Welcome!
In this tutorial you’ll set up a Python project in VS Code, create a virtual environment
using uv, and run a tiny Hello, World program.
What is Python?
Python is a programming language that’s great for building all kinds of things—scripts, games, data projects, and web APIs. We’ll start simple and build up.
What is a Virtual Environment?
A virtual environment (venv) is like a separate “box” for your project’s Python packages. It keeps your project’s dependencies from mixing with other projects on your computer.
We’ll use uv to create and use a virtual environment. (In your setup, uv is already installed.)
Set up your first Python project
We’ll make a folder for your code, create a virtual environment, then run a program. Open VS Code, then open a terminal (Terminal → New Terminal).
In the terminal, run:
mkdir -p python-tutorials/hello-python
cd python-tutorials/hello-python
uv venv
That creates a .venv folder. VS Code may prompt you to select it as your Python interpreter.
Hello, World
Create a file named hello.py with this code:
print("Hello, World!")
Run it with:
uv run python hello.py
If you see Hello, World!, you did it.
How running works (quick mental model)
python hello.pyruns a file.uv run ...runs a command using the project’s environment.- Later, we’ll add packages (like FastAPI) into the venv for each project.
What's Next?
Next you’ll build your first web API using Python and FastAPI.