📖 Best Resources to learn python for civil engineers in 2025

Overview

• This is a list of best resources to learn python for civil engineers in 2025
• Basic Requirements
  • Freely Available
  • Regularly Updated
  • Targeted to Civil Engineers
• Most of the resources in this list are not focused on civil engineering so, I’ll try to prioritize resources which are focused on civil engineering, but programming is still niche in our industry, so you have to be comfortable learning python from generic resources

Courses

• Personally, I think courses are best way to learn python because
  • They are designed with clear and logical learning path, so you’ll miss any basics.
  • You won’t get distracted by other topics or entertainment or advertisements
  • People who create this courses are normally more professional and industry expert than someone making YouTube videos
  • Comes with Questions and Answers sections, exercises and assignments to practice what you’ve learned
  • You’ll get certificates at the end of the course to include in your resume
  • Courses are regularly updated to include all latest features of python
• I’ve not tried most of this courses because I am already advanced level programmer even before I’ve started to learn python. But if I have start from scratch then I’ll definitely try these courses.

Python for Structural Engineers

• This is paid course by Timo Harboe Zollner
• This course is focused on structural engineering, but it should be useful for civil engineers as well you can just ignore stuff related to structural engineering.
• I’ve not tried this course personally but I do follow his YouTube channel and his content is pretty good.

Python for Structural Engineers Async

• This is paid course by Connor Ferster
• This course is focused on structural engineering, but it should be useful for civil engineers as well you can just ignore stuff related to structural engineering.
• I’ve not tried this course personally, but I do love his content so suggest you to try it.

100 days of code

• This is paid course by Angela yu. I’ve personally enrolled on this course and it’s really good for learning python.
• This is generalized python course made for beginners, data science, web and game development so it’s not focused on civil engineering
• Only focus on basic python concepts, ignore other topics.
• This course also covers all popular python libraries like pandas, matplotlib, NumPy etc.

Python for Beginners

• This is free YouTube playlist made by CodeWithHarry
• This playlist is good for beginners and intermediate level
• This is also generalized course so only focus on stuff related to python, you can ignore stuff related data science or web development or advance python topics that you’ll never use for personal projects.

Books

• Books are good choice for you if you’re learning programming for first time
• Courses and YouTube videos can be overwhelming for beginners
• Also, python language version don’t update that often so all basic code syntax normally stays the same
• current python version is 3.14 and 3.0 release on 3rd December 2008. so, you can pick any book with python version 3.0 or later

Python Crash Course by Eric Matthes

• The book is designed for beginners and covers the basics of Python programming, including data types, control flow, functions, and classes.
• It also delves into more advanced topics like working with files, testing code, and using libraries.
• The book is divided into two main parts
  • Basics of Python Programming: This section covers fundamental concepts and syntax, helping readers build a solid foundation in Python.
  • Projects: The second part includes three practical projects. These projects help readers apply what they’ve learned in real-world scenarios.
• Feel free to skip chapters which are not relevant to you like web Applications or game development
• I’ve not personally read this book, because I was already at advance level when I’ve started learning python so my approach to learning python is different from others. But I’ve picked this books because it’s most recommended by others on python communities.

Automate the boring stuff with python by Al Sweigart

• This is one of most popular books for python beginners
• I’ve personally read this book and I don’t like it found it bit outdated
• you can read it as your second book if you’re really interested in python
• This books mainly focus on how to use python in your daily tasks.

Python for Excel by Felix Zumstein

• Felix Zumstein is creator of xlwings python library, I am really big fan of his work with xlwings.
• Books mostly focus on integrating python with excel for data analysis and visualization.
• Book divided into four main parts
  • Introduction to Python: Covers the basics of Python, setting up the development environment, and getting started with Python programming.
  • Introduction to pandas: python library for data manipulation and analysis.
  • Reading and Writing Excel Files: Discusses how to manipulate excel files using python.
  • Using xlwings: Discusses how to use xlwings to interact with excel from python.
• I’ve personally read this book and I highly recommend it for anyone who is going to use python with excel

YouTube

• Books and courses are great for learning basic or intermediate stuff but YouTube is great for learning how to use your python for actual projects
• Also, you’ll learn how other people are using python in their daily tasks
• Most of this channel already assume that you know basics, so they focus on how to use python on actual projects.

Structural Python

• He also has personal channel Connor Ferster
• I don’t any interest in learning python since I am pretty good with VBA and C# and they cover most of my use cases but after watching this channel I have started to learn python because I like his approach of how to use python for structural engineering.
• If you’re structural engineer then you’ll love this channel

Timo Harboe

• Creator of Python for Structural Engineers Course
• This channel mostly focusses on how to use python in structural engineering projects

Coding is fun

• This is great YouTube channel for learning python for medium to advance level.
• I really love his project based approach. Each video is a project which you can build from scratch.
• His videos more geared towards Data Analysis but there’s lot of common stuff related to python programming which are useful for civil engineers

Fanilo Andrianasolo

• This is only focused on python web development
• Best YouTube channel to learn Streamlit development

Few more YouTube with good python content

• arjancodes
• Tech with Tim
• Corey Schafer
• xlwings

Blogs

Nodes Automations

• I’ve started this blog because there’s lack of good resources for programming in Civil Engineering.
• Although this blog is not focused on python, you’ll find lot of post related to python due to it’s popularity.
• I’ve tried my best to explain each blog from point of civil engineers perspective, that’s major difference from other blogs
• Even sample codes and examples are provided in such a way that civil engineers can relate to it.

flocode

• This blog mainly focusses on latest news, libraries and tools about python.
• It’s good for intermediate and advance level programmers who already familiar with basics.
• they also host lot of podcast with external experts speaking about topics related to python programming which are my favorite parts of this blog.

Communities

• Once you know basics of python and start working on actual project, you’re going to need feedback or suggestions from other people.
• Good communities can provide you with feedback or suggestions to improve your current code.
• Additionally, you if you have really niche problem or question, you can ask it in community.

Reddit : LearnPython

• Subreddit for posting questions and asking for general advice about all topics related to learning python
• This is more suitable for beginners who are learning python

Reddit : Python

• Subreddit to stay up to date with latest news, packages and tools, share experience related to python
• This is more suitable for advance user who want to discuss more complex topics related to python

Stack overflow

• Stack overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers.
• It’s not very beginner friendly so don’t bother with asking questions here, only use this to review previous discussions or questions related to python

Conclusion

• Start with basics and slowly move to more complex topics.
• Don’t try to learn from everything at once, pick one thing stick with it.
• Building something that you use on a daily basis is the best way to learn python.

If you have any questions or want to discuss something : Join our comment section