Programming fundamentals in Python
For support technicians, analysts and operations staff who want to start writing small scripts, and for anyone who needs to read Python written by colleagues. No programming experience is needed, but you should be able to install software or use a machine where Python 3 is already available, and open a terminal. The course follows the official Python tutorial: values, types and operators; strings and indexing; if, for and while; functions with parameters and defaults; lists and dictionaries; and reading tracebacks and handling exceptions. Most questions ask you to predict what code prints or find the line that fails, because that's the core skill when reading or fixing scripts. Ends with a supervisor-graded script.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 100 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Predict the result of expressions that use Python's numeric operators, strings, indexing and slicing
- Write if, for and while logic using range() and break, and predict what a loop prints
- Write functions with parameters, default values and return values, avoiding the mutable default trap
- Choose between a list and a dictionary and use them safely, including copies, comprehensions and get()
- Read a traceback and handle expected exceptions with try, except, else and finally
Course outline
- 1.Predict the result of expressions with numbers and stringsLesson · 22 min
- 2.Write if, for and while logic and predict loop outputLesson · 20 min
- 3.Write functions with parameters, defaults and return valuesLesson · 18 min
- 4.Choose and use lists and dictionaries safelyLesson · 20 min
- 5.Read a traceback and handle expected exceptionsLesson · 12 min
- 6.Programming fundamentals in Python: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 15 questions
- 7.Programming fundamentals in Python: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- The Python Tutorial, 3: An Informal Introduction to Python (numbers, text, lists)
- The Python Tutorial, 4: More Control Flow Tools (if, for, range, break, else on loops, functions, default and keyword arguments)
- The Python Tutorial, 5: Data Structures (list methods, comprehensions, tuples, dictionaries)
- The Python Tutorial, 8: Errors and Exceptions (tracebacks, try/except/else/finally)
- The Python Tutorial, 7: Input and Output (formatted string literals)
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.