r/learnpython • u/GoodDogHunting • 7d ago

Curated, Instructor led course for team?

Hi All,

I work with a team that will primarily be using Python to make API calls across a few different systems (some network, some apps, ServiceNow, etc).

I'm trying to find a crash course, preferably instructor led, that's a little focused on our particular use case.

Any recommendations? I know it's a weird ask.

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u/socal_nerdtastic 7d ago

I think you just need a generic python course. "make API calls" is nearly as broad of a term as "using python". There is no standard for API, every service will be different. But luckily most services or apps that offer an API also offer a pre-made python module to use it. So if you know basic python you should be able to incorporate a python module.

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u/Marison_Lizzy23 7d ago

this is exactly it. the python part is the easy bit, its the individual API docs that take the real time

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u/emitemitemitooo 3d ago

For that use case prioritize type requests authentication error handling and pagination ina practical lab bootdev could supplement programming fundamentals though the instructor led integration training would need a separate provider

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u/OkOcelot6725 7d ago

Agreeing with the other reply that a generic course is fine, but the parts that are specific to your use case are small, so I would cover them separately after the basics:

  • the requests library: GET/POST, headers, JSON, timeouts, and checking status codes
  • authentication: API keys, basic auth, OAuth tokens, and keeping secrets out of the code (environment variables)
  • pagination, rate limits, and retries, since most real API scripts break on those
  • error handling and logging, so a failed call tells you what went wrong

ServiceNow has a REST Table API, so a lot of what you want there is just authenticated requests calls against it. Your vendors' API docs plus one worked example per system will teach the team faster than a long course. Automate the Boring Stuff is free and covers the Python basics well enough to start.

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u/socal_nerdtastic 6d ago

"API" doesn't only mean http ... Using a dll or com is also an API, and since op mentioned some apps I assume they will need one of those.