Install development packages required to build Python.

On Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev libffi-dev libbz2-dev curl

On Fedora:

sudo dnf groupinstall development

Download the stable latest release of Python 3

Visit the official Python website and download the latest version of Python 3. After the download is complete, you should have a .tar.xz archive file (a “tarball”) containing the source code of Python.

Extract the tarball

Once the download is complete, extract the tarball by either using the extractor application of your choice or the Linux tar command, for example:

tar -xf Python-3.?.?.tar.xz

Configure the script

Once the Python tarball has been extracted, navigate to the configure script and execute it in your Linux terminal with:

cd Python-3.?.?
./configure

The configuration may take some time. Wait until it is successfully finishes before proceeding.

Start the build process

If you already have a version of Python installed on your system and you want to install the new version alongside it, use this command:

sudo make altinstall

The build process may take some time.

Check your version

ls /usr/local/bin/python3*
python3.? --version

Notes

Note: If you have an error say with pip connecting to ssl check step 1 and make sure you installed the required development packages.