Want to learn Python Flask? Here’s Five Places To Get Started (Updated for 2015)

So I used to be a low-level programmer, in fact that’s what I spent most of my time doing while I was at CMU. I did wild and crazy things like optimizing C code in assembly and making sure that code was not just re-factored but optimized for the specific processor we were using. Now most of the coding we do is in Python but I’m still using C, just not as much as before. I’m also finding myself using more frameworks which means I don’t have to re-create the wheel quite as much as I used to.

Python Flask

One of my favorite frameworks on the planet is Flask, it’s an incredibly lightweight framework (in fact it’s even called a micro framework) that makes it easy to build and deploy a webapp. It also uses good old WSGI which is very easy to configure on either Apache or Nginx. Lately I’ve had more than a few people ask me where they can go to learn more about Flask since I talk about it quite a bit, so I thought I’d share what I think are the five best places to get started, and of course updated for 2015.

1. The Flask Mega-Tutorial – even though it was written in 2012 this is still the most badass Flask tutorial out there. Miguel, the guy who wrote this tutorial also recently wrote a book for O’Reilly called Flask Web Development that I also highly recommend (Amazon link).

2. Official Flask Tutorial – some people might fault me for not making this #1 but I do really think the mega-tutorial is the best-of-the-best. Of course this is definitely a very solid #2 since it’s the official tutorial written by the fine folks who wrote Flask.

3. Flask You Tube Tutorials – there are some pretty slick Flask tutorials that were put on You Tube last year that are easy to follow and for those reading this who would rather watch a tutorial, this is my personal favorite.

4. Bev-a-tron’s Flask Tutorial on Github – I’m seeing more and more people post full-blown tutorials with the code to boot on Github, this is a great one for Flask.

5. Full stack Python – this is a bit of a cheat since this tutorial also has links to a ton of other tutorials but in case five wasn’t enough, there are more Flask tutorials behind this link!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton