Boss level: the school report program

What you'll learn

Combine everything from the beginner stage in one project
Analyse data with dictionaries, loops and functions
Present a result clearly

Welcome to the boss!

At the end of every stage there’s a boss level: a project that combines everything you learned in that stage. No new material – but this time you decide yourself which tools to combine and how.

Your mission: a program that works out the average, the best subject and the shaky ones from a school report.

Your tools

You only need things you already know. A little reminder:

marks = {"Maths": 2, "German": 3, "English": 1}

# All values, all keys, all pairs
print(list(marks.values()))
print(list(marks.keys()))
for subject, mark in marks.items():
    print(subject, "→", mark)

# Calculating with lists
print(sum(marks.values()), len(marks))
print(round(7 / 3, 1))
print(sorted(["Physics", "Chemistry", "Maths"]))

Finding the best

One idea for “best subject”: remember the best one so far and compare every further one with it – like in the bug detective lesson, but the right way round this time:

points = {"Lea": 12, "Tim": 17, "Ida": 9}
best_name = None
for name, value in points.items():
    if best_name is None or value > points[best_name]:
        best_name = name
print("Winner:", best_name)

Pro shortcut: max(points, key=points.get) does the same in one line. For the report you need its counterpart min.

Plan before you type

First write down in plain words what the function should do step by step.
Then build one part after another and check it with print().
Only when all three parts are right: return the finished dictionary.

Once you’ve beaten the boss, you’ve mastered the beginner stage. 🏆

Your task

Your turn

Write the function report(marks). It gets a dictionary subject → mark (as in German schools, 1 is best and 6 is worst) and returns a dictionary with: "average" (rounded to one decimal place with round(..., 1)), "best_subject" (the subject with the smallest mark) and "resit" (an alphabetically sorted list of all subjects with mark 5 or 6).

def report(marks):
    # Tip: sum(), len(), min() with key= or a loop, sorted()
    pass


marks = {"Maths": 2, "German": 3, "English": 1, "Physics": 5}
result = report(marks)
print(result)

Something to think about
At the end of the function: return {"average": ..., "best_subject": ..., "resit": ...}
Which command helps?
Total of the marks divided by the number of subjects – sum(marks.values()) / len(marks) – then round(..., 1).
You're looking for the subject with the smallest mark. Loop through marks.items() and remember the best subject.
Collect all subjects with mark 5 or 6 in a list and return it sorted – sorted(list).

Gap code – fill in the ___

                        def report(marks):
    average = ___
    best_subject = ___
    resit = ___
    return ___


marks = {"Maths": 2, "German": 3, "English": 1, "Physics": 5}
result = report(marks)
print(result)

Solve it without hints to earn a ⭐ on your progress page.

Show solution

Try it yourself first – mistakes teach you the most. Here is one possible solution:

def report(marks):
    average = round(sum(marks.values()) / len(marks), 1)
    best_subject = min(marks, key=marks.get)
    resit = sorted(subject for subject, mark in marks.items() if mark >= 5)
    return {"average": average, "best_subject": best_subject, "resit": resit}


marks = {"Maths": 2, "German": 3, "English": 1, "Physics": 5}
result = report(marks)
print(result)