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Exploring Python's Built-in Functions (Overview)

Python’s built-in functions are predefined functions you can use anywhere in your code without any imports. They handle common tasks across math, data type creation, iterable processing, and input and output. Knowing which ones to reach for makes your code shorter and more Pythonic.

In this video course, you’ll:

  • Recognize Python’s built-in functions and the built-in scope they live in
  • Use the right built-in for math, data types, iterables, and I/O tasks
  • Tell apart true functions and classes that look like functions
  • Apply built-ins to solve practical problems without reinventing the wheel

To get the most out of this video course, you’ll need to be familiar with Python programming, including topics like working with built-in data types, functions, classes, decorators, scopes, and the import system.

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00:00 Welcome to Exploring Python’s Built-in Functions. My name is Christopher, and I will be your guide. Python often promotes itself as the “batteries included” language.

00:10 And man, are there a lot of batteries. The standard library, all that stuff that ships with Python, is huge and lets you accomplish a lot without installing anything else. A subset of the standard library are the built-in functions. These are a collection of functions that you can call without even importing any modules. There are over 70 of them.

00:34 That’s a lot of D-cells, and this course covers them all. That makes it a little different from most. I’ve tried my best to group related things together, but fundamentally there’s no narrative here, it’s just a big collection.

00:48 That means, more so than a regular course, you can pop in along the way. This is also by far and away the longest course I’ve ever done. It is quite the journey, and I look forward to guiding you through it.

00:59 This is meant as an overview course. Along the way, I’ll point you at tutorials and other video courses that do deeper dives on each of the topics if you want more information.

01:10 The code in this course was tested with Python 3.14.2. The available built-in functions are pretty stable though, so any supported version of Python should be good enough. All right, are you ready?

01:23 It’s a long haul. I hope you packed some snacks. I’ll begin with my first grouping of built-in functions, those used for math.

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