What is programming?

The apps on your phone, YouTube, WhatsApp, the website you booked a flight on, even the buttons in an elevator — all of these are programs.

A program is a set of step-by-step instructions written for a computer. A computer is incredibly fast, but it doesn’t think for itself: it does exactly what you tell it. No more, no less.

A program is a recipe

If we wrote “make a cup of tea” as a recipe:

Pour water into the kettle
Bring the water to a boil
Add tea to the pot and let it steep
Wait 5 minutes

A program is the same idea — the instructions are just written in a language the computer understands. We’ll learn Python: one of the most popular programming languages in the world, and one of the friendliest for beginners. It’s also the language most test automation, data, and AI work is written in — so it’s a practical first step into tech.

Run your first code

The box below is your code playground. Real Python runs inside it. Press ▶ Run and see what happens:

Inputs (for input())

One value per line — read in order by input().

Output

What happened? Each print(...) line gives the computer one command: “display whatever is inside the parentheses on the screen.” The computer ran the lines top to bottom, in order.

Go ahead — change the text and run it again. Don’t worry, you can’t break anything here. 😄

Missions

Mission

Start the engine

+5 XP

Programmers have a tradition more than 50 years old: the first program always says “Hello, World!” Just run it — and earn your first XP!

Inputs (for input())

One value per line — read in order by input().

Output

Mission

Say something of your own

+10 XP

Replace the text inside the quotes with your own sentence — your name, your goal, anything you like — and run it.

Inputs (for input())

One value per line — read in order by input().

Output

Next lesson: we’ll get to know print more closely and you’ll see your first error. Yes, that’s good news — errors are a programmer’s best teacher. 😉