Project: quiz game

What you'll learn

Organise data as a list of dictionaries
Compare answers tolerantly and count points
Split the program into functions

Organising data well

A quiz consists of many questions, and every question has several parts: the question text and the right answer. A list of dictionaries is perfect for that:

questions = [
    {"question": "Largest planet?", "answer": "Jupiter"},
    {"question": "3 * 7?", "answer": "21"},
]

print(len(questions))
print(questions[0]["question"])
for q in questions:
    print(q["question"], "→", q["answer"])

New questions simply go into the list as another dictionary – the rest of the program stays the same.

Comparing tolerantly

“paris”, “Paris ” and “PARIS” should all count as correct. A function of its own keeps the program tidy – and you can test it separately:

def same(a, b):
    return a.strip().lower() == b.strip().lower()

print(same(" Paris", "paris"))
print(same("Paris", "Berlin"))

Shuffle and keep building

With random.shuffle() the questions come in a different order every time:

import random

questions = ["A", "B", "C", "D"]
random.shuffle(questions)
print(questions)

Keep building: Add timing (import time, time.time()), give bonus points for streaks or save the high score in a file – like in the lesson about files.

Your task

Your turn

Program a quiz. The questions are in the list questions. Ask each question with input(). If the answer is right (upper/lower case and spaces at the edges don't matter), print Correct!, otherwise Wrong – the answer is: Paris (with the real answer). At the end print Score: 2 of 3. For that, write a function check(answer, solution) that returns True or False.

questions = [
    {"question": "Capital of France?", "answer": "Paris"},
    {"question": "How many legs does a spider have?", "answer": "8"},
    {"question": "Which language are you learning?", "answer": "Python"},
]


def check(answer, solution):
    pass


# Your quiz

Something to think about
Compare answer.strip().lower() with solution.lower() and give the result back with return.
Which command helps?
Go through the list questions with for and count the points.
For wrong answers: print(f"Wrong – the answer is: {q['answer']}")
Don't hard-code the number of questions – use len(questions).

Gap code – fill in the ___

                        questions = [
    {"question": "Capital of France?", "answer": "Paris"},
    {"question": "How many legs does a spider have?", "answer": "8"},
    {"question": "Which language are you learning?", "answer": "Python"},
]


def check(answer, solution):
    return ___


points = ___
for q in ___:
    answer = ___
    if ___:
        print(___)
        points += ___
    else:
        print(___)

print(___)

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:

questions = [
    {"question": "Capital of France?", "answer": "Paris"},
    {"question": "How many legs does a spider have?", "answer": "8"},
    {"question": "Which language are you learning?", "answer": "Python"},
]


def check(answer, solution):
    return answer.strip().lower() == solution.lower()


points = 0
for q in questions:
    answer = input(q["question"] + " ")
    if check(answer, q["answer"]):
        print("Correct!")
        points += 1
    else:
        print(f"Wrong – the answer is: {q['answer']}")

print(f"Score: {points} of {len(questions)}")