Introduction to Computer Science

Explain what a program and an algorithm are and how a Python program runs, write and run short programs, trace them line by line to predict their output, and read an error message to tell a syntax error from a runtime exception.

Use variables and the core types int, float, str, and bool; evaluate expressions with correct operator precedence, including true division, floor division, and remainder; convert between types; and read input and build output with indexing, slicing, and f-strings.

Write Boolean expressions with comparison and logical operators, read and build a truth table, and control which code runs with if, elif, and else.

Write while loops and for loops over range(), using counters, accumulators, nested loops, and break, and recognize and repair an infinite loop and an off-by-one error.

Define and call functions with parameters, arguments, and return values, distinguish return from print, and reason correctly about local and global scope.

Choose and use Python's built-in collections (lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets) with indexing, slicing, mutation, methods, and iteration, and explain aliasing versus copying.

Process text with string methods, read and write files with the with statement, and handle runtime errors with try and except by exception type.

Implement and trace linear search, binary search, and selection sort; describe how an algorithm's step count grows with input size in Big-O terms; write and trace a simple recursive function; and define a class with __init__, attributes, and methods.