Week 16 — Final Study Guide (Cumulative, Weeks 1–15)

Course: Introduction to Computer Science — CS1 / Programming Fundamentals in Python (CSCI 1101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Okafor
Use this with: the Review Deck (E), the Exam-Prep Tutorial (N), and the Practice Final (O). The Final covers all 8 objectives.

For every fact below: if there's code, predict the output, then run it. The Final is mostly predict-the-output and debugging.

Coverage (and the point split)

Objectives 1–2 — Basics, variables, expressions, strings

• Precedence (*,/,//,% before +,-): 3 + 4 * 2 → 11. SyntaxError vs NameError.
• / → float (8 / 4 → 2.0); // floors; % remainder (13 % 4 → 1). int("7")+3 → 10; "3"+"4" → 34.
• input() → string. Slicing exclusive stop: "COMPUTER"[0:4] → COMP. f-strings insert values.

Objective 3 — Booleans & conditionals

• and/or/not; not (5 < 3) → True. if/elif/else runs the first true branch. = assigns, == compares.

Objective 4 — Loops

• while needs a counter update. range stop is exclusive: list(range(2, 8, 2)) → [2, 4, 6]. for accumulator range(1,5) → 10. Nested loops multiply.

Objective 5 — Functions

• def f(a, b): return a + b. No return → None. Local variables don't exist outside the function (NameError).

Objective 6 — Collections

• Lists are mutable; .append() adds to the end. Aliasing: b = a points at the SAME list (a = [1,2]; b = a; b.append(3) → a is [1, 2, 3]). Dicts: d[key] lookup; missing key → KeyError. Sets dedup (len({1,2,2,3,3,3}) → 3). Tuples are immutable (TypeError).

Objective 7 — Strings, files & exceptions

• String methods return NEW strings (immutable): "hello".upper() → HELLO. .split(",") → list. with open(...) for files; try/except. int("x") → ValueError; missing key → KeyError; missing file → FileNotFoundError.

Objective 8 — Algorithms, recursion & OOP

• Big-O: linear O(n), binary O(log n) (needs sorted), selection sort O(n²). Recursion: base case + recursive case; fact(4) → 24; no base case → RecursionError. OOP: class, __init__, self.attr, methods; Dog('Rex').speak() → Rex barks; forgetting self. → AttributeError.

The classic-bug checklist (memorize)

= vs == · exclusive range stop · / → float (5.0) · "2"+"3" is "23" · no return → None · list aliasing (b = a) · missing self. → AttributeError · binary search needs sorted · every recursion needs a base case · input() returns a string.

Self-check (✓ when you can do it without notes)

• [ ] Predict outputs across precedence, slicing, loops, and functions.
• [ ] Predict a list-aliasing result and a dict/set result.
• [ ] Trace a try/except (which block runs).
• [ ] Predict a recursive call's output and a class method's output.
• [ ] Name the Big-O of linear search, binary search, and selection sort.
• [ ] Take the Practice Final (O) and score yourself.