Many books and websites have aggressive programming challenges for top coders. However, this book is for the rest of us. We want challenges that improve our coding skills, not leave us confused and discouraged. Other tutorials and books have taught you the basics of Python, but the 42 programming exercises in this book let you practice what you've learned. Selected for their simplicity, these programming problems include gentle explanations of the problem, the prerequisite coding concepts you’ll need to understand the solution, and helpful templates to put together the programs if you have trouble starting from scratch.

This is the perfect book for beginner and intermediate programmers who want to test their Python skills but aren’t ready to begin professional-level software development. You don’t need the frustration of being expected to create complex algorithms and computer science theory; you need a large set of programming challenges that meet you at your level, with gentle explanations.

The coding exercises in this book include:

• Temperature conversion

• Fizz buzz

• Reading and writing files

• Find and replace text

• Calculating average, median, and mode

• Random dice rolling

• Password generation

• Date validation

• Rock, paper, scissors

• ASCII art

• Collatz sequence

• Bubble sort

About the author

Al Sweigart is a software developer and tech book author living in Houston. He has written several programming books for beginners, including Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.