This advanced-level five-course series gives you an opportunity to dive a lot deeper into Python programming, and learn the advanced notions and techniques used in Object-Oriented Programming, GUI programming, and Network Programming, as well as get you familiar with the topics of file processing and communicating with a program’s environment, and best programming practices and standardization in Python.

Having completed the course, you will be prepared to attempt the qualification PCPP – Certified Professional in Python Programming 1 certification, and you will be equipped with all the essential, intermediate, and advanced means provided by Python 3 and related technologies to continue to the more specialized, and higher paying Software Development, Security, Networking, IoT, and engineering roles.

• learners with prior programming experience looking to boost programming skills and knowledge for a junior-level and middle-level job role as a software developer, data analyst, network programmer, or tester.
• industry professionals wishing to explore technologies that are connected with Python, or to utilize it as a solid foundation for Networking, Internet-of-Things, and Security projects.
• aspiring programmers, learners, and industry professionals looking to acquire additional Python skills for further self-development for careers in the areas of AI and machine learning, data analytics, data visualization, application programming, web development, game development, network programming, Internet-of-Things, testing and automation, and cybersecurity.
• team leaders, product managers, and project managers, with prior programming experience, who want to gain an in-depth understanding of the terminology and processes in the software development cycle to more effectively manage and communicate with production, QA, and development teams.

The courses have been designed for learners who are already familiar with such Python programming concepts as data types, containers, functions, conditions, loops, the basics of procedural, structural, functional, and object-oriented programming, exceptions and exception handling mechanisms, PIP, modules, and packages, generators and closures.

Section 1: Advanced Object-Oriented Programming

PCPP-32-101 1.1 – Understand and explain the basic terms and programming concepts used in the OOP paradigm

• essential terminology: class, instance, object, attribute, method, type, instance and class variables, superclasses and subclasses
• reflexion: isinstance(), issubclass()
• the __init__() method
• creating classes, methods, and class and instance variables; calling methods; accessing class and instance variables

PCPP-32-101 1.2 – Perform Python core syntax operations

• Python core syntax expressions – magic methods: comparison methods (e.g. __eq__(self, other)), numeric methods (e.g. __abs__(self)), type conversion methods (e.g. __init__(self)), object intro- and retrospection (e.g. __str__(self), __instancecheck__(self, object)), object attribute access (e.g. __getattr__(self, attribute)), accessing containers (e.g. __getitem__(self, key))
• operating with special methods
• extending class implementations to support additional core syntax operations

PCPP-32-101 1.3 Understand and use the concepts of inheritance, polymorphism, and composition.

• class hierarchies
• single vs. multiple inheritance
• Method Resolution Order (MRO)
• duck typing
• inheritance vs. composition
• modelling real-life problems using the “is a” and “has a” relations

PCPP-32-101 1.4 Understand the concept of extended function argument syntax and demonstrate proficiency in using decorators

• special identifiers: *args, **kwargs
• forwarding arguments to other functions
• function parameter handling
• closures
• function and class decorators
• decorating functions with classes
• creating decorators and operating with them: implementing decorator patterns, decorator arguments, wrappers
• decorator stacking
• syntactic sugar
• special methods: __call__, __init__

PCPP-32-101 1.5 Design, build, and use Python static and class methods.

• implementing class and static methods
• class vs. static methods
• the cls parameter
• the @classmethod and @staticmethod decorators
• class methods: accessing and modifying the state/methods of a class, creating objects

PCPP-32-101 1.6 Understand and use Python abstract classes and methods.

• abstract classes and abstract methods: defining, creating, and implementing abstract classes and abstract methods
• overriding abstract methods
• implementing a multiple inheritance from abstract classes
• delivering multiple child classes

PCPP-32-101 1.7 Understand and use the concept of attribute encapsulation.

• definition, meaning, usage
• operating with the getter, setter, and deleter methods

PCPP-32-101 1.8 Understand and apply the concept of subclassing built-in classes

• inheriting properties from built-in classes
• using the concept of subclassing the built-ins to extend class features and modify class methods and attributes

PCPP-32-101 1.9 Demonstrate proficiency in the advanced techniques for creating and serving exceptions

• exceptions as objects, named attributes of exception objects, basic terms and concepts
• chained exceptions, the __context__ and __cause__ attributes, implicitly and explicitly chained exceptions\
• analyzing exception traceback objects, the __traceback__ attribute
• operating with different kinds of exceptions

PCPP-32-101 1.10 Demonstrate proficiency in performing shallow and deep copy operations.

• shallow and deep copies of objects
• object: label vs. identity vs. value
• the id() function and the is operand
• operating with the copy() and deepcopy() methods

PCPP-32-101 1.11 Understand and perform (de)serialization of Python objects.

• object persistence, serialization and deserialization: meaning, purpose, usage
• serializing objects as a single byte stream: the pickle module, pickling various data types
• the dumps() and loads functions
• serializing objects by implementing a serialization dictionary: the shelve module, file modes, creating chelve objects

PCPP-32-101 1.12 Understand and explain the concept of metaprogramming.

• metaclasses: meaning, purpose, usage
• the type metaclass and the type() function
• special attributes: __name__, __class__, __bases__, __dict__
• operating with metaclasses, class variables, and class methods

Section 2: Coding Conventions, Best Practices, and Standarization

PCPP-32-101 2.1 – Understand and explain the concept of Python Enhancement Proposals and Python philosophy.

• the PEP concept and selected PEPs: PEP 1, PEP 8, PEP 20, PEP 257
• PEP 1: different types of PEPs, formats, purpose, guidelines
• PEP 20: Python philosophy, its guiding principles, and design; the import this instruction and PEP 20 aphorisms

PCPP-32-101 2.2 – Employ the PEP 8 guidelines, coding conventions, and best practices.

• PEP 8 compliant checkers
• recommendations for code layout: indentation, continuation lines, maximum line length, line breaks, blank lines (vertical whitespaces)
• default encodings
• module imports
• recommendations for string quotes, whitespace, and trailing commas: single-quoted vs. double-quoted strings, whitespace in expressions and statements, whitespace and trailing commas
• recommendations for using comments: block comments, inline comments
• documentation strings
• naming conventions: naming styles, recommendations
• programming recommendations

PCPP-32-101 2.3 – Employ the PEP 257 guidelines, conventions, and best practices

• docstrings: rationale, usage
• comments vs. docstrings
• PEP 484 and type hints
• creating, using, and accessing docstrings
• one-line vs. multi-line docstrings
• documentation standards, linters, fixers

Section 3: GUI Programming

PCPP-32-101 3.1 – Understand and explain the basic concepts and terminology related to GUI programming

• GUI: meaning, rationale, basic terms and definitions
• visual programming: examples, basic features
• widgets/controls – basic terms: windows, title and title bars, buttons, icons, labels, etc.
• classical vs. event-driven programming
• events – basic terms
• widget toolkits/GUI toolkits

PCPP-32-101 3.2 – Use GUI toolkits, basic blocks, and conventions to design and build simple GUI applications

• importing tkinter components
• creating an application’s main window: the Tk(), mainloop(), and title methods
• adding widgets to the window: buttons, labels, frames, the place() method, widget constructors, location, screen coordinates, size, etc.
• launching the event controller: event handlers, defining and using callbacks, the destroy() method, dialog boxes
• shaping the main window and interacting with the user
• checking the validity of user input and handling errors
• working with Canvas and its methods
• using the Entry, Radiobutton, and Button widgets
• managing widgets with the grid and place managers
• binding events using the bind() method

PCPP-32-101 3.3 – Demonstrate proficiency in using widgets and handling events

• settling widgets in the window’s interior, geometry managers
• coloring widgets, color modes: RGB, HEX
• event handling: writing event handlers and assigning them to widgets
• event-driven programming: implementing interfaces using events and callbacks
• widget properties and methods
• variables: observable variables and adding observers to variables
• using selected clickable and non-clickable widgets
• identifying and servicing GUI events

Section 4: Network Programming

PCPP-32-101 4.1 – Understand and explain the basic concepts of network programming

• REST
• network sockets
• Domains, addresses, ports, protocols, and services
• Network communication: connection-oriented vs. connectionless communication, clients and servers

PCPP-32-101 4.2 – Demonstrate proficiency in working with sockets in Python.

• the socket module: importing and creating sockets
• connecting sockets to HTTP servers, closing connections with servers
• sending requests to servers, the send() method
• receiving responses from servers, the recv() method
• exception handling mechanisms and exception types

PCPP-32-101 4.3 – Employ data transfer mechanisms for network communication

• JSON: syntax, structure, data types (numbers, strings, Boolean values, null), compound data (arrays and objects), sample JSON documents and their anatomies
• the json module: serialization and deserialization, serializing Python data/deserializing JSON (the dumps() and loads methods), serializng and deserializing Python objects
• XML: syntax, structure, sample xml documents and their anatomies, DTD, XML as a tree
• processing xml files

PCPP-32-101 4.4 – Design, develop, and improve a simple REST client

• the request module
• designing, building, and using testing environments
• HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
• CRUD
• adding and updating data
• fetching and removing data from servers
• analyzing the server’s response
• response status codes

Section 5: File Processing and Communicating with a Program’s Environment

PCPP-32-101 5.1 – Demonstrate proficiency in database programming in Python

• the sqlite module
• creating and closing database connection using the connect and close methods
• creating tables
• inserting, reading, updating, and deleting data
• transaction demarcation
• cursor methods: execute, executemany, fetchone, fetchall
• creating basic SQL statements (SELECT, INSERT INTO, UPDATE, DELETE, etc.)

PCPP-32-101 5.2 – Demonstrate proficiency in processing different file formats in Python

• parsing XML documents
• searching data in XML documents using the find and findall methods
• building XML documents using the Element class and the SubElement function
• reading and writing CSV data using functions and classes: reader, writer, DictReader, DictWriter
• logging events in applications
• working with different levels of logging
• using LogRecord attributes to create log formats
• creating custom handlers and formatters
• parsing and creating configuration files using the ConfigParser object
• interpolating values in .ini files

Python Professional 1 courses have been designed for intermediate to advanced-level learners interested in developing a more in-depth understanding of Python and related technologies, gaining more confidence in using programming skills for general-purpose, GUI, and network programming projects, and laying out a solid foundation for further studies in more specialized areas, such as testing, data analysis, machine learning, IoT, and web development.

PCPP1 – Certified Professional in Python Programming 1 certification shows that the individual is familiar with the more advanced perspective of classes and features of object-oriented programming. The scope of certification also includes graphical user interface programming (TkInter), best practices and coding conventions (PEP 20, PEP 8, PEP 257), working with selected library modules allowing to process different kinds of files (xml, csv, sqlite3, logging, configparser), and utilizing tools and resources for the purposes of communicating with external resources and servers using the HTTP protocol and sockets (working with RESTful APIs).

Becoming PCPP1 certified ensures that the individual is fully acquainted with all the advanced means provided by Python 3 and related technologies to enable her/him to advance her/his career as a professional Python developer.