Loops and Range in Python

Table of Contents

1. Challenge

   Step 1: Explore the project and the learning path

   In this lab, you will build a small Python command-line application that tracks pages read across a series of reading sprints. The project is intentionally simple on the surface so you can focus on one of the most important building blocks in the language: repeating work a specific number of times with for loops and range().

   If you get stuck, you can refer to the provided solution code for each task, available in the solution folder.

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2. Challenge

   Step 2: Build the foundational range helpers

   This step focuses on the most basic and most common use of range(): creating predictable sequences of numbers for loops and helper functions. Before the application can ask the user for repeated input, it needs clear rules for how sprint positions are represented internally and how they are displayed to the user.

3. Challenge

   Step 3: Use loops to collect repeated input and labels

   This step turns sequence helpers into actual application behavior. Instead of working with isolated number lists, you will now use them to control how many times the program prompts the user and to build data structures that represent a reading session.

4. Challenge

   Step 4: Customize range() with start, stop, and step

   This step moves beyond the default counting pattern and explores how the third argument to range() changes a sequence. In practical applications, stepped ranges let you sample every nth record, highlight milestone intervals, or split positions into categories such as odd and even entries.

5. Challenge

   Step 5: Summarize the session and run the CLI

   This final implementation step combines everything you have built so far into a working command-line experience. The data has already been collected; now you will aggregate it, format it, and expose it through one entry-point function. In your Terminal, run python main.py. The program will prompt you for your name, then ask how many reading sprints you completed, and then ask for the number of pages you read in each sprint one at a time. Once you've entered all your data, it will print a reading summary showing your sprint labels, total pages, average pages per sprint, which sprints fell on even numbers, and which sprints hit a checkpoint interval. Give it a try with 3–5 sprints to see everything in action.