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In a world where information is constantly updating and you can find something at lightning speed, the question arises: do we even need books for programmers? After all, the internet has plenty of free educational materials, tutorials, video instructions and chats based on generative artificial intelligence, which would seem to completely replace traditional sources of knowledge - books. However, in my opinion, books still remain an important and indispensable tool for learning programming, especially for beginners. In this article, I, Bartenev Evgeny, author and technical lead of the "Python Developer" courses at Yandex Practicum, will explain why I think so. I will also share my selection of books both for beginner developers and for those who have already written code more than once.

One of the first practical projects in Python developer courses at Practicum is the classic "Snake" game. Despite identical starting conditions, all students approach its solution differently. We tell you how to write a game for your portfolio in just about a month of study, and show six variations - with "poison", tail dropping, as well as badgers and cats.

Nginx is a popular web and proxy server known for its high performance, stability, rich functionality, easy configuration, and low resource consumption. This versatility makes Nginx a popular choice for a wide range of projects, from small personal websites to large commercial web platforms and services, and it is even used within major cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. For instance, Nginx can be configured as a reverse proxy to manage and limit traffic to your Azure Container Apps environment by routing all requests through a single public endpoint.

Large IT company, office 404. Interview for the position of Python developer. Participants: department head, senior developer, HR manager. And I'm the candidate. Department head: — We've covered everything. Looks out into the hallway. — Oh, Jamie! Would you like to ask the candidate one last question? Jamie works in a neighboring department, does something completely different, and has never programmed in Python but once read something. Jamie sits down at the table. He wasn't there last time, but today, his presence will decide my fate. Jamie: — What is the maximum list size in Python? I instantly turn pale. While this question touches on the basics of the language, it rarely affects a developer's day-to-day work. But, to my shame, I find it difficult to give a precise answer. The department head and the senior developer exchange glances. Department head (to the senior developer): — Hmm, let's look at other candidates. And just like that, after an hour of discussing technically complex issues, one unexpected and impractical question from a random person in the office can dash the hopes of joining the team. In this interview, as in many others, technical expertise was not the deciding factor. Sometimes, a question completely unrelated to the developer's daily tasks determines everything.

In this article, I, Evgeny Bartenev, technical lead and author of the "Python Developer" course, will take a look not only at the "banana skins" that I periodically scatter myself during interviews, but also those that my colleagues have slipped on, some of our students, and I myself.

Hello! This is the Python Developer course team. We recently conducted a refactoring - a major program update. To do this, we studied student feedback, identified growth points and updated the set of technologies based on market demands. In this material, we will tell you what changes we made, why refactoring never ends and what work still awaits us ahead. The material may be useful for those who want to learn more about how IT online education is organized, and everyone who is thinking about learning Python at Practicum.