Loops are a compact way to repeat certain instructions until a specific condition is met or for a specified number of times. The following tutorial is an introduction to loops in Python including for and while loops.

Generative AI Learning

Write-it-yourself class: the AI is your adversary here, not your code generator. Use these prompts after writing the loop examples yourself.

Tip: Hand-tracing is the loop skill: write the value of every variable at the end of each pass for the first 3 passes and the last pass. A loop you can trace is a loop you can debug - and later in the course it is how you will audit AI-generated loops in seconds.

What to Turn In

Submit a short report (PDF, 1-2 pages) that curates your results into a demonstration of what you learned. You may use Generative AI to help write the report, but the code must be your own. Answer these questions:

1. Include a for loop and a while loop you wrote for the same small task (for example, cumulative volume from a list of flow readings, or doubling time of bacteria growth) and state when each form is the natural choice.
2. Show a hand-trace table (variable values pass by pass) for one of your loops, and confirm the final printed value matches the trace.
3. From the planted-bug prompts: show both buggy loops, your hand-traced prediction for each, the bugs you found, and the fixes. Did either survive your trace?
4. From the quiz prompt: one question you missed and the corrected answer.