Programming Readiness: Programming Readiness Diagnostic

This is practice, not a grade.

Pick Java or Python. Use that language for both parts.

You will do two things:

1. Take a quiz to practice tracing.
2. Write code to answer 4 questions.

1. Take the tracing quiz

The quiz is at the bottom of this page.

1. Click Take Quiz.
2. Choose Java or Python.
3. Read each short program.
4. Choose what it does.

Work on your own.

2. Write code for 4 questions

Download the starter. Fill in each TODO. Then run the tests.

Java: Diagnostic.java, DiagnosticTest.java, Card.java

javac Diagnostic.java DiagnosticTest.java Card.java && java DiagnosticTest

Python: diagnostic.py

python3 diagnostic.py

Question A. Group words by first letter

Put each word into a list for its first letter.

Keep words in the order they appear.

Empty input → empty result.

Java: groupByFirstLetter

Python: group_by_first_letter

Input:  ["banana", "apple", "cat", "bear", "ant"]
Output: b → ["banana", "bear"]
        a → ["apple", "ant"]
        c → ["cat"]

Question B. Target sum

You get a list of numbers and a target.

Return true if two different spots in the list add up to the target.

Otherwise return false.

Do not add a number to itself.

Java: targetSum

Python: target_sum

[2, 3, 5, 9, 12] and 5  → true   (2 + 3)
[2, 0, 5, 6, 4] and 12  → false
[3] and 6               → false
[] and 10               → false

Question C. Count different numbers

Return how many different values are in the list.

Java: countDistinct

Python: count_distinct

[1, 3, 5, 3, 8, 5, 2]  → 5
[5]                    → 1
[]                     → 0

Question D. Three of a kind

A Card has a rank (like "9" or "K") and a suit.

Return true if any rank shows up 3 or more times.

The Card class is already in the starter.

Java: hasThreeOfAKind

Python: has_three_of_a_kind

three 9s and one K  → true
two 9s and one K    → false
no cards            → false

If something was hard

This does not count as a Satisfactory score. It only tells you what to practice.

If this was hard	Open this next
Tracing loops or true/false checks	Module 1 and Module 2
Nested loops over a list	Module 3
Maps, grouping, or three of a kind	Module 4
Target sum	Module 5
A test failed and you are not sure why	Module 6