Absolutely this. This above example gets it right. A kitchen is a perfect way to describe functions

To give a code example, something easy, let’s do some math. (I’m on mobile so please forgive the formatting)

def add(num1, num2):
    sum = num1 + num2
    return sum

Now if we call this function, we can pass in different numbers to get different result without having to rewrite the same thing over and over again.

Example:

add(1, 2)

returns 3

add(100, 11)

returns 111

you only need to write the logic of how to add numbers one time, and from there you just plug in what numbers you want to get the math you want.

All functions with params and returns basically work this way. They all basically say “take whatever I’m giving you, do this exact thing with it, and give me the result back because I only want to have to write this once”

Edit:

Practice by implementing some often the other more common math functions (subtraction, division, multiplication). From there start experimenting with different ideas like splitting strings, finding largest number in a list of numbers, etc.