my-pythonic-zoo

All creatures great and small, wise and wonderful.

A growing collection of small, runnable Python exhibits for learning how code works. Some topics form step-by-step paths from a simple mental model to a larger program; Python 3.12 or newer is required.

Explore the Zoo

Learning area	What you can explore	Start here
Algorithms & Data Structures	Binary search trees, exact cover, Algorithm X, and Dancing Links	Algorithms guide
Pythonic Thinking	Names and objects, types, iteration, and context managers	Pythonic Thinking guide
Object-Oriented Python	Composition, domain models, encapsulation, factories, inheritance, and responsibilities	Object-Oriented guide
Native GUI	Tkinter windows, events, validation, layout, dialogs, and an integrated showcase	Native GUI guide
Data Cleaning	Text standardisation and Australian phone number formatting	Data Cleaning folder
Database Basics	SQLite connection handling and transactional CRUD operations	Database Basics folder
User Management	Password hashing and email input validation	User Management folder
Interview Preparation	Searchable questions with answer points, references, and related exhibits	Interview Preparation guide

Each guide gives you the study order and links to its exhibits. You can also open a single script and follow its comments at your own pace.

Try an Exhibit

From a terminal, run these commands one at a time:

Step	Command	Note
Clone	git clone https://github.com/lizc-au/my-pythonic-zoo.git	Skip if you already have the repo.
Enter the folder	cd my-pythonic-zoo	Run the remaining commands here.
Check Python	python --version	Use Python 3.12 or newer.
Run a small example	python data_cleaning/string_cleaner.py	This exhibit needs no extra packages.

On Windows, py -3.12 can replace python if that is how your Python installation is registered. Many other exhibits also run directly; check their category guides for prerequisites or GUI launchers.

Development tools and quality checks

Tool or file	Role	Where to look
Python virtual environment	Keep project packages separate from other projects	python -m venv .venv
VS Code or another editor	Read, run, and debug exhibits	Open the cloned repository folder.
Git and GitHub	Track changes and propose contributions	Contributing guide
pyproject.toml	Python 3.12 target, dependency groups, Ruff, and mypy settings	Project configuration
Quality script	Run formatting, linting, type checks, and tests after installing development dependencies	python scripts/check_quality.py

Contribute

Ideas, corrections, new exhibits, and reviews are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md, and create or comment on an issue before starting a larger feature so work can be coordinated.

AI assistance and contributor expectations

AI coding assistants are welcome when a human contributor reviews, understands, and tests the submitted work. Disclose a pull request generated or submitted by an automated agent or bot in its description.

This project uses ChatGPT interactively for pair programming, review, documentation, testing, and exploring Python concepts. @lizc-au reviews and maintains the project and its contributions; the repository is not autonomously developed or maintained by AI agents.

Upcoming exhibits and longer learning paths

This is an evolving learning resource. An idea may become one focused exhibit or a series of small steps as its prerequisites become clear.

Area	Ideas in progress or under consideration
Communication and APIs	Australian Postcode API Lookup (Issue #3); HTTP status checker
Automation	Safe file management and archiving; environment checker
Visualisation	Maze generation and pathfinding; mathematical plotting; statistics and data displays
Algorithms	Binary search tree progression (Issue #7); node relationships, traversal, and shortest paths
Physics and dimensions	3D rotation and projection; vectors and 2D physics; later dimensional and motion simulations
Data science	Lightweight CSV matrix maths

Some ideas are deliberately weird and wonderful. Curiosity about how something works is a good reason to build a small experiment.

People Behind the Exhibits

Contributor	Contribution
@HeaTTap	Australian Phone Number Sanitiser (#2)
@aletgdev	Transactional SQLite CRUD (#48)
@Reh1t	BST Module 1: Structure and Ordering (#55)

Thanks also to Reddit community members u/Diapolo10, u/ectomancer, and u/0xGollumDev for critiques, suggestions, and encouragement.

Last updated: 24 September 2026 · Maintained by @lizc-au