Python has been one of the most popular programming languages for a long time. It’s readable, easy to pick up, and has large ecosystem of libraries that allow developers to build whatever they want.
To sharpen your Python skills, we’ve come up with some projects that will help you practice your skills. Here are seven engaging projects, ranging from simple applications to more complex systems, that will improve your programming skills and give you projects to show in your GitHub profile. We’ve even included links to relevant libraries and resources to help you get started.
1. To-Do List Application
A to-do list app is the “Hello, world!” for projects. You can start simply by creating a command-line application where users can add, remove, and view tasks. Once you have the basic to-do list app, you can add functionality like saving your to-dos in a database like SQLite, or add a graphical user interface (GUI) using tkinter.
2. Blog
Building a blog using Flask introduces you to web development with Python. Flask is a micro web framework that’s easy to learn and powerful enough to deploy professional websites. Through this project, you’ll learn about routing, templates, forms, and database integration. Implementing features like creating, editing, and deleting posts will give you hands-on experience with CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations โ a fundamental concept in web development.
3. Web Scraper
Web scraping is a valuable skill for data collection, and Python offers robust libraries like BeautifulSoup and Scrapy for this task. Using these libraries, you will make requests to web pages, parse through the HTML, and collect data from these pages. This project will teach you about HTML structure, requests, and parsing web content. Make sure to collect data about something that interests you! You could make a project to scrape weather data, stock prices, or real estate listings, or you could find something specific to your interests, like prices of graphics cards, Magic the Gathering cards, or recipes for cooking.
4. Data Visualization Tool
Data visualization allows complex data to be presented in an appealing and easy-to-understand manner. By building a tool that uses Matplotlib or Seaborn, you’ll learn how to transform raw data into charts and graphs that provides insights from a glance. This project can range from simple line plots and bar charts, to more complex scatter plots and heatmaps.
Matplotlib
Seaborn
Example data sets
5. Sudoku Puzzle Solver
Tackling a Sudoku puzzle solver will challenge your problem-solving skills. This project can start with a simple algorithm, like backtracking, and evolve to more complex solutions. You can start with the standard Sukodu rules, and then try and add additional rule sets, such as ThermoSudoku or Greater-Than Sudoku.
Example Sudoku Solver via StackOverflow
6. Platformer Game
Game development is a fun way to learn programming. By creating a simple platformer game with Pygame, you’ll learn about game loops, event handling, collision detection, and game physics. If you have experience with game engines such as Unity or Godot, then you will have a head start on this project. Plus, this might be the most visually appealing project to make.
7. Network Scanner
Developing a network scanner is an excellent project for those interested in networking and security. This tool can identify devices connected to a network, showing their IP addresses and possibly determining their MAC addresses. Through this project, you’ll learn about sockets and how to interact with network protocols. It’s a great introduction to the world of network programming.
Wrapping Up
Each of these projects offers a unique set of challenges and learning opportunities, making them perfect for developing and honing your Python skills. No matter what you’re interested in, you can find a project here to level up your skills. Start with what you’re most interested in — the key is to keep building and keep learning. Happy coding!
