How Much Python Do You Need To Know To Be Useful?

Nerval's Lobster writes: Since Python is a general-purpose language, it finds its way into a whole lot of different uses and industries. That means the industry in which you work has a way of determining what you actually need to know in terms of the language, as developer Jeff Cogswell explains in a new Dice piece. For example, if you're hired to write apps that interact with operating systems and monitor devices, you might not need to know how to use the Python modules for scientific and numerical programming. In a similar fashion, if you're hired to write Python code that interacts with a MySQL database, then you won't need to master how it works with CouchDB. The question is, how much do you need to know about Python's basics? Cogswell suggests there are three basic levels to learning Python: Learn the core language itself, such as the syntax and basic types (and the difference between Python 2 and Python 3); learn the commonly used modules, and familiarize yourself with other modules; learn the bigger picture of software development with Python, such as including Python in a build process, using the pip package manager, and so on. But is that enough?

Comments

I'm already useful

[plover]

I know C++. To me, anyone who knows python but not C++ is half useless. If you only know Java, you're 25% useless. And if you know only Visual Basic, you're 125% useless.

Re:trick question

[Anonymous Coward]

I know 0 hours worth of python and still was the only person to present an all python solution at a job interview asking people to solve a problem in python.

I think zero is close to the amount needed to be competitive with those that *only* know python.

How Much?

[MagickalMyst]

None, if you use Perl :) I write code to monitor hardware devices, interact with SQL, and output to HTML pages. Perl does it all!

That said, I think learning the basics of any language is important no matter what type of software you will be coding.

Programming languages are like tools; use the best tool to get the job done.

Assembly is a wonderful language if you are writing low level system software; not too useful for SQL databases. C++ is great for system interaction and fast apps - but I probably wouldn't use it for front end UI. Javascript is great for web pages but not for device drivers.

Visual Basic is good for.. um.. nothing.

Re:You can get by with:

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition to be on that list...

A Similar Question

[raftpeople]

How much of a summary do you need to read to know you should skip that one?

How much crap before Slashdot becomes useless?

[Anonymous Coward]

We've seen this same thing over and over with a different language. Does anyone care by now?

Next week:

How much Swift ... useful?

Bare minimum

[bobdehnhardt]

I'd say the Parrot Sketch, Argument Clinic, and Silly Walks. Maybe add in Bruces and Spanish Inquisition, although no one expects that last one.

Um, what? No, I didn't read the article before responding. Why do you ask?

Re:trick question

[richpoore]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

Did I call it or did I call it?

[Verloc]

Comment: Ahh Dice (Score 4, Funny)
by Verloc on Thursday June 04, 2015 @10:08PM (#49844935) Attached to: How Much JavaScript Do You Need To Know For an Entry-Level Job?

Last week it was "How much C++ do you need to know for an entry level job"

next week it'll be "How much Python do you need for an entry level job"

Must be nice crowd sourcing your job requirements from Slashdot.
---

It was even Python. Amazing. I predict next week: Ruby.

Re:Did I call it or did I call it?

[Dogtanian]

Er.... yeah. Indeed you did. I missed those, but this is utterly, utterly blatant now that it's been pointed out; this should have been posted higher- it's one of the few cases I'd forgive posting as an offtopic "reply" to an early comment in order to increase its prominence.

Here are the stories in question:-

How Much C++ Should You Know For an Entry-Level C++ Job? (May 27 2015)

How Much JavaScript Do You Need To Know For an Entry-Level Job? (4 June 2015)

Note the a gap of eight days between the stories in both cases. Note that the three stories were submitted respectively by Nerval's Lobster, Nerval's Lobster and, er... Nerval's Lobster. Who happens to work for Slashdot.

Not that I'm suggesting that the fact Slashdot is now owned by the IT and engineering careers website Dice has anything to do with it being used to push out formulaic and self-serving "submissions" like this. *cough*

Seriously, this makes even the old Slashdot "whoops, a stupid editor 'accidentally' posted the same good-for-attracting-pageviews-and-discussion story twice just as it fell off the front page" cynicism look good.

Re:trick question

[telchine]

I find that knowing the majority of the Dead Parrot sketch and the main chorus of the Lumberjack song gets me through fine :)

Re:Almost

[Dogtanian]

Please excuse this off-topic queue-jumping reply to your comment, but there are times when someone makes a very insightful observation that really, really should have gone in a more prominent position.

Sneak preview; three virtually identical questions of the form "How Much [language x] Should You Know For an Entry-Level [language x] Job?" going to the Dice website and "submitted" by the same Slashdot employee in just over two weeks.

Bonus; OP linked above correctly predicted this week's story and even got the language right.

That's almost funny, except that it isn't. Admittedly, Slashdot has been "going down the tubes" almost since it launched, but this is particularly crap.