04. Lists

8/28/26About 17 minAbout 2528 words

04. Lists

Lists

Exercise 1 — First and last

Create a list containing five names.

Print:

the first name
the last name
the third name
the second-to-last name

Use both normal and negative indexes.

Exercise 2 — Shout the name

Create a list containing several names.

Ask the user for a number between 0 and the length of the list.

Print the corresponding name in uppercase.

For example:

Choose a number: 3
JOHN

Use an index and .upper().

Exercise 3 — Add a name

Start with a list containing three names.

Ask the user for another name.

Add the name to the end of the list.

Then print the complete list and the number of names in the list.

Use .append() and len().

Exercise 4 — Insert a name

Start with:

["Alice", "Bob", "Charlie", "David"]

Ask the user for a name.

Insert the new name at position 2.

Print the list before and after the insertion.

Then print the length of the list.

Exercise 5 — Remove a name

Start with a list containing five names.

Ask the user which name they want to remove.

If the name is in the list, remove it.

If it isn't in the list, print:

Name not found

Finally, print the remaining names.

Use in, not in, and .remove().

Exercise 6 — Shopping list

Create a small shopping list with three items.

Ask the user for two more items and add them to the list.

Then ask the user for one more item and insert it at the beginning of the list.

Print the final shopping list and the number of items.

Use both .append() and .insert().

Exercise 7 — Remove the last item

Create a list containing five numbers.

Remove the last number and store it in a variable.

Print:

Removed: 42
Remaining: [...]

Then remove another number from the end.

Print the list again.

Use .pop().

Exercise 8 — List combinations

Create two lists:

["red", "green", "blue"]

and

["yellow", "black", "white"]

Create a new list containing all the colors from both lists.

Then create another list containing the colors from the first list repeated three times.

Print all three lists.

Use the + and * operators.

Exercise 9 — Parts of a list and a word

Create a list containing ten numbers.

Print:

the first three numbers
the last three numbers
numbers 4 through 7
the list in reverse order

Then create a string containing a word of your choice.

Print:

the first three characters
the last two characters
the word backwards

Use slicing on both the list and the string.

Exercise 10 — Small contact list

Create a list containing several names.

The program should:

Print the number of contacts.
Ask the user for a name.
Tell the user whether the name is in the list.
If it is in the list, print its position.
Ask the user for another name and add it to the list.
Reverse the list.
Print the final list.

Finally, clear the list and print its length.

Use len(), in, .index(), .append(), .reverse(), .clear() and == somewhere in the program.

Exercise 11 — Playlist manager

Start with a list containing five song titles.

Show the current playlist and ask the user what they want to do:

Add a song
Insert a song at a specific position
Remove a song
Remove the last song
Show the first three songs
Show the playlist in reverse order
Clear the playlist
Quit

After each operation, show the updated playlist.

If the user tries to remove a song that isn't in the playlist, display an appropriate message instead of crashing the program.

Exercise 12 — Exam scores

Create a list containing the scores of ten students.

Display:

the number of students
the highest score
the lowest score
the first five scores
the last five scores

Then ask the user for a score and tell them how many students achieved exactly that score.

Finally, ask for another score and check whether that score occurs in the list.

If it does, display its first position in the list.

Exercise 13 — Shopping basket

Create an empty shopping basket.

Repeatedly ask the user for an item.

The user can:

add an item
remove an item
remove the last item
display the basket
empty the basket
finish shopping

When adding an item, check whether it is already in the basket.

If it is already there, tell the user instead of adding another copy.

When removing an item, handle the situation where the item doesn't exist.

When the user finishes, display:

the complete basket
the number of different items
the first item
the last item

Exercise 14 — Names and usernames

Create a list containing several people's full names.

For every name, display a simple username based on the person's name.

For example:

Alice Johnson → alicej
Peter Smith → peters
John Williams → johnw

Use slicing to take part of the name.

Then ask the user for a name and check whether it is in the list.

If it is present, display its position.

Finally:

add two new names
remove one existing name
reverse the list
display the first half of the list

Try to make the program work with a list containing a different number of names as well.

Exercise 15 — Number statistics

Create a list containing twenty random integers between 1 and 100.

Display the complete list.

Then create a small report containing:

the number of values
the first value
the last value
the first five values
the last five values
how many times the number 50 occurs
whether the number 25 occurs
whether the number 75 does not occur

Next, ask the user for a number.

If that number occurs in the list, display its first position and how many times it occurs.

Finally, reverse the list and display it again.

Challenge: Try to make the report still work correctly if you change the number of generated values from 20 to 30.

Tuples

1. Favourite colours

Create a tuple containing five of your favourite colours.

Print the complete tuple.
Print the first colour.
Print the last colour.
Print how many colours are in the tuple.

2. A tuple of numbers

Create a tuple containing the numbers:

12, 7, 25, 4, 18, 9

Print the largest and smallest number.
Print the sum of all numbers.
Print how many numbers are greater than 10.

Use a for loop for the last task.

3. Tuple slicing

Create the following tuple:

("Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday")

Print:

The first three days.
The last three days.
Every second day.
The tuple in reverse order.

4. Searching a tuple

Create a tuple containing several usernames.

Ask the user for a username.

Check whether the username occurs in the tuple.
If it does, print its position in the tuple.
If it does not, print a suitable message.

Do not use a list for the usernames.

5. Unpacking a tuple

Create a tuple containing the name, age and city of a person.

For example:

("Alice", 22, "Geel")

Unpack the tuple into three separate variables.

Then print a sentence containing the three values.

6. Tuple calculations

Create a tuple containing several temperatures in degrees Celsius.

Use a for loop to calculate:

The average temperature.
The number of temperatures below 0.
The number of temperatures above 20.

Do not use statistics or another module.

7. Comparing two tuples

Create two tuples containing numbers.

For example:

(4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42)

and

(4, 8, 15, 18, 23, 42)

Use a for loop to determine how many positions contain the same value.

Also print the positions where the values are different.

8. Convert a tuple

Create a tuple containing several names.

Convert the tuple into a list.
Add two new names to the list.
Remove one name from the list.
Convert the list back into a tuple.
Print the resulting tuple.

9. Students and scores

Create a list containing tuples. Each tuple contains a student's name and their score.

For example:

[("Alice", 17), ("Bob", 12), ("Charlie", 8), ("Diana", 15)]

Use a for loop to:

Print every student's name and score.
Print only the students who passed.
Calculate the average score.

10. Shopping list with prices

Ask the user for the names and prices of five products.

Store each product as a tuple containing its name and price, and put all tuples in a list.

For example:

[("Bread", 2.50), ("Milk", 1.20), ...]

Then use a for loop to:

Print every product and its price.
Calculate the total price.
Find the most expensive product.
Create a new list containing only the products that cost more than €5.

Bonus: Sort the list based on price.

Dictionaries

1. A student profile

Create a dictionary called student containing the following information:

Name: Alex
Age: 20
Study programme: IT
Year: 2

Print the student's name, age and study programme separately.

2. A simple phone book

Create a dictionary called phone_book containing three people and their phone numbers.

Print the phone number of one specific person. Then ask the user to enter a person's name and print their phone number.

3. — Product prices

Create a dictionary called prices containing five products and their prices.

Ask the user to enter a product name. Print the price of that product.

Then ask the user to enter the name of another product and print its price multiplied by 2.

4. Updating a dictionary

Create a dictionary called inventory containing three products and their stock quantities.

Perform the following operations:

Print the current stock of one product.
Change the stock of that product.
Add a new product with its stock quantity.
Remove one of the original products.
Print the final dictionary.

5. A safer phone book

Start with a phone book containing three people and their phone numbers.

Ask the user to enter a name.

If the name exists in the dictionary, print the phone number.
If the name does not exist, print a message saying that the person is not in the phone book.

Use the in operator to check whether the key exists.

6. Product lookup

Create a dictionary containing five products and their prices.

Ask the user to enter a product name. If the product exists, print its price. Otherwise, print a message saying that the product is unavailable.

Afterwards, ask for another product name and repeat the lookup. You may assume that the user enters a valid product name the second time.

7. Counting points in a game

Create a dictionary called scores containing the names of three players and their scores.

Ask the user to enter a player's name and the number of points they have earned.

If the player already exists, add the new points to their current score.
If the player does not exist, add them to the dictionary with the entered number of points as their initial score.

Print the updated dictionary.

8. A list of students

Create an empty list called students.

Add three student dictionaries to the list. Each dictionary must contain a student's name, age and study programme.

Use append() to add the dictionaries to the list.

Print the entire list. Then print the name of the second student.

9. Adding students

Start with a list containing three student dictionaries. Each student has a name and an age.

Ask the user to enter the name and age of a new student. Create a dictionary for that student and add it to the list using append().

Print the complete list of students.

10. Finding a student

Create a list of at least four student dictionaries. Each dictionary contains a name, age and study programme.

Ask the user to enter a name.

Use a for loop to go through the list.
Check whether each student's name matches the entered name.
If a match is found, print all information about that student.
If no match is found, print an appropriate message.

You may use a Boolean variable to keep track of whether the student was found.

11. Students per course

Create a dictionary called courses in which each key is a course name and each value is a list of student names.

For example, a course could contain three students.

Add at least three courses to the dictionary.
Print the list of students for one specific course.
Add another student to one of the existing courses using append().
Print the updated dictionary.

12. Adding students to courses

Start with a dictionary containing two courses, each with a list of students.

Ask the user to enter a course name and a student name.

If the course already exists, add the student to its list using append().
If the course does not exist, create a new list containing that student and add it to the dictionary.

Print the resulting dictionary.

13. A shopping list per person

Create an empty dictionary called shopping_lists.

Ask the user to enter the names of three people. For each person, ask them to enter three items they want to buy.

Store each person's shopping items in a list inside the dictionary.

Then ask the user to enter a person's name and one additional item.

If the person already has a shopping list, append the new item.
If the person does not yet have a shopping list, create a new list containing the item.

Print the complete dictionary.

14. Course overview

Create a dictionary called courses. Each key is a course name, and each value is a list of student names.

Include at least three courses with different numbers of students.

Use nested for loops to print the information in the following format:

Programming:
- Alex
- Sam
- Taylor

Networking:
- Jordan
- Casey

Databases:
- Morgan
- Jamie
- Robin

The output must be generated from the dictionary, not printed as fixed text.

15. Student administration system

Create a list of dictionaries representing students. Each student dictionary must contain:

name: the student's name
age: the student's age
courses: a list of courses the student follows

Start with at least three students, each following at least two courses.

Your programme must then perform the following tasks:

Print all students and their information in a readable format.
Ask the user for a new student's name and age.
Ask the user to enter three courses for the new student.
Create a dictionary for the new student and add it to the list using append().
Ask the user for the name of an existing student and a new course.
If the student exists, add the course to their list of courses using append().
If the student does not exist, print an appropriate message.
Print the complete updated student administration, including each student's courses on separate lines.

Example output:

Student: Alex
Age: 20
Courses:
- Programming
- Networking

Student: Sam
Age: 21
Courses:
- Databases
- Web Development

Use loops to print the information. Your programme should work with any number of students and any number of courses in the lists, rather than relying on fixed positions.