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Writing Efficient Python Code

4.7+
37 reviews
Intermediate

Learn to write efficient code that executes quickly and allocates resources skillfully to avoid unnecessary overhead.

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4 Hours15 Videos53 Exercises
102,920 Learners

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Course Description

As a Data Scientist, the majority of your time should be spent gleaning actionable insights from data -- not waiting for your code to finish running. Writing efficient Python code can help reduce runtime and save computational resources, ultimately freeing you up to do the things you love as a Data Scientist. In this course, you'll learn how to use Python's built-in data structures, functions, and modules to write cleaner, faster, and more efficient code. We'll explore how to time and profile code in order to find bottlenecks. Then, you'll practice eliminating these bottlenecks, and other bad design patterns, using Python's Standard Library, NumPy, and pandas. After completing this course, you'll have the necessary tools to start writing efficient Python code!
  1. 1

    Foundations for efficiencies

    Free

    In this chapter, you'll learn what it means to write efficient Python code. You'll explore Python's Standard Library, learn about NumPy arrays, and practice using some of Python's built-in tools. This chapter builds a foundation for the concepts covered ahead.

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    Welcome!
    50 xp
    Pop quiz: what is efficient
    50 xp
    A taste of things to come
    100 xp
    Zen of Python
    50 xp
    Building with built-ins
    50 xp
    Built-in practice: range()
    100 xp
    Built-in practice: enumerate()
    100 xp
    Built-in practice: map()
    100 xp
    The power of NumPy arrays
    50 xp
    Practice with NumPy arrays
    100 xp
    Bringing it all together: Festivus!
    100 xp
  2. 2

    Timing and profiling code

    In this chapter, you will learn how to gather and compare runtimes between different coding approaches. You'll practice using the line_profiler and memory_profiler packages to profile your code base and spot bottlenecks. Then, you'll put your learnings to practice by replacing these bottlenecks with efficient Python code.

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In the following tracks

Data EngineerPython ProgrammerPython ProgrammingPython Toolbox

Collaborators

Collaborator's avatar
Chester Ismay
Collaborator's avatar
Becca Robins
Logan Thomas HeadshotLogan Thomas

Scientific Software Technical Trainer, Enthought

Logan is a member of the Technical Training team at Enthought – an organization that provides digital transformation, software consulting, and training services to individuals and companies worldwide. As a Scientific Software Technical Trainer, he focuses on helping students write robust, scalable, and efficient Python code. As a self-proclaimed Python enthusiast, Logan enjoys attending meetups and conferences in the Austin, Texas area to share his knowledge with others.
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  • Yujia B.
    22 days

    it was a great learning experience to know about how to make my code run more efficiently. i think you touched on the basics very well.

  • henrique v.
    about 2 months

    Best course I did in the Python Programmer career track

  • Jhon G.
    3 months

    very useful and well explained, thank you

  • Oleksandr S.
    4 months

    One of the most useful and nicely organized courses at Datacamp. Tons of useful information.

  • Indrajeet P.
    4 months

    A lot of helpful tips!

"it was a great learning experience to know about how to make my code run more efficiently. i think you touched on the basics very well."

Yujia B.

"Best course I did in the Python Programmer career track"

henrique v.

"very useful and well explained, thank you"

Jhon G.

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