Practice Problems

Everything on this page is optional content. To learn the course material, focus first on participating in lecture and recitation, completing the exercises, and completing the assignments. You can then use these practice materials if you'd like additional practice.

• Knowledge Tree
• OLI Problems
• TA-Generated Problems
• External Problems

Knowledge Tree

This semester we're collaborating with researchers who are studying how practice problems can help students learn. As part of that all students will be invited to use their tool Knowledge Tree at the beginning of the semester. Check your email to find your login information for the site.

OLI Problems

We have implemented practice problems with answer-checking and correct solutions in OLI, the Online Learning Initiative. To sign up for the OLI course, go to https://oli.cmu.edu/students/, click 'Register with Course Key', log in through your CMU account, then enter the course key: 15-110-S26

There are currently OLI modules on:

• Introduction to Python
• Function Calls
• Conditionals
• For Loops
• Strings
• Lists
• Recursion
• Dictionaries
• Big-O Runtime
• Trees
• Graphs
• Simulation

TA-Generated Problems

Past course TAs have generated practice problems for each lecture of the course. You can find PDFs for each lecture's problems below.

• Unit 1
  • Algorithms and Abstraction
  • Programming Basics
  • Data Representation
  • Function Calls
  • Function Definitions
  • Booleans, Conditionals, and Errors
  • Circuits and Gates
  • While Loops
  • For Loops
  • String Indexing, Slicing, and Looping
• Unit 2
  • Lists and Methods
  • Recursion
  • Recursion II & Search Algorithms
  • Dictionaries
  • Runtime and Big-O Notation
  • Trees
  • Graphs
  • Search Algorithm II
  • Tractability
• Unit 3
  • Parallel Programming
  • How the Internet Works
  • Authentication and Encryption
• Unit 4
  • Data Analysis I
  • Simulation I
  • Machine Learning
  • Data Analysis II
  • Simulation II
  • Artificial Intelligence
• Unit 5

External Problems

Here are some helpful websites that host Python practice problems! Note that the problems you find on these websites may not always align with the content being taught in class.

• CodeCheck (basics to dictionaries)
• codingbat (basics to lists)
• 15-112 Website (challenging practice problems)
• Project Euler (solve math problems with code)