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One thing is certain about Python. Those who like it, love it.
Python has one of the most devoted communities of any programming language. Around since the early 1990s, Python has a long-standing history of being versatile, and very approachable for programmers of all levels.
Whether you are creating a desktop application GUI, or you are working on your front, or backend web development, Python brings a lot to the table to make your project a reality.
Despite its age, Python has been slowly overtaking other languages as one of the most utilized. Recently it beat out Java as the number 2 most used language, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Let’s take a look at Python and try to understand it’s overwhelming popularity.
What Is Python?
Python is a high-level, general-purpose language created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991. It focuses on code-readability and object-oriented principles in order to conform to the philosophy of simplicity, beauty, and cleanliness.
Python is also highly extensible, which leads it to have a relatively small core package.
One of the unique aspects of Python is that there are tons of packages or modules that a developer can add to their code such as numpy and requests.
What Is a Python developer?
A Python developer is a broad term to describe someone who uses the Python languages to build web applications, create scientific models, handle analytics and other complex calculations.
Python developers can fall into one or more of the following roles.
Data Scientist
A Data Scientist is someone who wrangles and transforms structured and unstructured data using scientific methods, processes, and algorithms in order to extract knowledge and produce insights.
Software Engineer
Software engineers design, develop, test and maintain software applications.
Web Developer
Web developers create web applications to serve their users using the client-server model. They can also be responsible for creating RESTful APIs.
Machine Learning
ML engineers leverage Python’s libraries and frameworks as well as its overall syntactic simplicity to conduct rapid testing of complex algorithms and machine learning models.
Why Use Python?
One of the first things experienced programmers will say when you ask this question is: it’s easy to read. Python has established itself as accessible by using easy-to-read and maintainable code.
By utilizing plain English for a lot of its commands, Python becomes remarkably simple to read, allowing aspiring coders to learn it with ease, and experienced developers to craft much more maintainable code through interpretable documentation.
Python can be a great option for building test features or applications.
Due to its scalability and simple nature, Python offers a great environment to rapidly develop test features and experiment with your development.
Being an all-purpose programming language that can be used for a multitude of projects, Python establishes itself as a great place to quickly develop an MVP or alpha.
As a notably portable programming language, Python allows you to develop and deploy your application to most hardware and software ecosystems.
Python establishes itself as a jack-of-all-trades in the sense that it can effectively be used to power both web-based and desktop applications.
Python can be the ideal choice if you are looking to visualize data in a simple, and stable way. Known for being able to handle data in both small and large quantities, Python can help you to display data effectively across different platforms without worrying about your code-breaking.
For a lot of projects that involve smaller-scale modules that visualize datasets, Python can be an excellent choice for your development environment.
Advantages of Using Python
Third-party modules
The Python Packages Index (PyPI) allows developers to make use of third-party modules that increase the functionality of their code. These packages range from special tooling, to scientific calculation libraries.
Standard library
Python has a pretty strong standard library which has taken some common programming tasks that developers go through and packaged them into easily accessible methods. This ultimately makes development faster and easier and reduces length of code.
Open source & community
Python is open source which means that it is free to use and open to the community to collaborate and improve on together. The Python community is strong, as it’s on the list of one of the most popular languages to use.
Easy to learn
Python is one of the easiest languages to learn and use. It’s one of the first languages computer scientist undergrads learn. It uses the PEP8 code style guideline which puts an emphasis on readability and simplicity.
Speed and productivity
Python is an object oriented language with strong process control capabilities, and unit testing capabilities making it a good option for complex applications.
Companies Who Use Python
- Spotify
- Quora
- Netflix
- Dropbox
Hire a Python Developer
Python is a general-purpose language that can be used in a number of different ways, most notably Data Science and Machine Learning. It is also used for web application development to a lesser extent however its scientific advantages can’t be ignored.
Data Science and Analytic dependent companies need Python developers to wrangle with vast amounts of data in order to make their systems smarter and insightful. Such applications might already have a web component that faces the consumer.
While Data Science is an extremely popular field and quite easy to fill, Machine Learning & AI is not.
Data Pipeline/ETL engineers are notoriously difficult to staff and the hiring cycles can go on for months on end if your company doesn’t have the visibility to attract talent in the way tech giants such as Google and IBM do.
How to hire Python developers
Python is a great language for data science and backend related tasks. Even more recently, Python has been a go-to beginner language for the computer science intro classes on many college campuses. This means Python can be both for the very talented and for the very inexperienced.
Because of this duality, it’s important to know how to vet developers and ensure you’re truly getting the best of the best. There are tons of great resources out there to do just that, including a guide from Trio that tries to take things step by step.
Keep scrolling and you’ll find even more information on what to look for in a Python developer.
What to look for in a Python developer
At a high level, Python developers should be able to:
Web Development
- Understand Object-Oriented Principles
- Work with a framework such as Django or Flask
- Design (RESTful) APIs in Python with Flask or Django
- Use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for front-end related tasks
Machine Learning, AI, Deep Learning
- Have a high level of proficiency in Core Python
- Understand advanced computer science fundamentals
- Implement and use Python’s scientific and mathematical packages and modules
- Have a deep understanding of linear algebra, statistics, probability, and differential calculus
- Design RESTful APIs for software delivery
Top Interview questions to hire Python developers
How much do Python developers cost in the U.S?
Data sources from ZipRecruiter mark Python developers as receiving up to $196,500 annually. But salaries can drop as low as $48,000 for Python developers. The mean of all salaries for Python developers in the United States is $129,823.
Below is a visual representation of how salaries range nationwide.
How much do Python developers cost in South America?
Senior Python developers in South American earn an average salary of $100,000. Mid-level developers earn around $76,000 per year. Currency markets in South America are affected dramatically due to local instability, causing a change in cost compared to the United States.
How much do Python developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?
Python developer salaries in Eastern Europe mirror that of developers in South America. Political crisis has similarly caused the currency in countries like Ukraine to fall.
Hourly rates for Python developers
Alternatively, you can pay your developers hourly wages. If you plan to hire developers for only a short period of time, this may be the optimal route. Project-based hires tend to only be needed for less than a year, and full-time salaries don’t necessarily need to be implemented in this case.
This table lists a variety of hourly wages that are largely based on experience level and location.
Tools and frameworks for Python development
Out-of-the-box, Python is fairly easy to use and start developing right away with. Despite this, there is a large selection of development tools and frameworks that make using Python even easier.
Looking to develop your applications GUI? There’s actually a whole list of frameworks to simplify this process. Some of these are utilized for web-apps, while others are used for desktop applications, so make sure you know which one works for your project.
There’s also a whole suite of similar tools and frameworks specifically designed to aid in your Python-powered web development projects.
A lot of these can curb any pains with developing a full-stack web-app using Python, and can even help you improve your performance and stability considerably.
The most popular example of a web development framework for Python is Django. Known for reducing the headaches of full-stack web-development using Python, Django can help you develop high-performance web-apps quickly.
Why Hire a Python Developer
If you are building a product that requires handling complex sets of data, then Python is a great choice for your back-end. To that point, hiring a Python developer that is comfortable with a web framework such as Django or Flask, as well as RESTful APIs is a great next step.
As far as ensuring that you find the right developer for the job, there are a number of ways to go about it. One way is to hire on your own, we have a great resource for you to check out regarding how to hire a remote developer.
An alternative to hiring yourself is to work with a tech partner such as Trio, that can deliver a Python developer in days to get started immediately at zero-risk for the first 2 weeks. Going this route will save you a considerable amount of time and energy.
Stop Waiting, Start Developing
Are you in the deep trenches of research trying to get tech-savvy enough to figure out just what you should expect from a Python developer in the first place? While Trio certainly commands you for taking the time and energy to hire a developer on your own, you have other resources to exhaust.
At Trio, you can stop searching and stop developing. Getting the Python developer you want and need can happen in a matter of days, not weeks. We have developers here to help who can communicate effectively and efficiently to meet your business needs.
Popular Python Packages
- Numpy
- Requests
- Selenium
- PyMongo
- Pillow
