Python
ProgrammingCornell

Certificate Program

This course explores Python functions. As you expand your technical vocabulary, you will practice visualizing Python executions. In addition, you will examine the rules for writing functions and recognize a properly formatted specification. You will explore writing simple functions to process text and be able to turn an English description into code. You will also practice testing and debugging code and learn how to interpret error messages.

The following course is required to be completed before taking this course:

• Python Fundamentals

You will take the concepts you have learned up to this point and use them in a real-world application, creating a program that can convert amounts of currency. You will define and design your own functions, design an interactive script, and test these functions and script in the development of a currency converter. You will also explore how Python can be used to work with web services.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Python Fundamentals
• User-Defined Functions in Python

This course shows you how to move beyond straight line code and write programs that require complex decisions. These might occur within a business workflow or a complex scientific computation. You will write conditional, try-except, for-loop, and while-loop statements, as well as use them to design functions. 

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Python Fundamentals
• User-Defined Functions in Python
• Developing a Currency Converter

This course introduces you to mutable data structures, which are advanced Python types that enable faster updating and search than basic types like ints and strings. These types are necessary for working with large data sets but can be difficult to master. You will explore multiple methods to work with these objects, which include lists, sets, and dictionaries. You will also write expressions and employ extensive use of visualization.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Python Fundamentals
• User-Defined Functions in Python
• Developing a Currency Converter
• Controlling Program Flow

You will begin by examining several types of files and objects. You will then apply the concepts you have learned in the previous courses to solve a real-world business problem: auditing an organization's regulatory compliance. Working with heterogeneous data, you will first read a series of disparate data files and determine how to integrate the data. You will then write a sequence of scripts that pull information from these files and inform the user on whether the organization has fully complied with regulations.

This course serves as a capstone experience to five courses:

• Python Fundamentals
• User-Defined Functions in Python
• Developing a Currency Converter
• Controlling Program Flow
• Mastering Data Structures