Python Learning Labs

A structured, lab-based curriculum for learning Python end to end — from beginner fundamentals through intermediate object-oriented programming to advanced production patterns (concurrency, async, generators, metaprogramming). Each lab is a self-contained Jupyter notebook (lab-<topic>.ipynb) paired with a markdown guide, a knowledge-check assignment with an answer key, and a standalone pytest suite that validates the lab's real output.

Project Structure

├── Beginner/                   # Beginner labs (6)
│   ├── Lab1/  lab-variables-data-types-operators
│   ├── Lab2/  lab-strings
│   ├── Lab3/  lab-collections
│   ├── Lab4/  lab-control-flow
│   ├── Lab5/  lab-comprehensions
│   └── Lab6/  lab-student-report-generator
├── Intermediate/               # Intermediate labs (10)
│   ├── Lab1/   lab-functions-scope
│   ├── Lab2/   lab-imports-modules
│   ├── Lab3/   lab-functions-ii
│   ├── Lab4/   lab-miscellaneous-topics
│   ├── Lab5/   lab-error-handling
│   ├── Lab6/   lab-recursion-algorithms
│   ├── Lab7/   lab-file-handling
│   ├── Lab8/   lab-oop-core-concepts
│   ├── Lab9/   lab-oop-advanced-tools
│   └── Lab10/  lab-school-management-system
├── Advanced/                   # Advanced labs (7)
│   ├── Lab1/  lab-functional-data-wrangling
│   ├── Lab2/  lab-safe-resource-vault
│   ├── Lab3/  lab-memory-efficient-data-pipeline
│   ├── Lab4/  lab-metaprogramming-toolkit
│   ├── Lab5/  lab-async-api-fetcher
│   ├── Lab6/  lab-concurrency-models
│   └── Lab7/  lab-ultimate-async-data-stream
├── scripts/                    # Tooling (pytest-to-xlsx converter)
├── test-results/               # JUnit XML + .xlsx reports per lab
├── AGENTS.md                   # Instructions for AI coding agents
├── CLAUDE.md                   # Instructions for Claude Code
├── CONSTITUTION.md             # Project rules and constraints
├── GUIDELINES.md               # Lab-writing guidelines
├── TEST.md                     # Comprehensive testing guide
├── README.md                   # this file
└── LICENSE                     # MIT

Lab Contents

Each lab ships four files (Advanced labs add an Excel test-results workbook in their folder):

File	Purpose
lab-<topic>.ipynb	Interactive Jupyter notebook with step-by-step lessons
lab-<topic>.md	Markdown version of the lab guide (all 12 sections)
lab-<topic>-assignment.md	Knowledge-check exercises with an answer key
test_<topic>.py	Standalone pytest test suite validating the lab's exercises

Difficulty Levels

• Beginner — No prerequisites. Variables, data types, operators, strings, collections, control flow, comprehensions, plus a mini project.
• Intermediate — Requires the Beginner series. Functions and scope, modules, error handling, recursion, file handling, and OOP.
• Advanced — Requires the Intermediate series. Lambdas and functional pipelines, context managers, iterators/generators, decorators, asyncio, threading vs multiprocessing, and a capstone async data stream.

Beginner Labs

Lab	Topic	Time
Lab 1	Variables, Data Types & Operators	~20 min
Lab 2	Strings	~20 min
Lab 3	Collections	~25 min
Lab 4	Control Flow	~25 min
Lab 5	Comprehensions	~25 min
Lab 6	Student Report Generator (Mini Project)	~30 min

Intermediate Labs

Lab	Topic	Time
Lab 1	Functions & Scope	~25 min
Lab 2	Imports & Modules	~30 min
Lab 3	Functions II	~30 min
Lab 4	Miscellaneous Topics	~35 min
Lab 5	Error Handling	~30 min
Lab 6	Recursion & Algorithms	~35 min
Lab 7	File Handling	~35 min
Lab 8	OOP I: Core Concepts	~25 min
Lab 9	OOP II: Advanced Class Tools	~25 min
Lab 10	School Management System (Capstone)	~40 min

Advanced Labs

Lab	Topic	Time
Lab 1	Functional Data Wrangling with Lambda Functions	~25 min
Lab 2	The Safe Resource Vault — Context Managers	~25 min
Lab 3	The Memory-Efficient Data Pipeline — Iterators and Generators	~40 min
Lab 4	The Metaprogramming Toolkit — Decorators, Closures and Caching	~40 min
Lab 5	The Async API Fetcher — Concurrency in Action with asyncio	~40 min
Lab 6	Threading vs Multiprocessing vs asyncio — Which Concurrency Tool When?	~45 min
Lab 7	The Ultimate Async Data Stream (Capstone)	~50 min

Each Advanced lab ships a lab<N>_test_results.xlsx with per-test pass/fail results, durations, and failure messages. Lab 6 additionally ships a workloads.py companion module so its worker processes can import the workloads by name.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Jupyter (Notebook or VS Code with the Jupyter extension)

Install Dependencies

Open any notebook and run the first cell, which installs all required modules with pinned versions. Or, from inside a lab folder:

python -m venv .venv
# Windows:        .venv\Scripts\activate
# macOS / Linux:  source .venv/bin/activate

pip install notebook pytest ipykernel

Running a Lab

jupyter notebook Beginner/Lab1/lab-variables-data-types-operators.ipynb

Or open the file in VS Code and run cells from top to bottom.

Doing an Assignment

1. Read the lab-<topic>-assignment.md file.
2. Attempt the exercises in a fresh notebook or script.
3. Check your answers against the answer key at the end of the file.
4. Run the lab's tests to validate your solutions:

pytest Beginner/Lab1/test_variables_data_types_operators.py -v

Testing

Tests are written as standalone pytest files (one per lab) and follow the framework in TEST.md. Each test run is reported both as console output and as an .xlsx workbook for reviewability.

Run the whole suite:

pytest Beginner Intermediate Advanced -v

Generate an .xlsx report:

pytest <test_file>.py --junitxml=test-results/junit-<lab>.xml
python scripts/pytest_to_xlsx.py test-results/junit-<lab>.xml test-results/test_<lab>_<YYYY-MM-DD>.xlsx

Test Results

The Advanced catalog's own test run is fully passing — all 135 tests across all 7 labs:

Lab	Tests	Status
Lab 1	23/23	PASS
Lab 2	19/19	PASS
Lab 3	19/19	PASS
Lab 4	20/20	PASS
Lab 5	17/17	PASS
Lab 6	14/14	PASS
Lab 7	23/23	PASS

Beginner and Intermediate labs keep their JUnit XML + .xlsx test reports in test-results/.

Contributing

This repository follows the rules in CONSTITUTION.md. Before creating or editing a lab:

1. Read CONSTITUTION.md, AGENTS.md, and GUIDELINES.md.
2. Determine the difficulty level and use the line reference to scope the lab.
3. Follow the 12-section structure defined in Article I.
4. Validate the lab against the five gates described in AGENTS.md before publishing.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.