For developers who can write Python but can’t start a project
You know Python. You still freeze at a blank file.
HOPPy is an 8-week cohort where you build a real Python project, your project, your idea, with Reuven working alongside you from start to finish.
No tutorial telling you what to do next. Your project, and the support to finish it.
“HOPPy is about learning through doing.” — Reuven Lerner
Not a member yet? See how LernerPython membership works before HOPPy.
You finished the Python course. Maybe more than one.
You can write a loop. You can import a library. You can follow a tutorial from start to finish without getting stuck.
But open a blank project and you don’t know where to start.
Which library do you even use? How do you structure the files? Where do you start without a first step already written for you?
The tutorial always told you what to do next. A real project doesn’t.
That gap has nothing to do with your Python knowledge. Finishing another course won’t close it.
The course worked and the project didn’t.
I see this every week. Developers who’ve taken the courses, who understand the language. But when it’s time to build something real, they stall. Not because they don’t know Python, but because they’ve never had to make the decisions a real project requires.
Real-world Python projects go far beyond what you’ll learn in a typical class. I constantly encounter people who know the basics of the language, but are frustrated when it comes time to create, manage, and distribute their own project.
Here’s why: tutorials are built to be followable. Every step hands you the decision. “Use this library.” “Structure it this way.” “Here’s the code.” You follow along, it works, and it feels like progress.
But you didn’t practice making the decision. You practiced following one.
A real project is nothing but decisions. What tools to use. How to structure the files. How to handle dependencies. How to get something running that you’d show to someone else.
Tutorials hid every one of those decisions from you. That’s what makes them followable. But now you’re at the point where you need to make them, and you haven’t built that muscle yet.
That’s the gap, and it has nothing to do with Python.
I built HOPPy around one idea: you learn to build real projects by building one, with the structure and support to see it through.
You won’t get there by watching someone else make decisions, and a walkthrough won’t help either. You have to make them yourself, on something that matters to you, with enough structure to see it through.
Here’s what 8 weeks looks like:
You choose your project
You pick something meaningful to you, something you’d be motivated to finish. Not a sample app from a syllabus, and not a clone of someone else’s work.
“You’re likely to be more invested in, and thus learn from, a small, real-world project that you choose, and that is meaningful to you.”
When you pick your own project, you stay motivated. That matters more than people think over 8 weeks.
The decisions tutorials hid from you
Most of the real work in HOPPy happens between sessions, when you’re inside the project and facing the actual decisions: which tools, how to structure things, how to manage dependencies, how to get it running in a way you’d show someone else.
No course teaches you how to make those decisions. I designed HOPPy to put you in them.
I’m there when you’re stuck
Not a forum. Not a TA. Me.
I’ll give you feedback to help you move ahead and increase the chances that you finish with a working project.
And if you come to the first session without a project idea yet, that’s fine. I’ll be there to help and suggest things.
By the end, you’ll have created a Python project from scratch. You’ll know how to manage dependencies, structure code someone else can read, and distribute something you built. And you’ll be able to open a blank IDE without freezing.
Here’s what a past HOPPy cohort built:
A health-clinic communications system.
A real tool for managing patient communications in a working clinic.
A personal blood-pressure monitor.
Connected to actual hardware, tracking real readings over time.
A bank-status summarizer.
Pulling live data and producing a usable output.
These were real projects with real constraints, and every one of them required the kind of decisions you don’t get from a tutorial.
Who can join HOPPy
HOPPy is available to LernerPython members at Tier 1 and above.
If you’re a Tier 1 or Tier 2 member: HOPPy is a $1,500 add-on. Enroll when a cohort opens.
If you’re a PythonDAB member (Tier 3): HOPPy is included in your membership.
If you’re not yet a member: the path to HOPPy starts with a LernerPython membership. A Tier 1 membership is $400 per year, and HOPPy is a $1,500 add-on from there.
$1,500 per HOPPy cohort
I call HOPPy “the graduate school of the bootcamp.” The membership builds your Python foundation. This is what you do when you’re done learning and ready to build.
What $1,500 covers: 8 weeks of structured project work. Your own project from day one. My direct involvement throughout, reviewing what you build, giving feedback on your specific situation, helping you make the decisions that matter.
I’ve been teaching Python for over 30 years. I’ve trained developers at Apple, Arm, Cisco, Intel, and Sandisk, developers who use Python in real work, on real systems, under real constraints.
A self-paced video course costs under $15. It cannot give you feedback on your project, help you make the structural decisions specific to what you’re building, or hold you accountable to finishing.
You get 8 weeks of me working alongside you on your project.
What participants say about working with me:
“Reuven has a unique teaching style and relates to all of us well.”
“Learning while doing is important. More training offerings should use this same method as Reuven.”
Next cohort: Sunday, June 14th, 2026 through Sunday, August 9th.
This cohort is about agentic coding. Everyone will build a project using Claude Code or OpenCode.
Not a member yet?
You’ve been following Python tutorials. That’s how you learned.
There’s a point where following stops being the path forward.
That’s what I built HOPPy for: 8 weeks where you work on your own project, make the decisions that matter, and I’m alongside you the whole time.
You won’t feel embarrassed or nervous about a new project’s blank screen. You’ll be ready to dig in.
Not a member yet? Learn how membership works