Prerequisites

In order to correctly follow this course each student is required previous knowledge on these topics:

• English understanding and reading: you must be able to read and understand spoken English at level B2. If, for example, you have problems reading this website, you will not follow the course correctly.
• Microsoft Windows or Mac: you must already know how to use an operating system in its basic aspects
• File handling: you must have very good practice on how to move, delete, rename, copy, compress, uncompress files and directories. These are activities with which some students have severe problems.
• Internet: you must be able to navigate, send and read email, use basic UNIBZ network features and download files.
• Data management: experience with data organization with Excel or any statistical program is helpful.

Course content

• financial applications with Python written with LLM help
• cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology

How to study for this course

This course is different from the majority of courses you are used to. This course is only technical and not theoretical, it is sequential and made mostly of exercise lessons. This means that you have to adapt your study strategy:

1. First of all, you either attend all the lessons (or compensate for missing lessons watching immediately the corresponding videos) or it is really not worth coming to the next one, since you will have a hard life understanding the next topic.
2. After each lesson you must repeat slowly on your own everything done in class in order to be sure to have fully grasped the explained concepts before the next lesson.
3. Needless to say, do the assigned exercises without copying them from your colleagues.

For the exam, the main difference with respect to other courses is that you have to train much more than study. The content of this course is easy and does not need study, however, it is only with practice that you become skilled enough and know what to do without wasting time or trying randomly.

Exam

The exam is split into two parts. The grade is the weighted average of the two parts, based on how many lessons were dedicated to each of them. 

1. open books practical test on Financial applications with Python with LLM help, exercises similar to what we did in class (approximately worth 85%)
2. closed books written questions on Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology (approximately worth 15%)

Before the exam:

1. if you do not use your own notebook, borrow a computer from the library well before the exam and configure it before the exam
2. make sure that you have access to Colab.