Python Certificate

# Python certificate - outline

## Part 1 - exam (60 min)

Topics:
- Types: int, float, str, list, tuple, dict, set; mutability
- Control flow + comprehensions
- Functions, *args, **kwargs, decorators
- Classes, dataclasses, __init__, properties
- with-statements + context managers
- Exception handling
- File + JSON IO
- Standard library highlights: collections, itertools, functools, pathlib
- Type hints + mypy basics

Passing mark: 70 percent.

## Part 2 - capstone (take-home, ~8 hours)

Ship a small CLI or web tool. Pick one:

Option A - CLI:
- Reads CSV input, applies a transformation, writes JSON output
- Uses argparse + pathlib + dataclasses
- Has unit tests via pytest
- Documents itself with --help

Option B - Web API:
- FastAPI or Flask
- 5+ endpoints (CRUD + auth, mock OK)
- Validates input with Pydantic
- Persistence via SQLite + SQLAlchemy
- Tests with pytest + httpx

Either way:
- Use uv or pipx for installation
- Lock dependencies (uv.lock or pip-tools)
- Add a Dockerfile
- Ship with GitHub Actions CI

Submit a Git repo + README + a short demo.

## Grading

- Correctness (35 percent)
- Pythonic code (25 percent)
- Tests + CI (20 percent)
- Documentation + packaging (20 percent)

## Tips

- uv is the fastest installer in 2026; adopt it
- Pydantic v2 + FastAPI is a tight stack
- Pytest fixtures + parametrize make tests readable

# After every lesson is marked complete, visit /certificate/python.
print('Get the certificate when 100% complete.')