This repository contains a collection of Python practice problems, primarily intended for students taking CMSC 14100 and CMSC 14200 at the University of Chicago.
| Category | Be-a-Computer | Short Exercises | Advent of Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programming Basics | Be-a-Computer | Short Exercises | |
| Lists | Be-a-Computer | Short Exercises | Advent of Code |
| Sets | Advent of Code | ||
| Dictionaries | Be-a-Computer | ||
| Classes and Objects | Be-a-Computer | ||
| Functional Programming | Be-a-Computer | ||
| Recursion | Be-a-Computer | Short Exercises | Advent of Code |
| Trees | Short Exercises | Advent of Code | |
| NumPy | Short Exercises | ||
| Problem Solving | Advent of Code |
Each category targets a topic covered somewhere in CMSC 14100 or CMSC 14200, except the "Problem Solving" category, which target general problem-solving skills (including selecting the right data structure to solve the problem)
We provide three types of practice problems:
- Be-a-Computer: In these problems, you will be presented with a piece of code, and must figure out what the code does (without running the code itself in the Python interpreter)
- Short Exercises: Short coding exercises where you must write a piece of code to perform a specific task.
- Advent of Code: Curated list of Advent of Code problems (see below for more details)
Some problems may provide some starter code, which will be linked from the problem description.
You can find instructions on how to test your solutions to these problems in the How to Test your Solutions page.
To work through the problems in this repository, we suggest you first create a fork of this repository. This will create a copy (or "fork") of this repository under your personal GitHub account, which will allow you to push your solutions to your fork.
To create a fork, make sure you are in the repository's root on GitHub (https://github.com/uchicago-cs/python-practice-problems) and then click on the "Fork" button on the top-left. This wil take you to a page with a number of options; leave everyting as-is and click "Create fork". You can see more detailed instructions on GitHub's Fork a repo documentation.
Once you have created your fork of the repository, you can commit and push code to that repository (we suggest you edit the starter code we provide directly, as that will ensure that any automated tests work correctly). Please note that, since these practice problems are not graded, you are welcome to make your forked repository public, and to share and discuss solutions with other students. You can also use it as a portfolio of code you've written, which can be shared with prospective employers.
Some of the problems we provide are a curated list of problems from Advent of Code, a yearly set of programming puzzles that are released in an advent calendar schedule.
One reason we have selected these problems is because Advent of Code participants are encouraged to share their solutions broadly, which means that, once you've written your own solution, you can look at other published solutions online to learn about the different ways of approaching a problem. You can find solutions written by a UChicago CS instructor, Prof. Borja Sotomayor, in his Advent of Code repository. Advent of Code also has a very active subreddit with lots of information about solutions, strategies, etc.
Finally, it you're looking to build a code portfolio that you can share with employers, we recommend creating a separate GitHub repository for your Advent of Code solutions (not just the ones we recommend here). Advent of Code is a sufficiently well-known event that many employers will appreciate being able to see your solutions to those problems.