Python Monthly Newsletter 💻🐍

36th issue! If you missed the previous ones, you can read all the previous issues of my monthly Python newsletter here.

If it’s your first time here… (otherwise, skip this part)

Being a Python developer is a fantastic career option. Python is now the most popular language with lots of growing job demand (especially in the fields of Web, Data Science and Machine Learning). You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems.

One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top-performing python developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This is the best Python newsletter for you if you want to keep up-to-date with the industry and keep your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time.

I curate and share the most important articles, news, resources, podcasts and videos of the month.

Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Python world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

Let's dive in. Here's what you missed in November 2022 as a Python Developer…

Python 3.12.0 alpha 2 released 📌

Many new features for Python 3.12 are still being planned and written but you can check out the developer preview here.

Upgrade to Python 3.11? 🤷🏾

Python 3.11 is out now–but should you switch to it immediately? And if you shouldn’t upgrade just yet, when should you? The short answer is that, no, you probably don’t want to switch immediately and quite possibly you can’t switch immediately.

To understand why, we need to consider Python packaging, the software development process, and take a look at the history of past releases. Learn about the best practices of upgrading your python version here.

More PyPI Packages Alerts 🧪

Be careful! Last week, suspicious activity has been detected in dozens of newly published PyPI packages. It appears that these packages are a more sophisticated attempt to deliver the W4SP Stealer on to Python developer’s machines by hiding a malicious __import__.

Read about how to prevent these attacks and what you can do here.

Why is Python 3.11 So Fast? 🐎

CPython 3.11 is 25% faster than CPython 3.10 on average according to benchmarks with pyperformance. Where do these performance improvements come from?

Find out here.

Weekend Project Idea 🧰

This is a fun one that you won't want to miss. In this weekend project you will learn to generate memes and infographics with Pillow.

Have fun with it and share your project with me when you're done!

Chrome Extensions in Python 🗼

In Python?!! That’s right, and it’s pretty painless with PyScript… PyScript is enabling a lot of great things on the web. This is very cool!

Google and Python 🏮

A crash course in using Python and Google APIs to automate all the things you do with Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, or any other Google API. Very useful to automate the boring stuff.

Ascynio Complete Guide 💡

Asyncio allows us to use asynchronous programming with coroutine-based concurrency in Python. Although asyncio has been available in Python for many years now, it remains one of the most interesting and yet one of the most frustrating areas of Python.

It is just plain hard to get started with asyncio for new developers. Well, now you can master it with this guide.

ntfy Wonder 🪀

Can't believe I only learned about this now. Instead of using a paid product like Twilio, you can use the open source nfty to send push notifications to your phone or desktop via PUT/POST. There are so many cool applications you can build with this.

The best part? Works entirely without signup, cost or setup.

Code With Your Voice 🎤

Github just launched Hey Github.

Difficulty typing? Use your voice to code without spelling things out by talking with GitHub Copilot. A cool concept that I'm sure is going to evolve over the years.

Better Code Reviews? 📝

I can't believe that this is coming from a Meta blog post, but it's actually quite interesting so give it a chance.

If you are working at a company with a team of developers, you know how inefficient code reviews can be. Meta suggests improving this process with this technique.

What do you think?

Cracking The Coding Game 🥚

So you learned to code and are excited to start working for a big tech company and then you got stuck… Why?

Well, probably because applying for a job at a software company is pretty different from any other job application you’ve ever done before.

Sure you might know a guy who knows a guy and can get your foot in the door, but it’s rarely as simple as a phone call and then starting Monday. Even if you have a connection, there's still a series of tasks that you might need to complete.

Like some bizarre game show from the 90s, there are usually set stages of applications featuring a behavioral assessment, puzzles, a quiz, homework, and possibly even a whiteboard section… erm what!?

Lucky for you, we just wrote a massive post breaking it all down: The Ultimate Guide To Cracking The Coding Interview

News Around the World 🗺

• You can't go anywhere this month without hearing about the FTX collapse. It's a disaster, and it's actually a lot worse than you think. Watch The FTX Disaster is Deeper Than you Think.

Big Tech News 🏢

• The news this month were the big tech layoffs from most of the big tech companies. Stripe lays of 14% of employees, Meta 11,000, plus many more big companies have frozen their hiring. Should you be worried about all of these tech layoffs? Keep an eye out on our blog, we have a post coming out soon about this and what you can do.

• The sale of Twitter has seen some bumps and drama. It's entertaining to follow, but don't worry, Twitter isn't going anywhere. Although I do recommend this interesting read... despite 80% of the workforce being gone, Why Twitter Didn’t Go Down: From a Real Twitter SRE

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

• Pathfinder visualizer using different algorithms. So cool.

• The Algorithm That Transformed The World.

• Do you like playing with bubbles? I got you covered.

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

How can you not be romantic about programming?

What a beautiful article this is. A reminder that you have two ways of viewing your work as a programmer: Art or Chore. Be an artist, and enjoy the beauty of it... I bet you will be much happier this way.

Trick of the Month 🎩

I've shared this before, but it is too good not to share it again. Sure coding is fun, but you know what's even more fun?

Coding with virtual pets in your code editor!

See you next month everyone... also share this with your friends... pretty please! ❤️

By the way, I teach people how to code and get hired in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of our courses below or see all ZTM courses here.