What Is a Programming Language? | Python for Absolute Beginners

Learn what code is, what a programming language does, and what “running” code actually means.

Course Overview

Stage	Lessons
Before You Code	1. What Is a Programming Language?2. What Is Python and Why Use It?3. Installing Python 4. Terminal and Basic Navigation 5. Your First Python File 6. Comments
Storing Information	1. Variables: Labeled Boxes 2. Naming Variables 3. Integers and Floats 4. Text and Strings 5. True and False 6. Checking a Value’s Type 7. Converting Between Types
Doing Things with Values	1. Math Operators 2. Comparison Operators 3. Logical Operators 4. Getting User Input 5. Formatting Output with f-Strings
Making Decisions	1. What Is Control Flow?2. if Statements 3. else and elif 4. Nested if Statements
Repeating Things	1. What Is a Loop?2. while Loops 3. for Loops 4. break and continue 5. Common Loop Mistakes
Grouping Data	1. Lists: Grouping Values 2. Adding and Removing List Items 3. Dictionaries and Key-Value Pairs 4. Tuples 5. Sets and Unique Values
Reusable Code	1. What Is a Function?2. Defining Functions, Parameters, and Returns 3. Default Parameter Values 4. Local and Global Scope
Files and Errors	1. Reading a File 2. Writing to a File 3. Errors and Exceptions 4. Handling Errors with try and except
Organizing Bigger Programs	1. Modules and Imports 2. Packages and pip 3. Virtual Environments
Intro to Objects	1. What Is an Object?2. Classes and Objects 3. A Class with Attributes and Methods 4. What Is self?
Beyond the Basics	1. Testing Your Code 2. Async I/O 3. Security-Conscious Coding Habits

A computer is extremely fast, but it does not guess what you want. It follows small, exact instructions. Programming means writing those instructions.

Imagine telling a robot to make a sandwich. “Make lunch” is too vague. A useful recipe says: take two slices of bread, add cheese, and put the slices together. Code is a recipe written with rules the computer understands.

Here is one complete Python instruction:

print("Hello!")

Line-by-line explanation

print tells Python to display something on the screen.
The opening round bracket ( begins the information given to print.
"Hello!" is the text to display. Quote marks show where the text begins and ends.
The closing round bracket ) finishes the instruction.