Introduction to Python

Overview

6-week cohort with live MIT Faculty sessions. Learn to scale AI beyond the pilot stage.

This course introduces learners to programming and computational thinking as the foundation of computer and data science. Using Python, students explore how abstraction, iteration, and data manipulation allow computers to solve meaningful problems.

By the end of this course, students will be able to write, test, and reason through Python programs that manipulate data, model real-world systems, and express computational logic clearly. This course provides the essential foundation for the next stages in the certificate: "Recursion and Object-Oriented Programming" and "Working with Data Structures," preparing learners to build scalable, data-driven systems.

Syllabus

Through hands-on coding, visualization tools, and guided examples, students will:

Distinguish between computer science and data science as computational disciplines.
Learn the fundamentals of Python syntax, expressions, and conditionals.
Define and use functions with arguments and return values to structure programs.
Apply iteration using while and for loops to process data efficiently.
Work with sequences, lists, tuples, and comprehensions to organize and analyze data.
Explore higher-order functions (map, filter, reduce) and lambda expressions to write more powerful and concise code.
Understand mutability, function scope, and side effects when managing data and variables.
Visualize execution and variable flow using environment diagrams and Python Tutor.