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Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate

4.8(54,000) on Coursera·590K enrolled
Intermediate 240 hours English Professional Certificate
SkillsPythonGitAutomationIT administrationConfiguration managementTroubleshooting

Is this course right for you?

Our take
A strong step up if you already have IT basics and want to add Python and automation. Audit is free; the certificate runs on a Coursera subscription.

Good for: people with IT basics who want to add Python, Git and automation skills.

Skip if: you are completely new to IT, or you want general software development.

It is Google's follow-on to the IT Support certificate, teaching Python, Git, and configuration management with Puppet and Ansible, with every skill tied to a concrete IT task — file and system automation, working with APIs. That practical framing is what makes it click for help-desk and sysadmin roles moving toward DevOps.

It is not a general software-development course, and it is not a starting point if you are completely new to IT — do the IT Support certificate first. Google keeps it updated. The certificate needs a subscription; the free audit covers the learning.

Comparison · LBS

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About this course

The Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate teaches IT professionals to automate repetitive tasks using Python: file system automation, working with APIs and web services, managing system resources, version control with Git, and deploying configuration management with Puppet and Ansible. Six courses build from Python fundamentals through production-grade IT automation practices.

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Instructor

GI
Google IT Teaching Staff
Coursera instructor
590K+ learners6 courses4.8 instructor rating

Developed by Google's IT education team, taught by Google engineers with backgrounds in site reliability engineering and systems administration.

Frequently asked questions

It's built as the follow-on to IT Support, so if you have no IT background, do that first — the Python automation here assumes you understand operating systems and basic infrastructure. It's not strictly required, though: if you already know basic Linux, files and directories, and have written a shell script or two, you can start here directly.

IT Support teaches the fundamentals of the job — hardware, operating systems, networking, help-desk work. This one is the level-up: using Python, Git and automation to do IT work at scale instead of by hand. It's aimed at people moving up in IT, not those just starting out.

It ramps up faster than people expect. The early lessons are gentle, but the difficulty climbs, and the final project trips up many learners who aren't yet comfortable with Python modules like sys, re and operator. Budget extra time for the second half, and don't be put off by having to re-watch lessons.

Mostly current — Python, Git and automation thinking are core and still exactly what's wanted. The configuration-management section uses Puppet, which has faded somewhat against cloud-native and container tooling and alternatives like Ansible, so treat that part as the concept of configuration management rather than the one tool you must master.

It's a credible step up that pairs naturally with IT Support, but on its own it rarely lands a competitive automation role. The people who benefit combine it with real projects, a populated GitHub, and often a cloud or DevOps certificate. Treat it as momentum toward the next role rather than a guarantee of one.
Paid
Subscription-based, free to audit
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