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Lesson Rules

The curriculum and writing rules for this course. In Claude Code, run /new-lesson and it follows this file. With another AI, copy everything below the line and fill in Today.

You are writing one lesson of "Python from Zero", a free 30-lesson course for complete beginners. The lessons are published on a blog, one per day. Write today's lesson and its code.

Today

  • Lesson number: NN (for example 02)
  • Date: YYYY-MM-DD

Write the lesson whose number matches the curriculum below. If earlier lessons are in lessons/, read them first. Build on what they taught and don't re-teach it.

Curriculum

  1. Getting Started with Python (already written)
  2. Variables and Data Types
  3. Numbers and Math
  4. Working with Strings
  5. Getting User Input and Type Conversion
  6. Booleans and Comparisons
  7. If, Elif, Else
  8. While Loops
  9. For Loops and range()
  10. Lists
  11. Tuples
  12. Dictionaries
  13. Sets
  14. Loop Patterns: enumerate, zip, break, continue
  15. Functions
  16. Function Arguments: defaults, keyword args, *args, **kwargs
  17. Scope and Return Values
  18. List and Dictionary Comprehensions
  19. Errors and Exceptions
  20. Reading and Writing Files
  21. Modules and Imports
  22. The Standard Library Tour: datetime, random, math, pathlib
  23. Virtual Environments and pip
  24. Classes and Objects
  25. Inheritance
  26. Dunder Methods and Dataclasses
  27. Working with JSON
  28. Calling a Web API with requests
  29. Testing with pytest
  30. Final Project: A Command-Line To-Do App

Files to create

  1. lessons/NN-short-slug.md, for example lessons/02-variables.md.
    • The filename must start with the two-digit lesson number. The site uses that number to order the lessons.
    • The slug may contain only lowercase letters, digits and hyphens.
  2. code/NN-short-slug/, holding one or more runnable .py files used in the lesson. The folder name must match the lesson filename.

Do not change course.json, README.md or any other lesson.

Lesson format

The file must begin with this frontmatter, exactly:

---
title: <Lesson title from the curriculum>
summary: <One sentence, under 120 characters, saying what the reader can do after this lesson>
date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
---

Then write the body in this order, using ## headings. Never use #, because the site renders the title itself.

  1. Why this matters: 2–3 sentences tying the topic to something real the reader would want to build.
  2. The concept, step by step: 3–5 short subsections. Each one gets a small code example and a plain-English explanation of what it does.
  3. Common mistakes: 2–4 mistakes beginners actually make. For each, show the wrong code, the error or bad output it produces, and the fix.
  4. Putting it together: one complete, slightly larger example that uses everything from the lesson. It must be the same code as a file in code/NN-slug/.
  5. Exercise: one task the reader can finish in 10–15 minutes, with clear requirements. Add a hint. Do not include the solution.
  6. Recap: 3–5 bullet points.
  7. Code for this lesson: one closing line, The code for this lesson is in code/NN-slug/.

Writing rules

  • Assume the reader knows only what earlier lessons covered. If you must use something not yet taught, say so in one line: "We'll cover X in lesson N."
  • Use short paragraphs and a friendly, direct tone. Address the reader as "you".
  • Aim for 800–1,500 words. A lesson should take about 10 minutes to read.
  • Mark every code block with a language: python, bash or text. Show program output in a separate text block, labelled "Output:".
  • Use small, concrete examples such as a shopping list, a grade calculator or a weather report. Avoid foo, bar and abstract math.
  • Use plain Markdown only: headings, paragraphs, lists, code blocks, links, bold and italics. No HTML, tables, images, emojis or admonitions.

Code rules

  • Target Python 3.12+. Use only the standard library, except for the lessons that teach requests or pytest.
  • Every file must run as-is with python filename.py and produce the output shown in the lesson.
  • Follow PEP 8. Use descriptive names, and add a short comment only where the code isn't obvious.
  • Lessons 1–14 use plain top-level scripts. From lesson 15 on, put the main logic in functions and use an if __name__ == "__main__": guard.

Before you finish

Check each item:

  • The frontmatter is valid and the date matches today's.
  • The filename and code folder use the same NN-slug.
  • Every code example is correct, and every output block matches what the code really prints.
  • No concept from a later lesson is used without a note.

Then suggest a one-line commit message, in the form Add lesson NN: <Title>.