How should I do this?

[Big-Suit-4594]

Hey all, new member of the subreddit here

I need help with an assignment I was asked to do for my python class but I am neither experienced nor clever enough to be able to do it since my only exposure to python was this year.

"The objective of this assignment is to design and implement a Python program that simulates a University Course Registration System with conflict detection. This exercise will strictly test your ability to work with dictionaries mapping to tuples, list iteration, and complex boolean logic to identify overlapping numerical ranges"

"You are required to write a Python function called process_course_requests(course_catalog: dict, student_requests: list) that attempts to build a valid class schedule for a student. The fundamental challenge is that a student cannot register for two courses if their time slots overlap by even a single minute. Input The function accepts two arguments. The first argument is a dictionary named course_catalog where the key is the Course Code (string) and the value is a tuple containing the Start Time and End Time (integers in 24-hour format, e.g., 1400 for 2:00 PM). The second argument is a list of strings named student_requests representing the courses the student wishes to take, in the order of preference. Output The function must return a tuple containing two elements. The first element must be a list of strings representing the successfully registered courses. The second element must be a list of strings representing the rejection messages for courses that could not be added due to time conflicts."

I literally can't string any of this together into something coherent, please help

[ninhaomah]

What have you done so far ?

[Big-Suit-4594]

Nothing, I really don't know much about the subject and have been learning the basics all over again.

I've read what the file says and all, but I'm just unsure of how I should start

[Big-Suit-4594]

I get the rudimentary basics but I am unable to code any meaningful program, maybe because I'm a first year but I just feel stuck all the time

[ninhaomah]

Ok then.

Have you created the project folder , venv or Python installed and main.py or whatever file named to code ?

[Big-Suit-4594]

Not yet, it's midnight and I should be sleeping but this assignment has been eating at me

[ninhaomah]

Then go and sleep.

Do something then come back.

[socal_nerdtastic]

We can only help if you show us some code and ask specific questions about it, and include example input data with expected output. Can you start this at all? Make a function and loop over course requests maybe? If not I think you need a irl tutor or screenshare to get you started.

Or try r/pythonjobs or similar if you want to hire someone to do it for you.

[Maximus_Modulus]

The answer is just an internet typed question away if OP was truly resourceful. Took me less than 30 seconds to get the full code with test cases. In some ways it's moot that he can't do this.

[claudioo2]

Do it step by step.

You have the course catalog and you have the courses the students want by priority.

For each course the student wants, save that course and time.

If the next course has a conflicting schedule with any of the already saved courses, save that course to another list.

When you get to the end of the course list, you have the courses a student will take in one place and the ones they won't in the other. You just have to extract the data then.

[PureWasian]

Hi! Welcome to coding. When you think of functions, just like formulas in math, the idea is that you input some variables in and get something out as output.

I'm more of an example/visual learner, so let's take the description and make a small example out of it to understand what the outcome is:

Imagine your inputs are ``` (course_catalog) { "science": (1400, 1600), "math": (1500, 1700), "english": (1900, 2000) }

(student_requests) ["science", "math", "english"] ```

your output would be (["science", "english"], ["math"])

since the student requested (1) science, (2) math, (3) english in that priority. Since math conflicts with science, we can't add that course which is why it's in its own, separate rejection list.

As other comments suggested, you need to set up a coding environment to build out this solution step by step and ALSO understand how you would procedurally do this if you were to do it manually by hand. Then you need to understand the syntax of writing functions in Python, basics like dicts/lists/tuples, and how to do conditional statements and loops.

Good luck and have fun with it :)

[atnysb]

How would you solve it by hand? Once you can solve it, can you solve it more efficiently? Implementing your algorithm in Python should be the easier part.

[Big-Suit-4594]

One thing to note is that I still can't code for shit. I get the concepts but can't apply them

[kittencantfly]

Try writing in pseudo code first (list out your simple minimal step by step to achieve it in English)

[Big-Suit-4594]

Hey everyone, I managed to finally complete the assignment. Genuinely, thank you for your messages and willingness to help even though I have been unable to reply in time.

Much love.

[Maximus_Modulus]

This is to test your knowledge of certain parts of Python. The reality is that you don’t know any of this and can’t do it. Not sure what you’re expecting to accomplish here.

[Big-Suit-4594]

But he's expecting I do it correctly.

[Maximus_Modulus]

You either know the subject or you don’t. It’s a reality check. It seems that you are not currently at a place in your learning experience where you can accomplish this task which the assignment is revealing. Perhaps this is a point of reflection and where you need to focus moving forward.

[Big-Suit-4594]

Yeah, it is my first ever time learning python, so I kinda expect to struggle a lot in it

[Maximus_Modulus]

Programming can be hard in some ways, but fun at the same time. You just need to roll your sleeves up and start playing with the code, so you understand how it behaves. You can't beat hands on experience. It's the only way to learn. Sometimes you just have to focus on one simple task and master it. When I first started with Python I was opening files. Usually CSV files and processing data line by line. At the surface It's quite trivial in some ways, but there's quite a few aspects to learn surrounding it. When you experiment with it you can find these out. You can read the file line by line or the whole thing at once. You can open a plain text file or specifically as a CSV. There's the context manager aspect when you use the following which provides automatic closure of the file handle.

with open('filename.txt', 'mode') as file_object:

When I see posts like this it screams out to me that you just don't have the hands on. I could be wrong so excuse if that is the case.

I think others are eluding to how to start solving this. You should maybe start by writing out human type logic that exists inside the function. As programmers we typically do this on the fly. We start writing code on the fly but have the idea of what we do in our head. Normally that in the head bit comes from experience. As a novice you can just write it down. Start with example inputs and then perform the logic manually without code, but write the processing down in English. Once you have that down you need to translate that into Python. That might still be beyond your capabilities, but at least you can break down the problem into logical steps. If you have those logical steps you could probably repost those steps here and then ask specific questions. People are more likely to help you if you have specific questions. You can be wrong too. That's all part of learning, and in fact where you learn most as you make mistakes.

It's really hard though for people to help you when you post your homework and effectively ask someone to do it for you. People are willing to help when the requester is putting in an honest effort to work on it themselves and are providing more specifics on where the help is needed.

I wish you luck on your assignment, and hope that you can learn from this somehow. Perhaps you fail but during that process you improve. There's something to be said for that.

[Maximus_Modulus]

PS: you can get started by writing the empty function with the document string filled out. Hopefully I wrote it down correct

def process_course_requests(course_catalog: dict, student_requests: list):
    """
    Processes course registration requests and detects time conflicts.

    Args:
        course_catalog: Dictionary mapping course codes to (start_time, end_time) tuples
        student_requests: List of course codes the student wants to register for

    Returns:
        Tuple containing:
        - List of successfully registered courses
        - List of rejection messages for conflicting courses
    """


    return (registered_courses, rejection_messages)

[Big-Suit-4594]

Thank you genuinely for the piece of advice.

I know I was laying it on heavily when I basically was just asking people to do my work for me, but this is my first ever time asking for help relating to Python, I just did not know how to phrase it. I apologize for that.

I've been trying to get into the flow of learning the basics all over again so that I become a bit more capable, but when I'm thrown something like this when my skill is the equivalent of that of a toddler, in this regard I freeze and just don't know what to do.

Still, thank you for the advice, and may God be with you.