17 Fascinating Python Projects for Beginners

I've made no secret of the fact that I love Python, and that I believe one of the best ways to learn Python is by finding an awesome project you care about to work on. There's nothing more stimulating than passion and curiosity, and that makes the best projects for Python beginners usually something a little grittier than the standard tutorials.

While it's fine to start with "Hello World", it's not exactly the most fascinating of projects and won't keep you going when the going gets tough.

You might be sold on the concept of using a project to learn Python, but maybe you're wondering how you can find the best Python projects for beginners. The good news is that thanks to the awesome community of Pythonistas out there, the prevalence of open source code and data, and the wide world of the internet, you're bound to find a Python project for beginners that you'll love.

Full disclosure, some of these will be harder than your usual Python projects for newbies. On the upside, these are fun, interesting projects that will actually teach you Python. You will struggle, you will have to Google stuff, but that's all part of the experience. Here are some ideas to get you started.

How to choose your first Python project

The best first project is small enough to finish, but interesting enough that you want to keep working when you get stuck. Pick one idea below, build the simplest version of it, and then add features one at a time. You do not need to understand every line before you begin, but knowing the basics of variables, conditionals, loops, and functions will help.

5 Python projects using straight Python or Python packages

These Python projects for beginners come straight from the source: they use vanilla Python, or they use some really cool Python packages. These Python projects will be loaded with helpful docs, commentary, and experiences of other new Pythonistas who have tried and loved these projects.

1. Make an X bot with Tweepy

Obsessed with social media? Me, too. I follow several bots (like this hilarious one based on a great book I read) and always wondered how to make one.

While this project sounds advanced for a new Python dev, it's also something that lets you indulge in your passion a little bit, and maybe your sense of humor too. Tweepy's API v2 examples show how to authenticate and create a post. From there, you can make your bot choose what to publish.

Yes, it's a lot of work! X API access and pricing have changed since this article was first published, so check the current requirements before you begin and keep the first version of your bot small.

2. Write a Create Your Own Adventure script

I used to love these books when I was a kid, and I was really excited to learn that you can create your own using Python! This tutorial is great because it runs through every single step you'll need and explains a lot of the background code you'll be using.

It's also great because in the end, you'll have created something by yourself with your own hands, that you really love. It's something you can share with friends, with family, with strangers on the internet. Let your creativity take over and use these Python projects for beginners to learn the basics.

3. Create a blog

Hey, you're reading this on a blog! Guess what? You can make a blog using a combination of Python and Django.

This tutorial will teach you how to build a blog application with Django that lets users create, edit and delete posts. You'll have a home page that lists all your blog posts, and a dedicated detail page for each individual post.

This uses a common Python framework called Django. Django is an open-source web framework written in Python. A framework is just basically a shortcut. You could do this in pure Python, but Django will make it a lot easier. Again, this tutorial is really good because it doesn't just give vague instructions - it gives you the full step-by-step walkthrough to setting up your environment, talking about database models, and actually creating the blog.

This project is perfect if you have something to say and need a place to say it. As a bonus, you can use your Python-built blog to impress potential employers and land your dream Python job.

4. Make a login system with Django

This Python project is great for anybody who wants to be a future web developer. Every good website needs a login system, and the great news is you can do that with Python. This option is less of a passion project and more of a practical project but it will teach you a lot of skills you need and the outcome is an interactive system that really works.

Use Django's built-in authentication system instead of trying to store and check passwords yourself. The official documentation covers creating users, logging them in and out, changing passwords, and limiting pages to authenticated users. Start with signup, login, logout, and one protected profile page.

5. Connect Python to Stack Overflow

Think of this option as less of a project for Python beginners, and more of something I think should be a requirement for every Python user ever.

Something I've learned about coding is that it's rare that you are typing frantically at your keyboard and writing lines of code that magically fill your screen. Instead, it looks a little bit more like copying scrappy code from all around the internet and Googling it on Stack Overflow when it doesn't do what it's supposed to.

That's why I love this tutorial which is based on a package called howdoi. When properly set up, it gives you instant coding answers from the command line. Ideally, this means you won't have to open your browser to look for help. If you're extra ambitious once you set this up, you can go a step further and create a GUI or a flask web app that wraps the howdoi package.

Once you acknowledge how much time you spend Googling things, you'll realize the value of using this as a Python project for beginners.

4 Python projects using courses, lectures, or guided tutorials

While some of the best Python beginner projects are based on straight Python or use a couple of Python packages, you can also use courses and guided tutorials to complete a more interactive project.

6. Complete Our Python Course

There are tons of courses online to learn Python, but with Boot.dev you start writing code right away instead of only watching videos.

The course's interactive lessons cover variables, functions, testing, debugging, loops, data structures, errors, and type hints. They will stretch your limits, but they're great for a beginner who wants to learn Python.

Our first course, Learn Python, is designed for complete beginners. If you want to keep going afterward, our wider curriculum includes more hands-on courses and projects for backend development.

Learn Python with Boot.dev here.

7. Coursera's Python Project option

Coursera is normally what I recommend to people who want to secure a certificate for their Python experience, and not necessarily as a source of Python projects for beginners. However, it also has courses that either act as a project or let you select a project yourself.

For example, this Python project for data science has you extract stock data and build a dashboard with Pandas, Beautiful Soup, and Plotly. Coursera labels it intermediate, and it requires its Python for Data Science course or equivalent experience, so save this one until you already know the basics.

8. Build DeepDream with TensorFlow

Have you ever wanted to make a neural network that makes images become really trippy using Python and TensorFlow, mimicking the effects of hallucinogenic drugs? Well, who wouldn't? TensorFlow's official DeepDream tutorial walks you through using a pretrained model to enhance patterns in an image.

This is not the easiest first project on the list, but the tutorial includes runnable code in Google Colab, so you can experiment without setting up TensorFlow on your computer.

We also have an article on Python for data science.

If you're not a fan of this particular Python project for beginners, browse TensorFlow's other tutorials to see if there's a project that does grab your attention.

9. LinkedIn Learning

It surprised me to learn this as well, but it turns out LinkedIn is more than just a place for CEOs to make grandstanding claims about how cool their company is.

There's actually a pretty complete product called LinkedIn Learning full of courses about just about anything. Its Python Projects course walks through one intermediate project from the initial idea and requirements to a GUI and final installer.

Again, like Coursera, it requires a subscription after the free trial. Check the course page for current availability and pricing.

3 Python projects using GitHub

Ah, GitHub, one of my favorite places on the internet. GitHub is an awesome resource for a ton of reasons: first, it's free! Second, for a language like Python, there is a robust and friendly community full of Pythonistas who have created projects, tutorials, articles, open-source code, etc, that they are so excited to share with you.

As you can imagine, that makes it a great place to find some awesome Python project ideas for beginners. These are my favorite three - definitely more simple beginner Python projects than others on this list - but feel free to explore for yourself and discover your own.

10. Matchmaker game

This tutorial is billed as a mini-project, and that's absolutely the reality. All you need to do to run this game is open a terminal in the folder where your script is located and run the following command: python Matchmaker.py.

That's it, it's up and running! What I love about this Python project for beginners is that it teaches you the basics, and it lets you see the power of Python. I consider it to be a little bit better than the Hello World example at getting Python beginners invested in learning Python.

11. Madlibs

Who didn't love Mad Libs as a kid? This tutorial is another really simple mini-project that will help you get to terms with a lot of the basic Python environment elements and is just a fun way to see how cool Python can be.

The random module it uses comes with Python, so head over to the directory where your Python file is saved and run the following command: python madlibs.py.

12. Build an expense tracker

This command-line project lets you record expenses, create categories, and see how much you've spent in each category. It only uses Python's standard library, so you do not need to sign up for an API or install extra packages.

I like this project because you can start by running it, then look through the script to figure out how the data is stored and summarized. Once you understand it, try saving expenses to a file so they are still there the next time the program runs.

5 Python projects using your own data

What is a project, but just a question that needs data to answer it? If none of the above 12 Python projects for beginners interest you, the good news is that there's literally an unlimited number of projects available for you. All you need is a pinch of creativity and a burning passion to know more.

With the state of the internet today, you can really easily find data from pretty much any source that interests you and create your very own project. It'll be harder than the options above because there are no guardrails, but it's also liable to be more satisfying when you finally find your answer.

Here are five great sources of internet data you can use to create your very own basic Python project for beginners. Consider these simple Python projects just a place to start.

13. FiveThirtyEight's data archive

FiveThirtyEight's newsroom is no longer publishing, but its data and code archive is still a really cool place to find easy beginner Python projects. Browse the folders to see if there's anything that's interesting to you.

The repository includes data behind stories about elections, sports, science, and culture. Have a look for yourself and see what you want to dive into. See how FiveThirtyEight ran an analysis, and do your own alongside.

14. Tidy Tuesday

This is slightly cheeky because these programming projects are originally intended to be for R rather than Python. But they're both great languages for data science. The Tidy Tuesday GitHub repo has new data every single Tuesday as well as some interesting ideas for beginner projects with Python and visualization ideas that you can borrow.

The 2026 archive includes the languages of Africa, NASA astronomy images, the Winter Olympics, video-game movies, and a lot more. Let yourself be inspired by the data or even the projects that other people are doing around that data.

15. BuzzFeed News

Yep, I know, they did more than quizzes! BuzzFeed News closed in 2023, but its GitHub archive remains a fantastic source of open-source data, analyses, libraries, tools, and guides. Have a look, see what interests you, and start analyzing!

They looked at H-2 visa certification data, firearm background checks, political donations, nursing home data, and more.

16. NASA

Space represents one of the greatest mysteries of our time. If you ever dreamed of being an astronaut, like me, this might be the place for you to investigate data. The Planetary Data System run by NASA offers data based on tons of different targets that you can choose, including comets, asteroids, all the planets, and even solar wind.

This potential project might be a challenge for Python beginners, but if this is the kind of data that interests you, it'll be worth it.

17. AWS

It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that AWS has an absolutely enormous registry of open data. They have data sets from the Allen Institute for AI, Digital Earth Africa, Meta's Data for Good, more stuff from NASA, and even an Amazon sustainability data initiative.

Naturally, AWS doesn't own this data - they just host it for a variety of government organizations, researchers, businesses, and individuals that have chosen to make this open. Their GitHub repo also contains examples of how to use the data.

Have a browse, poke around, and find what looks interesting to you.

If you're a beginner, the best Python projects should be deeply interesting to you

I reject the idea that Python programming projects for beginners have to be easy. Instead, I think it's much more important that the projects are fascinating, gritty, challenging, and rewarding. This list of Python project topics will probably push you to your limits, will make you angrily smash your keyboard, and might even cause you to struggle.

But in the end, you will have completed a much more rewarding project than just a simple project in Python, like running hello world or any of the other bog-standard tutorials.

By no means consider this list of coding ideas for Python exhaustive. There's more data than this world knows what to do with – the only limitation here is your imagination. Find something you care about, find the data to back it up, and learn Python to solve that problem. That's always going to be the best Python project for a beginner like you.

If you're looking to learn Python, we built our Learn Python course for complete beginners who want to learn the fundamentals by writing a lot of code.

Some bonus project ideas, in rapid fire

• A web scraper for a public site that permits automated access
• A password generator that uses Python's secrets module
• A text-based rock-paper-scissors game that captures user input
• A magic 8 ball guessing game
• A game of snake you control with your face using machine learning
• A hot dog / not hot dog image recognition engine
• A simple web server for storing photos