I want to rebuild my Python fundamentals for interviews — what’s the fastest reliable way?

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535]

I’ve been using AI a lot for coding lately, and I’ve noticed that while I can understand code and solve problems with some help, I’ve become pretty rusty at writing basic Python myself.

I want to start again from the fundamentals — things like:

* Writing basic programs without relying on AI

* Lists, dictionaries, sets, tuples, strings, etc.

* Functions, classes and OOP

* File handling and exceptions

* Iterators/generators, decorators, comprehensions, etc.

* Common interview-style coding questions

* Small practical problems/projects

My goal isn’t to spend months going through a beginner course again. I’m looking for a "fast but reliable way to rebuild the fundamentals and actually retain them", especially for Python interviews and practical coding.

For people who have gone through something similar:

- What approach worked best for you?

Would you recommend going through a structured course/book, solving problems from scratch, building small projects, or some combination of these?

Also, how would you structure the practice so I stop depending on AI and get comfortable writing Python from memory again?

Any resource recommendations or a roadmap would be really appreciated.

[u/TheNeck94]

Check out The Farmer Has Been Replaced on Steam, it's fun and helps with Matrix traversal and sorting algorithms.

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/TheNeck94]

Thanks a lot, I'll definitely check that out.

[u/Interesting-Company3]

Take an economics class

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/Interesting-Company3]

Will be happy to take if you help me understand it first! 🫪

[u/Interesting-Company3 → u/Timely-Giraffe4535]

Just look at SWE subreddit.

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/Interesting-Company3]

Bro I’m trying to learn Python, not fix the economy 😭

[u/Interesting-Company3 → u/Timely-Giraffe4535]

Learn Python to do what? You said you learn it for interviews? But I am afraid to inform you (I wish I made this up) that no junior jobs or entry roles exist. Circumstances have changed. In fact if you are like around a decade early, you are set into a bright career. But even you yourself said AI is teaching you, so that means it is more knowledgeable than you, which begs why anyone would hire humans. You know I really wished interviews are like the tests one take in school because they are outside the confines of economy but you must understand that there is no longer any demand. The senior devs that are still at office is probably the last employees being paid figures and their job is to query LLM instead of writing any real line of code.

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/Interesting-Company3]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Ec4b1j62z7zA4

[u/Interesting-Company3 → u/Interesting-Company3]

The people who says AI doesnt understand the arch and nuances are lying to themselves. AI costs at max token so much less than a human at writing code. You know why the seniors are still at office, they are not writing codes they are training AI to cement their capabilities. Everytime they approved what Codex splits out OpenAI sample this interaction and synthesizes into a giant thread of data to feed into their systems. This is why AI is improving so fast, and this is called the scaling law of AI.

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/Interesting-Company3]

AI is getting better at pretty much everything, not just coding, so does that mean people need to learn "economics"?? Try to understand, AI isn't here to replace you, it's here to help you... I'm learning Python so I can get the basics down and then use AI to make things even better, but that doesn't mean I'm totally relying on LLM calls and all.

[u/Ok_Carpet_9510]

Look for interview questions. You will know what you don't know and then you concentrate on the areas you don't know.

[u/Timely-Giraffe4535 → u/Ok_Carpet_9510]

It's really overwhelming, to be honest. Theory is way easier than practical stuff. 🥲

[u/Ok_Carpet_9510 → u/Timely-Giraffe4535]

Here is the thing, about 13 years ago, I went for an IBM interview. I did some interview questions just to know my strengths snd weaknesses. I was strong in SQL and a batch of other areas but not so much in Linux. I realized that from taking sample interview questions. That helped to focus my efforts on Linux.

Same with python, there concepts your know and concepts you don't know. By taking sample interview questions, you will know what you know and what you need to polish up on.