Course

Python Dictionaries, APIs, and Functions

In this course, you’ll continue to learn the fundamentals of Python for development with dictionaries, APIs, and Python functions. You’ll not only learn these concepts to organize your Python program for future analysis, you’ll also break it down into smaller units to make it more manageable when your program becomes larger and more complex.

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4.8 (359 reviews)
2,220 learners enrolled in this course.
  • Beginner friendly
  • 10 hours
  • Self paced
  • 5 lessons
  • 1 project
Otavio

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Otávio Silveira

Data Analyst @ Hortifruti

Python Dictionaries, APIs, and Functions

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Course overview

In this course, you’ll explore the world of Python for development. You’ll learn basic Python concepts such as dictionaries, APIs, functions, and default arguments. 

Best of all, you’ll learn by doing — you’ll practice and get feedback directly in the browser. The course will conclude with a guided project where you will create a food ordering app!

Key skills

  • Create and update dictionaries
  • Use an API to get information from the web
  • Create your own functions

Course outline

Python Dictionaries, APIs, and Functions [5 lessons]

Dictionaries 2h

Lesson Objectives
  • Create dictionaries
  • Update dictionary values
  • Check for dictionary membership
  • Count with dictionaries
  • Add and remove items from dictionaries
  • Understand JSON data as it relates to dictionaries

APIs and the Requests Library 2h

Lesson Objectives
  • Define what an API is
  • Import the requests library
  • Differentiate between GET and POST calls
  • Explain what JSON data is
  • Execute a basic endpoint call using requests

Functions: Fundamentals 2h

Lesson Objectives
  • Define a function
  • Create functions
  • Create function pipelines
  • Debug functions

Functions: Intermediate 2h

Lesson Objectives
  • Define default arguments
  • Utilize multiple return statements
  • Return multiple variables
  • Identify mutable and immutable data types
  • Reference documentation
  • Identify global and local variable scopes

Guided Project: Build a Food Ordering App 2h

Lesson Objectives
  • Use dictionaries
  • Modify dictionary values
  • Add or remove dictionary keys
  • Create custom functions
  • Define global-level variables

Projects in this course

Build a Food Ordering App

For this project, you’ll become a restaurant owner building a Python food ordering app. You’ll use dictionaries, loops, and functions to create an interactive system for viewing menus, modifying carts, and placing orders.

View Project

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Aaron

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.”

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Jessica Ko

Machine Learning Engineer at Twitter

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