Development of Time Series Model to Predict the Weekly Percentage of Python Programming Language usage

Abstract

Python's super popular and getting bigger fast. Figuring out how it will be used is super important for planning what to teach, training tech workers, and making good rules, especially in places like Sri Lanka that are just now getting into digital stuff. Therefore, this study aims to predict the weekly global usage of Python. We looked at data from April 21, 2019, to April 21, 2024. We got 262 weeks. This data is entered into Kaggle from Google search interest scores (Nextmillionaire, 2023). This dataset shows the highest interest score for Python in the general world. After trying out a bunch of models, theARIMA (1,1,1) model with seasonal stuff seemed like the best fit. We taught the model with data from April 21, 2019, to January 28, 2024 (250 weeks) and checked it with data from February 4, 2024, to April 21, 2024 (12 weeks). We tested the model to make sure it was doing things right, and the leftovers looked random, which is a good thing. The MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error) for the validation data is 6.04%. This shows the ARIMA model is pretty good at guessing Python usage over time. Because theguesses are pretty accurate and consistent, it looks like Python usage of global is going up steadily. This means Python is a big deal with both Data Science & Analytics, Machine Learning & AI, Cloud Computing & DevOps, Automation & Scripting. This info should help schools, training places, and the government make smart choices about teaching digital skills.