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Python Regex

About

  • Level: Beginner to Intermediate
  • Lectures: 10 hours
  • Self-study: 5 hours
  • Exercises: 60
  • Lines of Code to write: 89
  • Format: e-learning + weekly online teleconference with instructor
  • Language: English or Polish

Description

This practical course introduces regular expressions and their use in Python, following the syllabus from core syntax to the re module and case studies. Students learn to construct patterns (literals, character classes, anchors, quantifiers, groups, backreferences), use flags and compile patterns, and debug and optimize expressions. Hands-on labs cover searching and extracting data, input validation, text transformation and code refactoring, finishing with a practical project that applies testing and performance techniques.

Advantages

Participants gain a compact, powerful toolset for text processing that speeds up data extraction, parsing, and validation. The course teaches pattern optimization and testing strategies to avoid costly performance pitfalls, improves code readability and maintainability when using regex, and equips learners to automate text-heavy tasks such as log analysis, ETL preprocessing, and codebase cleanup.

Target Audience

  • Developers and engineers who process text, logs, configuration files, or structured text formats and need robust pattern-based tools.
  • Data engineers and analysts who extract, clean, and transform text data from diverse sources for downstream analysis.
  • QA engineers and test authors who validate inputs, assert formats, and create pattern-driven tests for string-handling code.
  • DevOps and SREs who parse logs and metrics, write alerting rules, and automate operational diagnostics.
  • Security and compliance engineers who write detection signatures and validate input sanitization.
  • Advanced students and learners seeking practical, production-focused regex skills in Python.

Format

The course is delivered as a blended learning experience, comprising numerous short videos that progressively introduce concepts and techniques through a series of practical examples. The course format combines e-learning modules with weekly online teleconferences with the instructor for Q&A, discussions, and code reviews.

During the self-study phase, students complete practical exercises that apply the learned techniques. Each exercise is designed to have 100% test coverage, allowing students to verify their solutions. Additionally, students will have access to a spreadsheet to track their progress.

Students will also receive downloadable resources, including code samples, exercise templates, and reference materials to support their learning journey. Since 2015, we have refined our materials based on student feedback to ensure clarity, engagement, and practical relevance. All code listings undergo automatic testing (over 28,000 tests) to ensure accuracy and reliability. All materials, code listings, exercises, and assignments are handcrafted by our trainers without the use of AI. All case studies and examples are based on real-world scenarios drawn from our extensive experience in software engineering.

Working language of the course is either English or Polish.

Course Outline

  1. Introduction to Regular Expressions:

    • History and applications of regex
    • Basic concepts

  2. Regular Expression Syntax:

    • Literals
    • Character classes, alternations, enumerations, and ranges
    • Anchors
    • Negations
    • Quantifiers: greedy and lazy
    • Groups: named, positional, non-capturing
    • Backreferences
    • Flags and their usage

  3. Python re Module:

    • findall, finditer, search, match, sub, split, compile
    • Exception handling and debugging regular expressions

  4. Case Studies:

    • Searching and extracting data
    • Input data validation
    • Text manipulation
    • Code refactoring
    • Regular expression optimization
    • Pattern testing and validation

  5. Practical project

Our Experience

AATC trainers have been teaching software engineering since 2015. We have already delivered over 11,000 (eleven thousand) hours of software engineering training to more than 32,000 (thirty-two thousand) students worldwide.

Requirements

  • Basic knowledge of Python programming
  • Familiarity with using an IDE (e.g., PyCharm, VSCode)
  • Familiarity with using version control systems (e.g., Git)

Setup

  • Newest version of Python
  • IDE of your choice (e.g., PyCharm, VSCode)
  • Git installed and configured
  • GitHub account
  • Web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.)

Apply

If you are interested in taking this course, please contact us at info@astronaut.center