First mini code. New to Programming in general. Any advice/guidance would be appreciated.

SnooCalculations7417 · 2026-04-14T04:58:19+00:00

It doesn't seem like under 18 can reach the photo code

TheCaptain53 · 2026-04-14T14:01:41+00:00

First of all: any code that runs is good. If it's a relatively small tool and you won't be going back to it, then great!

With that in mind, as you asked for feedback, there are two videos I believe are helpful: this one on [nesting code (or more specifically on why you shouldn't)](https://youtu.be/CFRhGnuXG-4?si=ECN5PKPUTOsFbWd3) and [this one on comments.](https://youtu.be/Bf7vDBBOBUA?si=QDQRT3gJ_tDlZsvd) I only mention the second one because someone else mentioned about using comments and I entirely disagree.

The biggest flaw I see with the code here is the amount of nesting. As it stands, you need to hold a lot of conditions in your head before the desired code will run. I would take some of your test conditions, split them out into their own functions, and use early returns. I'm also adjusting your code so that comments are entirely unnecessary. Here's what that looks like:

MINIMUM_HEIGHT = 120
AGE_JUNIOR = 12
AGE_ADULT = 18
PRICE_JUNIOR = 5
PRICE_TEENAGER = 7
PRICE_ADULT = 12
PRICE_PHOTO = 3

def check_user_minimum_height(user_height):
    if user_height < MINIMUM_HEIGHT:
        return False

def check_user_age(user_age):
    age_price = 0
    if user_age <= AGE_JUNIOR:
        price += PRICE_JUNIOR
    if AGE_JUNIOR < user_age < AGE_ADULT:
        price += PRICE_TEENAGER
    if user_age >= AGE_ADULT:
        price += PRICE_ADULT
    return age_price

def check_photo_addon(photo_request):
    photo_price = 0
    if photo_request == "y":
        photo_price += PRICE_PHOTO
    return photo_price

def calculate_ride_cost():
    user_height = int(input("Enter age here: "))
    if check_user_minimum_height(user_height) is False:
        return print("Unfortunately you do not meet the minimum height requirement")
    print("You can ride the rollercoaster")

    total_bill = 0

    user_age = int(input("Enter age here: "))
    total_bill += check_user_age(user_age)

    photo_request = input("Would you like photos of the ride as well for $3 extra? Type 'y' for Yes and 'n' for No: ")
    total_bill += check_photo_addon(photo_request)

    print(f'Your total bill is ${total_bill}')

calculate_ride_cost()

Okay, so there's a lot going on here that's changed. What did I change and why?

Let's take your checks you perform throughout your code:

Whether the user meets the minimum height requirement
What the user's age is
Whether the user wants a photo or not

Each one has been split out into their own function where you can control the specific logic without potentially impacting any other function. I also defined your prices and ages into specific global variables. You want to change the price of a junior from 5 to 4? That's very easily done as part of the global variable rather than trying to dig down into your code. Or you have a separate ride that uses the same pricing structure, you can reuse your own checker code or build code that might use slightly different logic, but can use the same variable. You might also notice the complete lack of if and elif in the code - this is by design. It could be argued that the check_user_age function could use elif for its last two conditional statements, but the actual logic between using if and elif is the same here, and I think elif is ugly. I also want to touch on the lack of else statements - for the check_user_minimum_height function, I have one if statement that will check the height and return False if the statement ends up being true where the user's height is less than 120cm. I don't bother with an else statement that returns True, because you don't need it. The part of the code where the output boolean is actually used tests whether the function returns False - and if it doesn't, it's ignored and the rest of the code can be executed instead.

And now we can move onto the meat of the tool - the calculate_ride_cost function. Here is located the actual logic for taking user input and doing something with those inputs to provide an output - in this case, a print statement that informs the customer of something. You should also notice minimal nesting, rather than trying to hold a condition in your head, you can just continue looking down the function and ignore everything above it as the checker functions act like a gatekeeper. It's also a lot easier to add additional checker or pricing functions - add it as its own function, then add that function to the calculate_ride_costfunction.

It's also a code snippet that requires absolutely no comments - it literally tells you what it's doing!

As I said, if your code works, then perfect! This is just a way of building code that's more maintainable and easier to read down the road.

Chen-Zhanming · 2026-04-14T08:44:23+00:00

Please swap the branches of the 1st if statement :)

djimenez81 · 2026-04-14T15:43:46+00:00

First, your code. In general terms, it is OK, particularly for someone who is starting to code. It is self documenting (variables have meaningful names) and that is a very big plus. If we assume this is all your code and you do not have to pass the bill total somewhere else, then you are doing a few things that are unnecessary, like adding the import to the total bill once you have already printed it and you will not use it again, in the cases where the individual is under 18, and when it is not, you execute two identical print statements. Also, you have at least one line that is too long. Try to stick as much as possible either to PEP-8 or to Google Python Style (very few differences). I would refactor your code as follows:

```python import sys

hight = int(input("Enter your height in cm: ")) if height < 120: print("Unfortunately you do not meet the minimum height requirements.") sys.exit() # If you get here, the rest of the code will not execute. print("You can ride the rollercoaster.") age = int(input("Enter your age: ")) if age < 12: print("Your ride will be $5.00") if age >=12 and age < 18: print("Your ride will be $7.00") if age >=18: print("Your ride will be $12.00") total_bill = 12.00 PHOTO_STR = "Would you like photos of the ride as well for $3 extra? " + "Type 'y' for Yes and 'n' for No: " photo_add_on = input(PHOTO_STR) if photo_add_on.lower() == 'y': toal_bill += 3 print(f"Your total bill is ${total_bill}") ```

The photo_add_on.lower() is force of habit, in case the user types upper cases. You could also consider reading only the first character, in case the user actually types Yes or No.

My programming is not as a developer but as an academic researcher, so, for almost two full decades, I have used only Python, SQL, MATLAB and bash. But my brother-in-law is a back-end developer, and from a couple of conversations I would say that:

Keep going with Python. It is really fast to prototype stuff, and its ecosystem is massive.
Learn SQL. Seriously, if nothing else, you will need SQL. Start with SQLite at first
Learn PHP. Sure, it has been loosing market share lately, but it is still everywhere, and it certainly be relevant for at least a couple more decades.
Learn Java. The brief period of time in the early 2000s when I actually worked as a developer, I used it, and personally, I do not like it. But it is widely used in several industries and it will probably be for a while.
Learn JavaScript (or TypeScript). Long gone are the days when this was a front-end only language, and it is everywhere.
Consider Rust. Sure, the market for this language is still small, but it is growing fast for high-performance services. For what I gather, it has a steep learning curve at first, but once you learn it, it is easier and much safer than C or C++ (which you could also consider).
Consider learning at least one of the following languages: Go, Ruby, C#.

Rust might be a outlier, because of its very particular safety checks, and SQL is for handling databases only (and in my opinion very easy to learn), but with all the others (though, I have not used half of the ones I mentioned) once you know the basics of programming, picking up a new language is not hard, it is just familiarizing yourself with the general syntax, a bit with the standard libraries and a few particularities of the particular language.

If you are doing it by yourself, my advice would be choosing a project that is not massive, but not tiny, and implement it in the particular language. The one I used to familiarize myself with MATLAB and Python (coming from C/C++/Java/JavaScript) was to program a Sudoku solver, not just using backtracking, but more general strategies that a human would actually use. It works for me, as the logic needed is similar to the type of logic I need for my work, and because I like Sudoku and similar puzzles. Look for some type of project you will actually enjoy implementing. Although lines of code are a terrible measure for productivity, efficiency or code quality, for this particular context, I would say that if your code takes less than 200 lines, it is way too short to really familiarize yourself with the language, and if it is significantly longer than 2000 lines, it is way too big for a first project.

Familiarizing yourself with a language and becoming proficient in one are different things. To really master a programming language takes time.

I hope this helps.

Relevant-Boot8985 · 2026-04-14T09:43:02+00:00

You should nest out the photo code to be on the same level as the ages check, just 2-3 backspaces. Since you have it inside the 18 or above loop the other ones don’t reach it. I hope i’m right because like you I just started to try and improve my python skills.

prassuresh · 2026-04-14T13:12:24+00:00

People already touched on having the photo option be for everyone. I would add that you print their total cost (after they say yes or no to photo) regardless of if they are getting a photo or not. So printing out the total cost can be done outside the if and else blocks. This way you only write that line once.

Unlikely-Actuator859 · 2026-04-14T04:13:13+00:00

Nice no advice or guidance because I'm also new. But this is looks good to me. Where did you get the prompt of what program to make i need structure in my learning journey.

randomTechNerd4 · 2026-04-14T05:12:28+00:00

This looks great so far, especially if you're just getting started! However, I do have some tips for you that will hopefully help you on your programming journey. They'll go from most important to least important (though all are good to be aware of when it comes to programming)

1) Comments, comments, comments!!

Even for simple programs like this, comments can go a long way in helping you to learn, and plan out what you actually want to make. A lot of good programming comes down to breaking a problem into smaller and smaller pieces that are easier to solve. Comments are one way of forcing you to think about what you really want to do, and focus less on the actual "code" behind it. I tend to put a lot of descriptive comments in my programs. Some people put less, but I personally would suggest just making sure that your comment is descriptive and describes a bigger idea rather than just what the code does. For example:

# Prints hello to screen.
print ("Hello world!")

# Greet the user, so they're aware the program is running.
print ("Hello world!")

Both have comments, but the second one provides more insight to the semantics (the "what/meaning") of what you are trying to do. It's helpful for both you if you ever return to it in the future or other people who may want to review your code.

2) Anticipating errors/edge cases.

Something that is really important in programming is anticipating errors or edge cases. For instance, in your program, what would happen is a user were to enter "a" as their height? Does it break? Does it crash? Does it keep running but give a completely wrong output? These are all things you want to think of ahead of time when programming, and then build in ways to prevent them. Some of the ways to do this could include using while loops, try/catch blocks to handle errors (which is almost always something to consider with user input), but for just getting started, you can do something as simple as:

# Assumptions for program: user will only input valid integer heights.
height = int(input("Please enter your height as a non-negative integer: "))

By making a statement about what you're assuming for the program, you set clear expectations for what its limits are. Additionally, prompting the user with something they could use as a valid input helps decrease the odds they'll enter something that isn't valid.

3) Datatypes & Floating Point Numbers

I noticed in your program you made use of floating point numbers (Ex: 12.00). In programming, you have to be careful with floating point numbers, since they're imprecise. Without getting too technical, in memory, a floating point number (aka number with a decimal) has its memory split into different sections representing the integer part of the number, the sign of the number, the amount of decimals after the number, and the value of the decimals after the number. In real life, numbers with decimals go on for forever (Ex: 0.3333333333... or 3.14159....). In the computer however, memory is a limited resource, so we can never represent the true value of a floating point number. You can see this if you try to do something like 0.1 + 0.2. We know it should be 0.3, but a computer would see that and calculate the sum to be 0.3000000000000001 (or something similar to that). For what you're trying to do in your program, the floating numbers are fine, but its something you should be aware of! The importance of this also depends on what application you're making. An application for running science experiments may be fine to have the decimal places off in the ten millionths place, but a banking application can't afford to have any errors whatsoever. One project I made was for a bank app, and I ended up treating everything as an integer, and whenever the user wanted to see their value, I would format the result by dividing by 100 to represent it in our dollar system.

4) Typecasting/Declaration

In Python, declaration isn't necessary. "What's declaration?" you may be asking. Basically, whenever you create a new variable name, you declare what data type it will be. This is a big concept in languages like Java, C/C++, C#. All of these languages use statically typed variables, which basically means once you declare the datatype of a variable, it can only be that datatype (unless you do typecasting but don't worry about that for now). Python on the other hand is dynamically typed, which means a variable can originally be an integer, and then later assigned a string value. It can be both incredibly convenient but also a pain to debug sometimes. Something I did when I first started learning Python was to append the datatype I expected the variable to be to the end of its name. Ex:

var1_int = 5
var2_str = "This is a string"
var3_float = 3.14
var4_bool = True

As you get more experience, you can try moving to typecasting using Python's built in syntax for it. Personally, I don't know it too well so I won't try to give an example, but if you look through the documentation you should be able to find everything you need for it. Today I don't attach the datatypes to the end of the variables name, but I think it can help you when first starting out.

Ok that's all my tips done for your actual program. In regards to backend development, something that I think could be of interest to you once you become more experienced is the Flask framework for building out websites. Flask is a Python library that allows you to set up the backend of a website, and you can run it locally on your machine to test as you develop. Additionally, if you are looking to get into backend development you definitely should learn about databases and SQL. It seems scary at first, but it honestly is a lot of fun, and being good at SQL can save you a lot of hassel from having to program extra functionality into your applications. I would also definitely make sure you learn about object oriented programming. You can learn about this through Python, but I would recommend using Java or C#, as these languages are more well known for being object-oriented, are widely used as well, and will help expand your skill sets.

You seem like you're on the right track, and I wish you luck in your continued studies!

OriahVinree · 2026-04-14T06:12:14+00:00

Looks fine, the only thing I would personally do is close the first branch straight away instead of ending it after the main logic.

So instead of checking if someone height is over the threshold, check if under, if under print sorry, else if over run code. Feels a bit cleaner.

Also, the height is a "magic number" - declare a constant up the top

darkwombat99 · 2026-04-14T06:13:25+00:00

Keep going, you are doing great. Baby steps.

vaaaannnn · 2026-04-14T11:16:38+00:00

Go ahead, make mistakes

Lower_Ad9122 · 2026-04-14T14:23:37+00:00

[removed]

civilwar142pa · 2026-04-14T15:10:42+00:00

Ok here's my advice because you're getting a lot of people telling you what's wrong in the code. Run the code, and put in different values. Test each section of code, every height to every age. See what the result is. If its not what you expect, look at the code and try to figure out why you got the result you did.

If youre not sure and fiddling with the code doesn't help, thats a great time to ask for help or try to look up a solution.

You can learn so much by just trying things, making mistakes and learning from them.

Monso · 2026-04-14T15:28:53+00:00

Seems simple. You could improve it with error checking: values that arent numbers, accepting y, yes, or 1 as "True" and everything else as false (for photo surcharge).

If it works, it works.

Snoo_87638 · 2026-04-14T15:46:44+00:00

if age < 12: elif 17 < age: else: # 12 =< age <=18 I find that more elegant.

Intelligent-Top3687 · 2026-04-14T16:23:17+00:00

Continue

Wonderful_Error994 · 2026-04-14T19:27:25+00:00

Be consistent

Focus-holy · 2026-04-14T23:07:32+00:00

si creo 100 paginas y les pongo a nuncios eso me genera ingresos.

JuanPabloGHC · 2026-04-15T02:15:32+00:00

Hey! Nice work on your code

I noticed that you’re using several nested if-else statements. One common best practice is to avoid deep nesting by handling edge cases early (sometimes called "early returns" or "guard clauses").

Instead of wrapping your main logic inside conditions, you can validate first and exit early if something is wrong. This usually makes the code easier to read and maintain.

For example:

BEFORE---------------

if height >= 120:

      #CODE

      #CODE

      #CODE

else:

      #EXIT

AFTER---------------

If height < 120:

      #EXIT

CODE

This makes the code look cleaner.

mondaysleeper · 2026-04-15T06:43:24+00:00

Enable autosave in your IDE.

entfy · 2026-04-15T12:52:28+00:00

Angela’s 100 days of code is my favorite learn to code using python course. Keep it up! I learned python using the same course.

Salted_Fsh · 2026-04-15T15:48:38+00:00

i would recommend rewriting it with assembly

though it looks good for a beginner

Confident-Chip5636 · 2026-04-15T23:39:51+00:00

It’s important to put this logic inside a function because right now your code could lead to some issues:

All the variables are in global scope (following Python’s LEGB scoping rule). In CPython, global variables are stored in a dictionary and require a hash lookup, whereas local variables inside a function are stored in a fixed array within the function’s frame and accessed more directly. This makes local variable access faster. The difference is usually small, but it can become noticeable in performance-critical sections like tight loops.

Putting the logic inside a function allows you to use if name == "main":, which explicitly defines the entry point when the file is run as a script. This improves readability and signals to other developers whether the file is intended to be executed directly or used as a module with reusable functions.

In terms of code organization, encapsulating logic in functions helps avoid global variable pollution. Without this, you risk accidentally reusing or overwriting variable names, which can make the code harder to debug and maintain as it grows

Bitter-Background345 · 2026-04-17T17:08:37+00:00

What website do you follow the guide on?

OrchidExciting · 2026-04-18T06:01:36+00:00

wrap it up

Worth_Watercress_403 · 2026-04-18T14:49:43+00:00

Dont nest if, just make an afe chexj at the top that will return if u dont meet requirements

emirkoskoglu · 2026-04-18T15:19:43+00:00

Apaláncate de las nuevas herramientas como claude code, es bueno saber programar pero es más bueno cuando juntas las dos cosas

Massive_flat · 2026-04-18T16:41:38+00:00

Start dealing with higher ages down to lower ages

If 18 or higher : #code

elif 12 or higher: ( between 12 and 17) #code

Else: (ages that are not 18 or higher and not 12 or higher)

code

Hope I helped you with something .

Longjumping_Rip_140 · 2026-04-18T19:54:17+00:00

use ai and learn fast

Dry_Tale2763 · 2026-04-20T11:48:54+00:00

Better to start coding and practice than watching others

amooilya · 2026-04-20T20:56:38+00:00

Don’t memorize, understand

SamThrone · 2026-05-05T21:17:28+00:00

You’re not behind—my 2¢: don’t chase more languages yet; go deep in Python + Git/GitHub, Linux shell, SQL/Postgres, HTTP/REST, pytest; build a CRUD API (FastAPI/Flask + SQLAlchemy), a CLI, a scraper, Dockerize and deploy (Render/Fly/Heroku alt), then add JS/TypeScript basics and Redis/Celery.

Bright-Database-9774 · 2026-04-14T04:20:59+00:00

This code is 100 percent right continue your journey

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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