9 Fundamental Programming Techniques Free Online FlashCards

What is decomposition in programming?

Decomposition divides a large problem into smaller tasks with clear purposes, often implemented as independently understandable and testable functions.

What initial value does a sum accumulator use?

Initialize an addition accumulator to 0. Other common identities are 1 for products, 0 for counts, [] for collections, and {} for key-value data.

How should Python test whether an item exists?

Use the `in` operator when only membership matters. A set is especially useful for repeated membership tests because it stores unique values.

What is an early return in a linear search?

A linear search examines items from beginning to end and can return immediately when it finds a match, avoiding unnecessary work.

Which Python tool provides an index and value together?

Use `enumerate` when both the position and the value of each item are needed during iteration.

What does filtering do to a collection?

Filtering keeps items that satisfy a condition, so it can change how many items are present. A list comprehension is concise for a simple filter.

How does transformation differ from filtering?

Transformation converts each input item into a corresponding output item; unlike filtering, the number of items usually remains the same.

What is the usual order of a data-processing pipeline?

A common pipeline obtains data, validates or cleans it, filters unwanted items, transforms the remainder, and then reduces or summarizes it.

Which four categories improve test-case coverage?

Typical, boundary, invalid, and special cases. Together they test ordinary inputs, limits, incorrect data, and situations such as duplicates or missing values.

What does a Python `assert` test?

An `assert` compares an actual result with an expected result and raises an `AssertionError` when the comparison fails.

What is a systematic debugging workflow?

Reproduce the failure, read the traceback, reduce it to a minimal example, inspect values, form one hypothesis, make one focused change, and retest.

How do syntax errors differ from runtime exceptions?

A syntax error prevents valid program structure, while an exception occurs during execution of a syntactically valid program.