Python Learning Path

This document outlines a comprehensive Python learning path that progresses from
beginner to advanced topics, with a focus on practical tests, recommended resources,
websites, and books for each stage. This learning path also includes Regex, which is
introduced as an intermediate topic in this guide.

Stage 1: Beginner

1. Python Basics:
- Topics: Setting up Python, understanding data types (strings, integers, floats, booleans),
variables, basic arithmetic and comparison operations, type casting, input and output
functions, and comments/documentation.
- Practical Test: Create a basic calculator that can perform addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Python.org - Python Documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/),
[W3Schools - Python Basics](https://www.w3schools.com/python/)
- Books: "Python Crash Course" by Eric Matthes, "Automate the Boring Stuff with
Python" by Al Sweigart.

2. Control Flow:
- Topics: Conditional statements (`if`, `elif`, `else`), loops (`for` and `while`), `break`,
`continue`, `pass` statements, and basic error handling with `try` and `except`.
- Practical Test: Develop a number guessing game where the program selects a random
number, and the user tries to guess it within a limited number of attempts.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Real Python - Control Flow](https://realpython.com/python-conditional-
statements/)
- Books: "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz.

3. Functions and Modules:

- Topics: Defining and calling functions, understanding parameters and return values,
using lambda functions, importing built-in and custom modules.
- Practical Test: Write a function that calculates the factorial of a number and
demonstrate calling it in a main program.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Programiz - Python Functions](https://www.programiz.com/python-
programming/function)
- Books: "Think Python" by Allen B. Downey.
4. Introduction to Regular Expressions (Regex):
- Topics: Basics of regular expressions, pattern matching using regex, understanding and
using special characters (`*`, `+`, `?`, `.`), character classes, and anchors (`^`, `$`).
- Practical Test: Write a script that extracts email addresses from a block of text using
regex.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Real Python - Regex in Python](https://realpython.com/regex-python/)
- Books: "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" by Al Sweigart (Regex section).
Stage 2: Intermediate

1. Data Structures:
- Topics: Lists, tuples, sets, dictionaries, list comprehensions, dictionary comprehensions,
and an introduction to the `collections` module.
- Practical Test: Create a contact book using dictionaries to store and manage names,
phone numbers, and emails.
- Resources:
- Websites: [GeeksforGeeks - Data Structures in
Python](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/data-structures-in-python/)
- Books: "Fluent Python" by Luciano Ramalho.

2. File Handling:
- Topics: Reading from and writing to files, handling CSV and JSON files, and working with
file paths.
- Practical Test: Build a to-do list app where tasks are saved to a file and loaded when the
program restarts.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Real Python - File Handling](https://realpython.com/working-with-files-
in-python/)
- Books: "Python Cookbook" by David Beazley and Brian K. Jones.

3. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP):

- Topics: Classes and objects, instance variables and methods, inheritance,
polymorphism, encapsulation, and class vs. instance methods.
- Practical Test: Develop a simple library system using classes for `Book`, `Member`, and
`Library`, with methods to add/remove books and members.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Python OOP - Programiz](https://www.programiz.com/python-
programming/object-oriented-programming)
- Books: "Python Object-Oriented Programming" by Dusty Phillips.
Stage 3: Advanced

1. Advanced Web Scraping with Selenium and XPath:

- Topics: Setting up Selenium for browser automation, using WebDriver, finding elements
with XPath, handling dynamic content.
- Practical Test: Write a script to scrape product data from an e-commerce website that
loads content dynamically.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Selenium
Documentation](https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/), [XPath Cheatsheet]
(https://devhints.io/xpath)
- Books: "Web Scraping with Python" by Ryan Mitchell.
2. Data Manipulation and Analysis:
- Topics: NumPy arrays, Pandas DataFrames, data filtering and aggregation, data
visualization with Matplotlib and Seaborn.
- Practical Test: Create a simple data analysis dashboard to analyze sales data stored in
CSV format using Pandas and Matplotlib.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Pandas Documentation] (https://pandas.pydata.org/), [NumPy
Documentation] (https://numpy.org/doc/)
- Books: "Python for Data Analysis" by Wes McKinney.

3. Advanced Regular Expressions (Regex):

- Topics: Advanced regex techniques, including capturing groups, lookahead and
lookbehind assertions, and substitution.
- Practical Test: Write a script to parse and extract information from log files and
generate summaries based on patterns (e.g., error messages).
- Resources:
- Websites: [RegexOne - Learn Regex](https://regexone.com/), [Python re Module
Documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html)
- Books: "Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey E.F. Friedl.

4. Working with APIs:

- Topics: Understanding HTTP methods, using Python requests library to interact with
REST APIs, parsing JSON responses.
- Practical Test: Build a weather application that fetches data from a public weather API
and displays the forecast for a given location.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Requests Library
Documentation](https://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/)
- Books: "Flask Web Development" by Miguel Grinberg (includes API integration).
Stage 4: Expert

1. Web Development with Python:

- Topics: Web frameworks (Flask, Django), creating REST APIs, handling templates and
forms.
- Practical Test: Develop a blog application with user authentication, CRUD functionality
for posts, and comments.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Django Documentation](https://docs.djangoproject.com/), [Flask
Documentation](https://flask.palletsprojects.com/)
- Books: "Django for Beginners" by William S. Vincent.

2. Data Science and Machine Learning:

- Topics: Data preprocessing, building supervised and unsupervised machine learning
models, an introduction to neural networks.
- Practical Test: Create a recommendation system for movies or products using Scikit-
Learn.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Scikit-Learn Documentation](https://scikit-learn.org/stable/),
[TensorFlow Documentation](https://www.tensorflow.org/)
- Books: "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow" by
Aurélien Géron.

3. Testing and Automation:

- Topics: Writing unit tests, test-driven development (TDD), automation using Selenium
for web-based tasks.
- Practical Test: Write tests for a small application and automate a task, like form
submission on a web page.
- Resources:
- Websites: [Pytest Documentation](https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/), [Selenium
Documentation](https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/)
- Books: "Python Testing with Pytest" by Brian Okken.

Additional Tips
- Practice coding regularly on coding platforms like LeetCode, CodeSignal, or HackerRank.
- Keep a portfolio of projects on GitHub to showcase your skills.
- Engage with the Python community through forums, social media, and meetups.
AI/ML Engineer Learning Path
Foundational Skills

1. Mathematics for Machine Learning

 Topics: Linear algebra, calculus, probability, and statistics.

 Practical Work: Practice solving linear equations, matrix operations, and
derivatives. Use Python libraries (e.g., NumPy) to implement basic mathematical
concepts.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Mathematics for Machine Learning” by Imperial College London
on Coursera.
o Books: "Deep Learning" by Ian Goodfellow (Mathematics review sections),
"Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning" by Christopher Bishop.

2. Python and Data Science Libraries

 Topics: Python programming, Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, and Seaborn for data
manipulation and visualization.
 Practical Work: Perform data analysis and visualization using real-world datasets,
build data pipelines.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Python for Data Science and Machine Learning” on Udemy.
o Websites: Python Data Science Handbook.
o Books: "Python Data Science Handbook" by Jake VanderPlas.

3. Machine Learning Basics

 Topics: Supervised learning (regression, classification), unsupervised learning

(clustering, dimensionality reduction), and model evaluation.
 Practical Work: Implement models like Linear Regression, Logistic Regression,
Decision Trees, and K-Means using Scikit-Learn.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Machine Learning” by Andrew Ng on Coursera.
o Books: "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and
TensorFlow" by Aurélien Géron.
o Framework: Scikit-Learn for basic models.
Intermediate Machine Learning and Deep Learning

1. Deep Learning Basics

 Topics: Neural networks, activation functions, forward and backward propagation,

gradient descent, loss functions.
 Practical Work: Build simple neural networks from scratch and using frameworks
like TensorFlow and PyTorch.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Deep Learning Specialization” by Andrew Ng on Coursera.
o Books: "Deep Learning" by Ian Goodfellow.
o Frameworks: TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch.

2. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

 Topics: Text preprocessing, tokenization, embeddings (Word2Vec, GloVe, FastText),

and sequence models (LSTM, GRU).
 Practical Work: Implement text classification, sentiment analysis, and named entity
recognition (NER) using traditional NLP methods.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Natural Language Processing with Classification and Vector
Spaces” on Coursera.
o Libraries: NLTK, SpaCy, Hugging Face Transformers.

3. Advanced NLP and Large Language Models (LLMs)

 Topics: Transformers, BERT, GPT, and advanced techniques like attention

mechanisms.
 Practical Work: Fine-tune LLMs (e.g., BERT, GPT-3) for specific tasks using Hugging
Face Transformers.
 Popular Open-Source Models:
o OpenAI GPT (GPT-2, GPT-3), LLaMA 2, Mistral.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Natural Language Processing with Transformers” by Hugging Face
on Udacity.
o Libraries: Hugging Face Transformers, OpenAI API, LangChain for
integrating models into applications.

4. Tools for LLMs: LangChain, LLAMA Index

 Topics: Techniques for chaining LLMs, using LLMs as knowledge bases, building
retrieval-augmented generation systems.
 Practical Work: Create a chatbot that can retrieve information using LangChain and
LLAMA Index.
 Resources:
o LangChain Documentation: LangChain.
o LLAMA Index Documentation: LLAMA Index.
o Libraries: LangChain, LLAMA Index, Hugging Face.
Computer Vision and Image Processing

1. Computer Vision Basics

 Topics: Image preprocessing, filters, edge detection, contour detection, and basic
object detection.
 Practical Work: Use OpenCV to perform image transformations and feature
detection.
 Popular Libraries: OpenCV, Scikit-Image.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Introduction to Computer Vision” on Coursera.
o Libraries: OpenCV, Scikit-Image.

2. Advanced Computer Vision with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)

 Topics: CNN architectures (LeNet, VGG, ResNet), transfer learning, and fine-tuning.
 Practical Work: Implement and fine-tune CNNs for image classification tasks on
datasets like CIFAR-10 and ImageNet.
 Popular Models: ResNet, Inception, MobileNet.
 Resources:
o Courses: “Convolutional Neural Networks” by Andrew Ng on Coursera.
o Frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras.

3. Object Detection and Segmentation

 Topics: YOLO, SSD, Mask R-CNN, object detection and segmentation techniques.
 Practical Work: Use YOLOv5 for real-time object detection on custom datasets.
 Popular Models: YOLO, Faster R-CNN, Mask R-CNN.
 Resources:
o Libraries: Detectron2 (Facebook AI), YOLO (You Only Look Once),
TensorFlow Object Detection API.
o Books: “Deep Learning for Computer Vision” by Rajalingappaa
Shanmugamani.

4. Face Recognition and DeepFake Detection

 Topics: Facial recognition techniques, landmark detection, GANs (Generative

Adversarial Networks) for DeepFakes.
 Practical Work: Build a facial recognition system, implement GANs for image
synthesis.
 Popular Models: FaceNet, DeepFace, StyleGAN, DeepFake Detection (Deepfake
Detection Challenge models).
 Resources:
o Courses: “Deep Learning and Computer Vision A-Z” on Udemy.
o Libraries: OpenCV, DeepFace, StyleGAN.
Specialized Topics and Applied AI

1. Reinforcement Learning (RL)

 Topics: Q-learning, Deep Q-Networks (DQN), Policy Gradient methods, Markov

Decision Processes (MDP).
 Practical Work: Implement an agent to play simple games using RL algorithms.
 Popular Models: DQN, PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization).
 Resources:
o Courses: “Deep Reinforcement Learning” by David Silver (lecture series).
o Libraries: OpenAI Gym, Stable Baselines3.

2. Explainable AI and Model Interpretability

 Topics: SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations), LIME (Local Interpretable Model-

Agnostic Explanations), model interpretability techniques.
 Practical Work: Use SHAP and LIME to explain predictions of a black-box model.
 Resources:
o Libraries: SHAP, LIME.
o Books: "Interpretable Machine Learning" by Christoph Molnar.

3. Generative Models and Diffusion Models

 Topics: GANs, VAE (Variational Autoencoders), Diffusion Models.

 Practical Work: Build a GAN for image generation, experiment with Stable
Diffusion for image synthesis.
 Popular Models: StyleGAN, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E.
 Resources:
o Websites: Stable Diffusion Documentation.
o Books: “Hands-On Image Generation with TensorFlow” by Soon Yau Cheong.
Additional Tools and Resources

Open-Source AI Models and Libraries

 Popular LLMs: OpenAI GPT, LLaMA 2, Mistral, Claude.

 NLP Libraries: Hugging Face Transformers, NLTK, SpaCy.
 Computer Vision Models: YOLO, Mask R-CNN, DeepFace.
 Generative Models: Stable Diffusion, StyleGAN, DALL-E.
 Resource Websites:
o Hugging Face Models
o OpenAI GPT
o LLaMA
o Stable Diffusion

Practice Platforms

 Datasets: Kaggle Datasets, ImageNet, Common Crawl (for NLP), COCO (for
Computer Vision).
 Code Practice: Kaggle (competitions), CodeSignal, LeetCode, Hugging Face Datasets.

Community and Documentation

 Communities: Hugging Face forums, GitHub Discussions, Reddit

(r/MachineLearning, r/learnmachinelearning).
 Documentation: TensorFlow Documentation, PyTorch Documentation, Scikit-Learn
Documentation.