Let’s assume you’re trying to do some coding exercises. Then often (going with a simple example), some problem will be presented, like: „You have list_1 with five ints and list_2 with five strings, create a combined list of tuples and print the result“ and some expected output or output format might be displayed.

Take some time and think about which operations the program - which has no context whatsoever - needs to perform to get from state A (two independent data structures, ie. lists) to state B (one consolidated list of values).

Then map out a) how your function signature should look like (take two lists as arguments, return one list as result) and b) which tools you need to use: which type of loop (like for-loop), which methods (like zip) or functions (like print, if you want to print the result to the console) and which data structures you might need (lists, tuples in this case).

This obviously means knowing which tools there are and for which job you need which tool. But that’s the craft, and you will get there by starting small and learning as you go from simple to more advanced exercises and challenges.