L2: Python Fundamentals — Part I

Overview

This lecture covers the building blocks of Python programming: organizing code into packages and modules, working with operators and Boolean logic, manipulating strings with indexing and slicing, and writing conditional logic with if/elif/else. Along the way, you will learn Python’s indentation rules, numeric type details, and string formatting with f-strings.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you will be able to:

• Distinguish between packages and modules and use different import strategies.

• Apply arithmetic, relational, logical, membership, and identity operators.

• Use the Boolean type and truth-testing rules for control flow.

• Manipulate strings using indexing, slicing, methods, and f-strings.

• Write conditional logic with if/elif/else statements.

Next Steps

• In the next lecture, we will continue with Python Fundamentals — Part II:

  • Lists and list methods.

  • Tuples and unpacking.

  • Dictionaries and sets.

  • Loops (for, while).

  • List comprehensions.

• Review and experiment with all code snippets and exercises from today’s lecture.

• Start reading Python Official Tutorial — Sections 3, 4, and 5.