collections Module Added to Standard Library Learning Path

Source: Dev.to

What’s Inside

I’ve just uploaded the collections module materials to my standardlib-datastruct repository. This workbook contains 24 exercises covering high‑performance container datatypes from Python’s collections module.

Collections Covered

• Counter – Count hashable objects and perform arithmetic operations
• defaultdict – Dictionary with default values for missing keys
• deque – Double‑ended queue with fast appends/pops from both ends
• namedtuple and typing.NamedTuple – Tuple subclasses with named fields
• ChainMap – Group multiple dictionaries into a single view
• OrderedDict – Dictionary that preserves insertion order

My Learning Approach for This Module

I didn’t do the exercises for this module. Instead, I learned from learning.txt, which contains concise definitions and key functionalities for each collection type.

Why? Because libraries are different from pure Python programming. With libraries, you can look them up later when you need them or if you forget. The important thing is knowing what exists and what it does, not memorizing every detail.

If you want to practice, the exercises are there for you to work through. For me, understanding the core concepts from the learning notes was enough.

About This Learning Path

This workbook follows the same principle: Order doesn’t matter—coverage does.

Prerequisites are minimal since collections is fairly straightforward:

• Understanding of Python’s basic data structures (dict, list, tuple)
• Knowing when you need specialized containers

My Approach

I’m learning the standard library by:

• Selecting the most useful modules and functions
• Creating hands‑on exercises that demonstrate real use cases
• Building a personal reference that I can return to
• Sharing it for others who want to follow a similar path

The repository (standardlib-datastruct) focuses on standard‑library tools useful for handling data structures. This may not include everything—I only add what I find necessary and want to learn. Some modules are skipped because third‑party libraries handle those use cases better. This is my way of learning—practical, focused, and exercise‑driven. If you’re past the beginner stage and want to level up your Python skills, this might resonate with you.

Get the Materials

The collections materials are available in the repository as collections.7z. It includes:

• advanced_python_collections_workbook.md – Markdown format with exercises (generated by ChatGPT)
• Advanced Python Collections Workbook.pdf – PDF format (generated by ChatGPT)
• learning.txt – Concise learning notes (what I actually used)

Feel free to download and use whichever format works for you—exercises for practice or learning notes for quick reference.

Repository:

Previous additions: functools workbook, itertools workbook, types workbook

Note: This is a living project. I’ll continue adding more standard library modules as I complete them.