What you'll learn this week
- Install Python 3.12+ and VS Code on your machine and verify both work
- Use the terminal and the Python REPL to run code interactively
- Store data in variables and understand the core types: int, float, str, bool
- Read input from a user, format output with f-strings, and convert between types
- Read a Python error traceback bottom-up and fix what it tells you
- Ship your first real program: a menu-driven unit and currency converter
Why Python?
Python is the language behind a huge share of modern software work: automation scripts that rename 500 files in a second, data analysis at banks and fintechs, the backends of web apps, and almost all of AI and machine learning. It is also the most beginner-friendly serious language there is — the code you write looks close to plain English.
Here is a complete Python program:
print("Welcome to Orglobal Academy")
Welcome to Orglobal Academy
One line. No boilerplate. That friendliness is why we start here.
Installing Python on Windows
- Go to python.org/downloads and download the latest Python 3.12+ installer for Windows.
- Run the installer. Before you click "Install Now", tick the checkbox that says "Add python.exe to PATH". This is the single biggest beginner trap in this course. If you miss it, Windows will not know where Python lives and every command will fail with
'python' is not recognized. - Click "Install Now" and wait.
On macOS, install from the same page (or brew install python). On Linux, Python 3 is usually pre-installed — check with python3 --version (note the 3).
Verify it worked
Open a terminal: press the Windows key, type powershell, press Enter. Then type (do not paste — in this course you type, don't paste, because your fingers learn faster than your eyes):
python --version
Python 3.12.4
Any 3.12 or higher is fine. If you see 'python' is not recognized as an internal or external command, you skipped the PATH checkbox — re-run the installer, choose "Modify", and enable "Add python to environment variables", or just uninstall and reinstall with the box ticked.
Installing VS Code
VS Code is the editor we will live in.
- Download from code.visualstudio.com and install.
- Open it, click the Extensions icon on the left (four squares), search Python, and install the one published by Microsoft.
That extension gives you syntax colouring, error squiggles, and a Run button.
A note on AI tools
You will be tempted to ask ChatGPT or Claude to write your code. House rule for this course: AI may explain code and errors to you — that is a great use. But generated code you cannot explain line-by-line is not your work, and it will show the moment an instructor asks you to walk through it. Type your own code.
Try it now
Open a terminal and run python --version. Then open VS Code, confirm the Python extension is installed, and create an empty folder called python-course somewhere you can find it (e.g. Documents\python-course). That folder is home for everything you build in the next 12 weeks.