Course

Introduction to APIs and Web Scraping in Python

In this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of collecting data by accessing APIs and scraping the web. A data analyst or data scientist doesn’t always get the data they need in a CSV file or via an easily accessible database. Sometimes, you’ve got to go out and get the data you need. By the end of this course you’ll know how to extract data via APIs or web scraping.

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Part of the Data Analyst in Python, and Data Scientist paths.

4.8 (359 reviews)

31,051 learners enrolled in this course.

Intermediate friendly
4 hours
Self paced
4 lessons

“I like the way Dataquest is set up. On other platforms, I was wasting a lot of time searching for the specific information, but because of Dataquest’s paths, it was easy for me to learn what I needed in a logical sequence. Dataquest is pre-curated and super awesome.”

Caitlin Whitlock

Research Scientist @Amazon

Introduction to APIs and Web Scraping in Python

Enroll For Free

Course overview

In this course, you’ll learn how to access APIs, including how to create and process API requests; how to deal with data in the JSON format using Python and pandas; and how to handle advanced requests such as POST, PUT/PATCH, and DELETE. You’ll apply your new API skills by working with the Reddit API to perform real-world data analysis.

You’ll also learn web scraping using Python, Beautiful Soup, and the requests library. This includes requesting and downloading a website’s HTML content; retrieving specific elements from the page using BeautifulSoup; using Find All, IDs, and Classes to extract specific parts of a page; and using CSS selectors.

Key skills

Querying external data sources using an API
Scraping datasets from the web

Course outline

Introduction to APIs and Web Scraping in Python [4 lessons]

Working with APIs 1h

Lesson Objectives

Identify the advantages of APIs
Create and process API requests
Define the JSON data format

Intermediate APIs 1h

Lesson Objectives

Authenticate with APIs
Identify the different types of API requests

Challenge: Working with the reddit API 1h

Lesson Objectives

Authenticate with an API
Identify the different types of API requests

Web Scraping 1h

Lesson Objectives

Structure webpages using HTML
Employ web scraping

The Dataquest guarantee

Dataquest has helped thousands of people start new careers in data. If you put in the work and follow our path, you’ll master data skills and grow your career.

We believe so strongly in our paths that we offer a full satisfaction guarantee. If you complete a career path on Dataquest and aren’t satisfied with your outcome, we’ll give you a refund.

Master skills faster with Dataquest

Go from zero to job-ready

Learn exactly what you need to achieve your goal. Don’t waste time on unrelated lessons.

Build your project portfolio

Build confidence with our in-depth projects, and show off your data skills.

Challenge yourself with exercises

Work with real data from day one with interactive lessons and hands-on exercises.

Showcase your path certification

Impress employers by completing a capstone project and certifying it with an expert review.

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Grow your career with
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for learners who complete a path

Aaron Melton

Business Analyst at Aditi Consulting

“Dataquest starts at the most basic level, so a beginner can understand the concepts. I tried learning to code before, using Codecademy and Coursera. I struggled because I had no background in coding, and I was spending a lot of time Googling. Dataquest helped me actually learn.”

Jessica Ko

Machine Learning Engineer at Twitter

“I liked the interactive environment on Dataquest. The material was clear and well organized. I spent more time practicing then watching videos and it made me want to keep learning.”

Victoria E. Guzik

Associate Data Scientist at Callisto Media

“I really love learning on Dataquest. I looked into a couple of other options and I found that they were much too handhold-y and fill in the blank relative to Dataquest’s method. The projects on Dataquest were key to getting my job. I doubled my income!”