Joel Ampong

“I can confidently say, without any doubt, that Dataquest gave me the skills to land my current position.”

Joel Ampong

Data Scientist

Project overview

In this project, you’ll become a Python developer and set up your local coding environment from scratch by installing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like VS Code or PyCharm, along with Python. With your setup ready, you’ll create your first Python script in the IDE to calculate the average of a list of numbers, applying fundamental programming skills to a realistic data analysis task.

This hands-on project guides you through essential steps every developer takes to code on their machine. You’ll gain experience researching and setting up professional tools, writing functional code in an IDE, and executing your script to see your skills in action. Completing this project equips you with a development environment and practical coding experience to tackle more challenging Python applications.

Objective: Install an IDE and Python on your local machine and use them to create and run a data analysis script, demonstrating your ability to set up and use a real-world development environment.

Key skill required

To complete this project, it's recommended to build these foundational skills in IDE

  • Navigating and manipulating files and directories using command line tools
  • Creating and configuring Python virtual environments and environment variables
  • Performing basic Git operations for code version control
  • Writing and executing Python scripts with variables, loops and functions

Projects steps

Step 1: Introduction to Local Development Environment Setup

Step 2: Selecting an IDE

Step 3: Popular IDEs

Step 4: Installing an IDE

Step 5: Installing Python

Step 6: Selecting a Code Interpreter

Step 7: More Details About Python Interpreters

Step 8: Create and Run a Python Script

Step 9: Troubleshooting IDE Installation Issues

Step 10: Review

Step 11: Takeaways

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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.”

Jessi

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

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!”

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