Sign-In
Cart
Python Brain Teasers: Exercise Your Mind
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781680509007
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: Sep 28 2021
Pages: 118
Weight: 0.48
Height: 0.25 Width: 7.50 Depth: 9.25
Language: English
We geeks love puzzles and solving them. The Python programming language is a simple one, but like all other languages it has quirks. This book uses those quirks as teaching opportunities via 30 simple Python programs that challenge your understanding of Python. The teasers will help you avoid mistakes, see gaps in your knowledge, and become better at what you do. Use these teasers to impress your co-workers or just to pass the time in those boring meetings. Teasers are fun!
At the beginning of each chapter I'll show you a short Python program and will ask you to guess the output. The possible answers can be:
- Syntax error
- Exception
- Hang
- Some output (e.g. [1 2 3] )
Here's how to approach the puzzles. Read through the code. Before moving on to the answer and the explanation, go ahead and guess the output. After guessing the output, run the code and see the output yourself. Finally proceed to read the solution and the explanation. The puzzles are short enough to solve on a coffee break, so carry them with you, have fun, and share them with co-workers.
People who make mistakes during the learning process learn better than people who don't. If you use this approach at work when fixing bugs, you'll find you enjoy bug hunting more and become a better developer after each bug you fix.
Many of these puzzles are from the author's lessons learned (and others) of shipping bugs to production. He often uses the puzzles as quizzes during conferences and meetups, and they tend to create a buzz of excitement.
What You Need:
- You need to know Python at some level and have experience programming with it.
- NOTE: The book uses Python version 3.8.2 to run the code; the output _could_ change in future versions.
- You will need a working Python environment, you can download it from python.org https: //www.python.org/downloads/.
- You will probably want a good IDE for python, two of the most popular ones are Visual Studio Code https: //code.visualstudio.com/ and PyCharm https: //www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/.
Also in
Programming
The Legend of Zelda(tm) Tears of the Kingdom - The Complete Official Guide: Collector's Edition
Piggyback
Hardcover
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
Kim, Gene
Forsgren Phd, Nicole
Humble, Jez
Paperback
Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
Matthes, Eric
Paperback
The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition
Thomas, David
Hunt, Andrew
Hardcover
Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
McDowell, Gayle Laakmann
Paperback
The Legend of Zelda(tm) Tears of the Kingdom - The Complete Official Guide: Standard Edition
Piggyback
Paperback
Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software with Genai, Chat, Agents, and Beyond
Yegge, Steve
Kim, Gene
Paperback
Embedded Systems with ARM Cortex-M Microcontrollers in Assembly Language and C: Fourth Edition
Zhu, Yifeng
Paperback
Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to Html, Css, Javascript, and Web Images
Robbins, Jennifer
Paperback
The Devops Handbook, 2nd Edition: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations
Humble, Jez
Debois, Patrick
Kim, Gene
Paperback
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
Fournier, Camille
Paperback
Building Applications with AI Agents: Designing and Implementing Multiagent Systems
Albada, Michael
Paperback
Make: Electronics: Learning by Discovery: A Hands-On Primer for the New Electronics Enthusiast
Platt, Charles
Paperback
The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change
Reilly, Tanya
Paperback
Fundamentals of Software Architecture: A Modern Engineering Approach
Ford, Neal
Richards, Mark
Paperback
Linux Basics for Hackers, 2nd Edition: Getting Started with Networking, Scripting, and Security in Kali
Occupytheweb
Paperback
Building AI-Powered Products: The Essential Guide to AI and Genai Product Management
Nika, Marily
Paperback
Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures
Richards, Mark
Sadalage, Pramod
Ford, Neal
Paperback
Prompt Engineering for Llms: The Art and Science of Building Large Language Model-Based Applications
Berryman, John
Ziegler, Albert
Paperback
Architecture for Flow: Adaptive Systems with Domain-Driven Design, Wardley Mapping, and Team Topologies
Kaiser, Susanne
Paperback
This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World
Hormess, Markus Edgar
Stickdorn, Marc
Lawrence, Adam
Paperback
Learning Php, MySQL & JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites
Nixon, Robin
Paperback
Arduino Programming for Beginners: A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Learn the Realms of Arduino Programming from A-Z
Protosmith, Ada
Paperback
Head First Design Patterns: Building Extensible and Maintainable Object-Oriented Software
Freeman, Eric
Robson, Elisabeth
Paperback
The Official Raspberry Pi Handbook 2026: Astounding Projects with Raspberry Pi Computers
Makers of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, The
Paperback
SQL QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner's Guide to Managing, Analyzing, and Manipulating Data With SQL
Shields, Walter
Hardcover
Agile Project Management for Dummies
Layton, Mark C.
Ostermiller, Steven J.
Kynaston, Dean J.
Paperback
Get Started with Micropython on Raspberry Pi Pico: The Official Raspberry Pi Pico Guide
Everard, Ben
Halfacree, Gareth
Paperback
Frictionless: 7 Steps to Remove Barriers, Unlock Value, and Outpace Your Competition in the AI Era
Forsgren, Nicole
Noda, Abi
Paperback
Arduino Programming for Beginners: Simple and Effective Methods to Learn Arduino Programming Efficiently
Protosmith, Ada
Paperback
Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science
Graham, Ronald
Patashnik, Oren
Knuth, Donald
Hardcover
Pro C# 10 with .Net 6: Foundational Principles and Practices in Programming
Troelsen, Andrew
Japikse, Phil
Paperback
Python Programming for Young Coders: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Coding for Beginners, Kids, and Teens
Pandey, Anand
Paperback
Computer Science from Scratch: Building Interpreters, Art, Emulators and ML in Python
Kopec, David
Paperback
Learning Domain-Driven Design: Aligning Software Architecture and Business Strategy
Khononov, Vlad
Paperback
The Official Raspberry Pi Handbook 2025: Projects, Tutorials, Interviews, and Reviews from the Magpi Magazine
Makers of the Magpi Magazine, The
Paperback
How to Measure Anything in Project Management
Hubbard, Douglas W.
Bang Leed, Andreas
Budzier, Alexander
Hardcover
High Performance Python: Practical Performant Programming for Humans
Ozsvald, Ian
Gorelick, Micha
Paperback
Living a Jewish Life, Revised and Updated: Jewish Traditions, Customs, and Values for Today's Families
Diamant, Anita
Cooper, Howard
Paperback
The Software Architect Elevator: Redefining the Architect's Role in the Digital Enterprise
Hohpe, Gregor
Paperback
Coding Roblox Games Made Easy - Second edition: Create, Publish, and Monetize your games on Roblox
Brumbaugh, Zander
Paperback
Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
Beyer, Betsy
Murphy, Niall Richard
Jones, Chris
Paperback
Cloud Application Architecture Patterns: Designing, Building, and Modernizing for the Cloud
Woolf, Bobby
Yoder, Joseph
Brown, Kyle
Paperback
Serious Cryptography, 2nd Edition: A Practical Introduction to Modern Encryption
Aumasson, Jean-Philippe
Paperback
Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
Monteiro, Mike
Paperback
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence
Zegart, Amy B.
Paperback
Electronic Music and Sound Design - Theory and Practice with Max 8 - volume 3
Cipriani, Alessandro
Giri, Maurizio
Paperback
ARM Assembly Language Programming with Raspberry Pi using GCC
Mazidi, Muhammad Ali
Naimi, Sarmad
Yaghini, Azalia
Paperback
Modern Concurrency in Java: Virtual Threads, Structured Concurrency, and Beyond
Rahman, A. N. M. Bazlur
Paperback
Data Engineering Design Patterns: Recipes for Solving the Most Common Data Engineering Problems
Konieczny, Bartosz
Paperback
Head First JavaScript Programming: A Learner's Guide to Modern JavaScript
Freeman, Eric
Robson, Elisabeth
Paperback