") greet("Tom")Hello, Ana! Nice to see you. Hello, Tom! Nice to see you.
Functions you can reuse
Name a piece of work once, then run it as often as you like, with different information each time.
from datetime import date, timedelta today = date(2026, 10, 19) holiday = date(2026, 12, 24) wait = holiday - today print(wait.days, "days to go")66 days to go
Dates without counting
Subtract one date from another and Python counts the days for you, leap years included.
Error messages are on your side.
Everyone gets them, every day. Chapter 3 teaches you to read one from the bottom up, find the mistake and fix it, calmly and in the same order every time.
cafe.py
print("Welcome to the cafe")
print("One coffee costs 2.50")
Print("Two coffees cost 5.00")
$ python cafe.pyWelcome to the cafeOne coffee costs 2.50Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/sam/python_book/cafe.py", line 3, in <module> Print("Two coffees cost 5.00") ^^^^^NameError: name 'Print' is not defined. Did you mean: 'print'?
When you’re stuck, try these in order
Read the error message from the bottom. The last line names the problem, and the File line tells you which line of your program to check.
Compare your code with the book’s, character by character. Most mistakes hide in quote marks, brackets, colons, capital letters, and spaces at the start of lines.
Run the book’s version from the example files. If it works and yours doesn’t, the difference is in your typing.
Take a break. Ten minutes away often turns an impossible problem into an obvious one.
Ask the right way. Chapter 3 shows how to use the documentation, forums and AI assistants without skipping the learning.
What's inside.
15 chapters, 4 projects and 7 appendices: 310 pages from installing Python to building a formatted spreadsheet report. Every chapter ends with a Practice exercise, solved in Appendix E.
How to Use This Book
How the book works, and the habits that carry you through it.
- Who this book is for
- How the chapters and projects fit together
- Why you should type every example yourself
- What to do when you get stuck
- Getting the example files and solutions
First Steps
Install Python, run your first program and read error messages without panic. Ends with A Bill Splitter. Chapters 1–4.
Installing Python and Running Your First Program
Put Python on your computer and run a program of your own, starting from zero.
- What a program is and why Python is a good first language
- Installing Python on your computer
- Talking to Python in the interactive shell
- Writing, saving, and running your first program file
- Your first error message, and why it's good news
- Make the computer introduce you
Working with Numbers and Text
See how Python treats numbers and text, until the shell is the most patient calculator you own.
- Values and types: numbers and text
- Doing arithmetic and the order of operations
- Writing text with strings
- Changing text with methods: case, spaces, and replacements
- Leaving notes with comments
- Use Python as your everyday calculator
Reading Error Messages and Fixing Mistakes
Read an error from the bottom up, find the mistake and fix it, in the same order every time.
- Why errors are normal, even for professionals
- Reading an error message from the bottom up
- The five errors you'll meet most often
- A step-by-step method for finding the problem
- Getting help from documentation, forums, and AI assistants
- Fix five broken programs
Storing Information and Asking for Input
Give values names, drop them into sentences and let the user type their own answers.
- Giving names to values with variables
- Updating variables and choosing good names
- Putting values inside text and formatting numbers
- Asking the user a question
- Turning text answers into numbers
- Build a unit converter
A Bill SplitterSplit a dinner bill, tip included, in a few seconds.
Four friends, an $86.40 dinner bill and a 15% tip: each person's share in a few seconds.
Uses Chapters 1–4. The program runs after every step and does a little more each time.
- Planning the program on paper
- Asking for the total, the tip, and the number of people
- Calculating each person's share
- Printing a clear summary and trying it with real bills
Making Decisions and Working with Collections
Make programs choose, repeat and remember groups of things. Ends with A Monthly Budget Checker. Chapters 5–8.
Making Decisions with Conditions
Ask yes-or-no questions about a value, choose what runs next and survive unexpected input.
- True or false: comparing numbers and text
- Doing something only when a condition is true: blocks and indentation
- Choosing between several paths
- Combining conditions with and, or, and not
- Planning for failure: trying something and catching the error
- A shipping-cost calculator with discounts
Repeating Actions with Loops
Count, add things up, keep a menu on screen and keep asking until the answer makes sense.
- Repeating while a condition is true
- Repeating a fixed number of times
- Keeping counts and running totals
- Building a menu that repeats until you quit
- Asking again until the answer is valid
- A savings-growth table
Keeping Collections of Items in Lists
Keep a whole group of values together: add, change, sort and go through them.
- Creating a list and reaching items by position
- Adding, changing, and removing items
- Going through a list with a loop
- Sorting, counting, and summarizing
- Splitting text into lists and joining it back
- A shopping list manager
Organizing Information with Dictionaries
Store information under names, look it up, count things and describe records.
- Looking things up by name: keys and values
- Adding, updating, and removing entries
- Going through a dictionary with a loop
- Counting things with a dictionary
- Combining lists and dictionaries to describe records
- A contact book
A Monthly Budget CheckerLog your spending as you go and see where you went over, category by category.
Set a budget for rent, groceries, transport, eating out and fun, then see where you went over.
Uses Chapters 5–8. The program runs after every step and does a little more each time.
- Setting a budget for each category
- A menu to add expenses, with checks for bad input
- Totals and percentages per category
- A report that flags where you've overspent
Organizing Your Code and Saving Your Data
Write your own functions, split code into modules and save data to files. Ends with A Job Application Tracker. Chapters 9–12.
Writing Your Own Functions
Name a piece of work once and reuse it, so a program reads like a table of contents.
- Naming a piece of work: defining and calling functions
- Passing information in with parameters and default values
- Getting results back with return
- Where variables live: inside and outside functions
- Describing what a function expects and returns
- Turn your earlier programs into functions
Reusing Code with Modules and Packages
Use Python's toolbox, split your own code into files and install free packages.
- Importing modules from the standard library
- Working with dates and times
- Splitting your program into your own modules
- Installing packages from the terminal
- Keeping each project's packages separate
- A days-until-the-deadline calculator
Reading and Writing Files
Programs that remember: read, write and save data so it is still there tomorrow.
- Where files live: paths and folders
- Reading a text file
- Writing and adding to a file
- Handling missing files and other surprises
- Saving structured data you can load later
- A journal that keeps your entries
Working with Spreadsheet Data
Read CSV files from your bank or fitness app, filter and add up rows, save a new file.
- What CSV files are and where you'll find them
- Reading rows as records
- Filtering and summarizing rows
- Writing results to a new file
- Analyze a bank statement export
A Job Application TrackerTrack every application, keep its status current and know when to follow up.
Records, a menu, functions, dates and a saved file in one program that flags what needs a follow-up.
Uses Chapters 9–12. The program runs after every step and does a little more each time.
- Deciding what to record for each application
- Functions to add, update, and list applications
- Saving and loading the tracker from a file
- Flagging applications that need a follow-up
Putting Python to Work
Test your code, tidy folders automatically and build Excel reports. Ends with A Monthly Report Builder. Chapters 13–15.
Checking Your Programs with Tests
Write small pieces of code that check your code, and run them in a second.
- Why test, and what to test
- Checking results with assertions
- Writing and running automated tests
- Testing the awkward cases: empty, zero, and wrong input
- Add tests to your job application tracker
Organizing Files and Folders Automatically
Sort a messy Downloads folder in a second, and show a plan before touching a single file.
- Listing what's inside a folder
- Finding files by name, type, or date
- Copying, moving, and renaming files
- Doing a dry run before changing anything
- Tidy up your downloads folder
Creating and Updating Spreadsheets
Read Excel files, write new ones, add formulas and format a report people want to read.
- Opening a workbook and reading cells
- Going through rows and columns
- Writing values and formulas
- Formatting a report people will want to read
- Turn a data file into a formatted report
A Monthly Report BuilderTurn a month of sales files into one tidy spreadsheet.
A bakery with three shops: their monthly sales files become one formatted spreadsheet, archived safely, with tests.
Uses Chapters 13–15. The program runs after every step and does a little more each time.
- Collecting this month's files from a folder
- Combining and summarizing the data
- Building the formatted spreadsheet
- Archiving processed files safely, with tests for the calculations
Appendices
Terminal, install fixes, error lookup, quick reference, solutions, glossary and next steps.
- Terminal BasicsType every command once, then keep section A.10 as a one-page cheat sheet.
- Fixing Installation ProblemsFind your message on screen, try one fix, check it worked.
- Error Messages Quick ReferenceWhat each error means, a program that causes it and the usual fix.
- Python Quick ReferenceOne table per topic; every row points back to the section that teaches it.
- Solutions to the Practice ExercisesOne working solution per chapter, with the output of a real run.
- Glossary269 terms in plain words, each linked to the section that explains it.
- Where to Go NextLook back at what you can do now, then choose: automate, analyze data, build websites, make games.
How the book works.
Read it in order: every chapter uses only what came before it.
Example first
Each section shows a short program and the output it prints, then explains it. Sections are short, so you can stop at the end of any one.
Type it, don’t paste it
Typing trains your eyes, gives you small mistakes to fix and makes the code yours. The example files are there to check against, not to copy.
Practise, then check
Every chapter ends with a program to write on your own, with the result to aim for and a couple of hints. Appendix E has a worked solution for each.
Build it in steps
Each project grows in four steps, and your program runs after every one. If something breaks, you only look at what you just changed.
Look inside.
Real pages from the book: short sections, the code you type and the exact output you should see.
The details.
Everything you get, before you pay.
your downloads
- look inside
python-for-beginners.pdf
look inside python-for-beginners-examples.zip
python-for-beginners/├── intro/│ └── hello.py the example from this introduction├── ch01/ … ch15/ one folder for each chapter├── p1/ … p4/ one folder for each project└── solutions/ the programs from Appendix E
- Complete beginner
- 3.12 or later
- English
- Personal use, one reader
- A Windows, macOS or Linux computer
- Instant download after payment
- Re-download any time from your Polar library
- $29
This book is for you if…
- You’ve never written a line of code, or you tried and got lostChapter 1
- You want to automate a dull part of your job, change careers, or understand what programmers do all dayPart IV
- You learn by typing and running small programs, not by watchinghow it works
- You want one path, in order, with a solution for every exerciseAppendix E
It’s probably not for you if…
- You already write Python at work
- You want data science, websites or games taught in depth (Appendix G points the way)Appendix G
- You want to code on a tablet or phone
- You want video lessons
About Python For Beginners.
Python For Beginners
Python For Beginners is a team of Python experts with one goal: helping complete beginners learn PythonThe programming language this book teaches. The program that runs your code is called Python too.. This book is how we do it: a Python book for beginners that starts from zero and ends with four programA list of instructions, written in order, that a computer follows to get a result. that do real jobs.
We wrote it the way we’d want to learn. Every chapter uses only what came before it, every section shows the codeThe text you write to give a computer instructions. before it explains it, and a 269-term glossary catches any word you forget. Every example was run on Python 3.12 or later, and the outputWhat a program shows on the screen when it runs. In this book it’s printed on a black panel. on the page is copied from those runs, not typed by hand.
Getting stuck is part of learning, so the book plans for it.
- Chapter 3Reading Error Messages and Fixing Mistakesteaches you to read error messages
- Appendix BFixing Installation Problemsfixes installation problems on Windows, macOS and Linux
- Appendix CError Messages Quick Referenceexplains the errors you can meet with what the book teaches
- Appendix ESolutions to the Practice Exerciseshas a worked solution for every Practice exercise
Everything you need to keep going is in the book.
Questions? Answers.
About the book, the example files and buying it.
Is this really for complete beginners?
Yes. It’s written for adults who have never written a line of code. If you can use a web browser, save a file and find it again later, you know enough to start. Each chapter builds only on the ones before it.
Do I need to be good at maths?
No. Nothing in the book needs more than everyday arithmetic: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
What do I need to start?
A desktop or laptop running Windows, macOS or Linux (the book is written for a computer, not a tablet or phone), and regular short sessions. Chapter 1 walks you through installing Python, and Appendix B covers the problems people hit most often.
What exactly do I get?
A 310-page PDF and a ZIP of example files: every program in the book, each project as it stands after every step, the data files the examples read, and the solutions from Appendix E. The PDF opens on any phone, tablet or computer, and you can print it.
Which version of Python does it use?
Python 3.12 or later. Every example was run on Python 3.12 or later, and the output you see is copied from those runs. Newer versions may word a few error messages slightly differently, which is normal.
Why learn to code when AI can write it?
Because you still need to know whether the code is right. Section 3.5 shows you how to use an AI assistant as a tutor: ask it to explain an error, not only to fix it, and check its answer by running it, because an assistant can sound sure and still be wrong.
How do I receive the ebook?
Right after payment your downloads are ready on the confirmation page, and Polar emails you a receipt with a link to your library.
I lost the files. Can I download them again?
Yes. Open your Polar library with the email you used to buy, enter the one-time code it sends you, and download the PDF and the example files again. There’s a link in the footer.
Can I get a refund?
Because the files are delivered instantly, you agree at checkout to immediate access and lose the 14-day right of withdrawal once they’re available. If a file is faulty, not as described, or you were charged twice, you’re still covered: see the refund policy.
How can I pay? Do I get an invoice?
Checkout is handled by Polar, our merchant of record. You can pay by card, and in some countries with local methods such as iDEAL or Bancontact. PayPal is not available. Polar calculates any VAT or sales tax for your country and emails you an invoice.
Still unsure? Run Chapter 1 above, or look inside the book.
Stop googling every error.
Learn to read what Python tells you, fix it yourself, and finish with four programs that do real jobs.