Setting up

Choose the guide that matches your situation. All of them end the same way: a working Python, a virtual environment, the course packages, and a check that tells you whether it worked.

Allow about 45 minutes. If a step fails, read the error and the "If this fails" notes under that step. If 30 minutes pass and it is still broken, use Codespaces instead.

• Windows

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  Tick "Add python.exe to PATH" on the first installer screen. That checkbox causes most week 1 problems.

• macOS

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  Install from python.org, not the Python already on your Mac. Type python3 until your environment is active.

• GitHub Codespaces

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  Nothing to install. A browser and a free GitHub account. You get a real terminal and a real virtual environment.

• Locked-down laptop

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  No admin rights, blocked installers, or a network that interferes. Options in order.

• Google Colab

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  Use this if you cannot have a GitHub account. The differences are listed at the end of the guide.

• GitHub Education

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  Free Copilot and more Codespaces hours for verified students. Apply in week 1: verification takes a few days.

• Using Chinese services

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  DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen and others are supported. Prompting in Chinese is fine. Also covers working from China.

What the check tells you

python check_setup.py gives one of three results.

Result	Meaning
ALL CHECKS PASSED	Nothing to do.
READY, WITH NOTES	Also a pass. Everything needed works. Some notes are normal, such as "no virtual environment" on Colab.
NOT READY YET	Something is missing or wrong. The check names each problem and its fix.

Nothing is collected. The check is for you. If the fix it names does not work, the start page lists what to try next.