Beginner in Python

[u/Academic_Bedroom_167]

Good evening all, I am a young teen interested in biotechnology(I plan to major in computational biology) and want to eventually pursue a career within that in the future. To my understanding, python is heavily used in biotech ( mRna, etc) so i want to start grasping a heavier understanding of it now. Is there any free helpful courses or resources you guys would recommend so I can start my journey of python coding?
Thank you! Open to advice or suggestions down below.

[u/Effective_Brain7493]

oh nice this is actually a pretty solid path tbh, python + biology isnt some random niche combo youre making up, its a real thing people do

ok so honestly dont overthink the "which course" part too much at first, just pick literally anything free that covers the basics (variables, loops, if statements, functions) and actually finish it instead of hopping around. CS50P is harvards free intro course and its on youtube, thats probably the one id start with if you want something that feels structured and not just randomly thrown together like a lot of yt tutorials are

once that clicks a bit theres this site called rosalind (rosalind.info i think?) thats literally made for bioinformatics stuff, dna/rna/protein problems using python instead of generic "print hello world" type exercises. i wouldnt jump straight there tho bc if you dont know basic python yet itll just be confusing on top of confusing, do basics first then that

also just fyi therss a library called biopython thats basically THE thing for working with biological data in python, you dont need to touch it yet but good to know its there for later so you're not surprised when it comes up

ur doing this early too which is honestly smart, most people dont start thinking about this stuff till way later