Project: Guessing Game

Time for a mini-project! We're going to build a number guessing game. The computer picks a random number and the player has to guess it. After each guess, the program says too high, too low, or correct!

This combines everything we've learned: variables, loops, if/else, input, functions, and even a bit of try/except

First, how do we get a random number? Python has a built-in module for that

import random

secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)
print(secret_number)

import random brings in the random module. random.randint(1, 100) gives us a random integer between 1 and 100 (inclusive). Every time we run it, we get a different number

Let's build the game step by step

Step 1: generate a secret number

import random
secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)

Step 2: ask the player for a guess, and tell them if it's too high or too low

guess = int(input("Guess a number (1-100): "))
if guess < secret_number:
    print("Too low!")
elif guess > secret_number:
    print("Too high!")
else:
    print("Correct!")

Step 3: wrap it in a loop so they can keep guessing

import random

secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)
attempts = 0

while True:
    guess = int(input("Guess a number (1-100): "))
    attempts += 1

    if guess < secret_number:
        print("Too low!")
    elif guess > secret_number:
        print("Too high!")
    else:
        print(f"Correct! You got it in {attempts} attempts!")
        break

That's a complete game! But we can make it better by limiting the number of attempts and handling invalid input

The complete version

import random

def play_game():
    secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)
    max_attempts = 7

    print("I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100")
    print(f"You have {max_attempts} attempts. Good luck!")

    for attempt in range(1, max_attempts + 1):
        try:
            guess = int(input(f"Attempt {attempt}/{max_attempts}: "))
        except ValueError:
            print("That's not a number!")
            continue

        if guess < secret_number:
            print("Too low!")
        elif guess > secret_number:
            print("Too high!")
        else:
            print(f"Correct! You got it in {attempt} attempts!")
            return

    print(f"Game over! The number was {secret_number}")

play_game()

Notice how we used everything: import, function, for loop, try/except, if/elif/else, f-strings, return (to exit early when they guess correctly)

Mission: Reactor Code Cracker

The reactor is locked behind a secret numeric code, stored in a variable named secret. A diagnostics tool already recorded a sequence of guesses in a list named guesses. Replay them and report how the crack went. No randomness here, so the result is the same every run.

1. Write a function check_guess(secret, guess) that returns "too low" if the guess is smaller than the secret, "too high" if it's bigger, and "correct" if they match.
2. Loop through the guesses, counting attempts. For each guess, print the guess, then : , then the result.
3. Stop as soon as a guess is correct, then print Cracked in N attempts! (with the real number of attempts).

Output

50: too high
30: too low
40: too low
45: too high
42: correct
Cracked in 5 attempts!