What skills do Python programmers and developers need? Is mastering Python enough for them? Is mastering Python frameworks also required for developers and programmers? If yes, which frameworks are more important to learn? In addition to technical skills (hard skills), what soft skills do Python programmers need to succeed?
Learning the Python programming language is the starting point for Python programmers and developers. If you also learned this practical and powerful programming language and want to enter the job market with strength and progress, read this article. In the following, 5 necessary skills for every Python programmer and ways to learn them are mentioned.
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The most useful and up-to-date skills of Python developers
The Python language, its libraries, and frameworks are tied to artificial intelligence (AI) and its very important subfield, machine learning. The applications of artificial intelligence in various fields are increasing every day. The growing applications of artificial intelligence mean a good job market for Python programmers and developers.
Of course, there is also a very important point that all those interested in Python and artificial intelligence should pay attention to in this demanding and highly competitive job market, it is not enough to just master Python coding and the basic use of this language. Python developers must acquire a set of hard and soft skills that are both practical and up-to-date.
The set of skills that employers currently and in today’s job market expect a Python developer and programmer to have learned are the skills that will be introduced next. We start with hard and technical skills and end with soft skills in one title.
1. Complete and deep mastery of the Python programming language and its principles
Learning Python is one thing, and the ability to write clean and high-quality code is another. Of course, this is true for all programming languages. Complete and deep mastery of any programming language and its principles is important and necessary for every developer for exactly this reason: it helps the programmer write clean and high-quality code.
Python developers should have basic concepts of this language like
- Data types
- Control structures,
- Functions,
- exception handling,
- Parallel programming,
- Debugging and testing (addressing software errors) and
- Be proficient in Metaprogramming.
In addition to those things, because the Python programming language is object-oriented and functional, Python developers must have a deep understanding of object-oriented types of programming, especially functional programming.
2. Proficiency in using and working with version control platforms
Programming and developing software or machine learning models is a team effort, and usually, several developers work together on a project. If a Python developer wants to be a member of the development team in large projects, he must have sufficient skills and experience in using version control platforms and tools to carry out Python projects.
To clarify the concept of the version control system, it is better to give an example. Think of a website or software design project as a labyrinth puzzle. Each 100 pieces completes one part of the puzzle. Now, to make the puzzle faster, those 10 parts are split between 10 developers. Each person is responsible for completing only that section and submitting it to the team manager. The puzzle becomes final by putting together its 10 parts. Although each piece is independent, all 100 pieces must fit together correctly or the puzzle will be ruined.
Each developer starts and progresses the work on the distribution in his file. When he is done, he will hand it over to the manager so that if there is no problem, it will be placed next to the rest of the departments. The developer may have found a fragment incorrectly or not at all. In this case, without spoiling or slowing down the work of others; The administrator and developer or even other developers find a solution to the problem. The work of the version control system is the same.
Version control systems or platforms help programmers and developers of different languages track changes to code and resolve integration conflicts in projects where multiple developers change code at the same time. Experience using version control platforms, such as Git, teaches Python developers to more quickly and easily collaborate with other developers on a project, and find and resolve issues.
3. Learning and mastering working with the necessary frameworks in Python
Frameworks are a set of ready-made packages and models (codes) that relieve the developer from coding. That is, the developer just needs to call the collection that he wants to run in his project. Product development time is saved when the programmer is proficient in working with frameworks.
Naturally, no developer can master all frameworks. The Python developer should choose which frameworks to acquire the skills to work with, based on his goal and the career path he wants to follow. Frameworks can be divided into three general categories:
- Full-stack Python frameworks: If a Python developer wants to work in the field of website and web application development with the Python language, he must have the skills to work with full-stack Python frameworks such as Django and Flask to use Python for coding. Use the front end (user side) and back end (server side) of the product.
- Asynchronous programming frameworks (Asynchronous frameworks): These frameworks are also useful for asynchronous programming in web application development. Asynchronous programming allows the developer to implement the product in such a way that multiple user requests are handled simultaneously. It means that several functions and codes can be executed together and do not disturb the work of the main flow of the execution of the written codes. Here, the turn or sequence of code execution has no meaning. Code sets are executed in parallel. Tornado and Quart frameworks fall into this category.
- Python micro frameworks (Micro framework): these types of frameworks are useful and popular for the rapid development of small projects and prototyping. Falcon, Hug, and Sanic are Python micro-frameworks.
4. Mastery of data visualization and analysis
Python programmer and developer deals with data analysis. Python is a very powerful and practical language for data analysis and visualization. That’s why a Python developer should be familiar with Python’s powerful libraries for data analysis and visualization. Those libraries help the programmer analyze large amounts of complex data and visualize the results in the form of various graphs, charts, and diagrams.
Pandas and NumPy are among the most important Python libraries for data analysis, and Matplotlib is a library for data visualization.
5. Python developer soft skills
Hard skills are not enough for anyone’s career success. Python programmers and developers are no exception to this rule. A Python developer doesn’t work alone. He needs to cooperate with big companies to progress. Therefore, it is necessary to learn teamwork and interaction with others. A developer cannot solve many problems and challenges alone. Therefore, if he cannot interact and cooperate with other team members properly, he cannot perform his duties properly. It means that he cannot use hard skills properly.
In addition to communication skills, the Python developer must have practiced and acquired the skill of time management and organization of various tasks and tasks. Each stage of the project has its schedule in which the developer must perform various tasks. So, he must have the necessary skills to work regularly and deliver the project on time. Otherwise, it will have no place in large teams and projects.