DEV Community: Ghazal Abdulraheem

Build Rock Paper Scissors

Ghazal Abdulraheem — Sun, 17 May 2026 09:08:43 +0000

Today’s lesson was very fun and interactive because we explored how Python can make decisions randomly and how we can store multiple values using lists.

The final project for today was building the popular Rock Paper Scissors game, where the user plays against the computer. This project was exciting because it introduced randomness into programming, making the game feel different every time it runs.

The topics covered in today’s lesson include:

Random Module
Understanding the Offset and Appending Items to Lists
Who Will Pay the Bill?
IndexErrors and Nested Lists
Final Project — Rock Paper Scissors

Let’s dive into each topic.

Random Module

Python has a built-in module called random which allows us to generate random values in our programs.

To use the module, we first import it:

import random

One of the most commonly used methods is random.randint().

Example:

import random

random_number = random.randint(1, 10)

print(random_number)

This program generates a random number between 1 and 10.

The random module is very useful for:

Games
Password generators
Simulations
Random selections

Another useful method is random.choice() which randomly selects an item from a list.

Example:

import random

names = ["Temmy", "John", "Sarah"]

print(random.choice(names))

Output may vary each time the program runs.

Understanding the Offset and Appending Items to Lists

A list in Python is used to store multiple items inside a single variable.

Example:

fruits = ["Apple", "Orange", "Banana"]

Lists use something called offset or index positions.

Python starts counting from 0, not 1.

Example:

fruits = ["Apple", "Orange", "Banana"]

print(fruits[0])

Output:

Apple

Why?

Because:

Apple is at index 0
Orange is at index 1
Banana is at index 2

You can also modify items in a list.

Example:

fruits[1] = "Mango"

print(fruits)

Output:

['Apple', 'Mango', 'Banana']

Appending Items to Lists

Python allows us to add new items to a list using .append().

Example:

fruits.append("Grape")

print(fruits)

Output:

['Apple', 'Mango', 'Banana', 'Grape']

Lists are very important in programming because they help us manage collections of data easily.

Who Will Pay the Bill?

One of the mini-projects from today’s lesson was creating a program that randomly selects who will pay the bill.

Instead of arguing among friends, Python makes the decision randomly.

Example:

import random

friends = ["Temmy", "John", "Sarah", "David"]

person = random.choice(friends)

print(f"{person} will pay the bill today.")

Possible Output:

Sarah will pay the bill today.

This simple exercise helped me better understand:

Lists
Random selections
Variables

IndexErrors and Nested Lists

An IndexError happens when we try to access an index position that does not exist inside a list.

Example:

fruits = ["Apple", "Orange", "Banana"]

print(fruits[5])

Output:

IndexError: list index out of range

This error occurs because index 5 does not exist in the list.

Nested Lists

A nested list means placing lists inside another list.

Example:

fruits = ["Apple", "Orange"]
vegetables = ["Tomato", "Carrot"]

food = [fruits, vegetables]

print(food)

Output:

[['Apple', 'Orange'], ['Tomato', 'Carrot']]

Nested lists are useful when organizing grouped data.

Final Project — Rock Paper Scissors

The final project for today was building the classic Rock Paper Scissors game.

The game works like this:

The user chooses Rock, Paper, or Scissors
The computer randomly makes its own choice
Python compares both choices
The winner is displayed

This project combined everything learned today:

Random module
Lists
Conditional statements
User input
Logical comparisons

Here is a simplified version of the project:

import random

choices = ["Rock", "Paper", "Scissors"]

user_choice = input("Choose Rock, Paper, or Scissors: ")

computer_choice = random.choice(choices)

print(f"Computer chose {computer_choice}")

if user_choice == computer_choice:
    print("It's a draw!")

elif user_choice == "Rock" and computer_choice == "Scissors":
    print("You win!")

elif user_choice == "Paper" and computer_choice == "Rock":
    print("You win!")

elif user_choice == "Scissors" and computer_choice == "Paper":
    print("You win!")

else:
    print("You lose!")

One thing I enjoyed about today’s lesson was seeing how randomness can make programs feel more alive and interactive.

The Rock Paper Scissors project also helped me understand how powerful lists and conditions are when building games and applications.

Build Treasure Island

Ghazal Abdulraheem — Sun, 17 May 2026 09:00:46 +0000

Today’s lesson was one of the most exciting lessons so far because we moved deeper into decision-making in Python by learning how to control the flow of our program using conditional statements.

The final project for today was called Treasure Island, a simple adventure game where users make choices that determine whether they win or lose the game. It was a fun project because it made programming feel more interactive and game-like.

The topics covered in today’s lesson include:

Introducing Modulo
Nested if Statements and elif Statements
BMI Calculator with Interpretations
Multiple if Statements
Pizza Order Practice
Logical Operators
Final Project — Treasure Island

Let’s break them down one after the other.

Introducing Modulo

The modulo operator % is used to return the remainder after dividing two numbers.

Example:

print(10 % 3)

Output:

Why?

Because:

10 / 3 = 3 remainder 1

Modulo is commonly used when checking:

Even and odd numbers
Divisibility
Counters and loops

Example:

number = 8

if number % 2 == 0:
    print("Even number")
else:
    print("Odd number")

Output:

Even number

Nested if Statements and elif Statements

An if statement allows us to make decisions in Python.

Example:

age = 18

if age >= 18:
    print("You can vote")

Sometimes we want to check multiple conditions. That is where elif comes in.

Example:

score = 75

if score >= 90:
    print("Excellent")
elif score >= 70:
    print("Good")
else:
    print("Try again")

Output:

Good

A nested if statement means placing one if statement inside another if statement.

Example:

age = 20
has_id = True

if age >= 18:
    if has_id:
        print("Access granted")

Nested conditions are useful when building games, login systems, and real-world applications.

Mini Project — BMI Calculator with Interpretations

In today’s lesson, we also built a BMI calculator that not only calculates BMI but also interprets the result.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index.

The formula is:

BMI = \frac{weight}{height^2}

Example:

weight = 70
height = 1.75

bmi = weight / (height ** 2)

print(bmi)

Output:

22.857142857142858

We can also interpret the result using conditional statements.

if bmi < 18.5:
    print("Underweight")
elif bmi < 25:
    print("Normal weight")
else:
    print("Overweight")

Multiple if Statements

Unlike elif, multiple if statements allow Python to check every condition independently.

Example:

age = 25

if age > 18:
    print("Adult")

if age > 21:
    print("Can enter club")

Output:

Adult
Can enter club

Both conditions were checked because they are independent of each other.

Pizza Order Practice

Another fun exercise from today’s lesson was building a pizza order program.

The program calculates the total cost of pizza based on:

Pizza size
Extra toppings
Cheese addition

Example:

bill = 0

size = "M"

if size == "S":
    bill += 15
elif size == "M":
    bill += 20
else:
    bill += 25

print(bill)

Output:

This exercise helped me better understand how conditions work together in real-life scenarios.

Logical Operators

Logical operators are used to combine multiple conditions together.

Python has three major logical operators:

and
or
not

Example using and:

age = 20
has_id = True

if age >= 18 and has_id:
    print("Access granted")

The condition only becomes True if both statements are true.

Example using or:

weather = "Rainy"

if weather == "Rainy" or weather == "Cloudy":
    print("Take umbrella")

Example using not:

is_logged_in = False

if not is_logged_in:
    print("Please login")

Logical operators are very important when building authentication systems, games, and applications with multiple conditions.

Final Project — Treasure Island

The final project for today was called Treasure Island.

The goal of the game is simple:

Make the correct choices
Avoid losing
Find the treasure

This project combined everything learned today:

if statements
elif
Nested conditions
User input
Decision-making

Here is the complete code for the project:

print('''
 ,adPPYb,d8 ,adPPYYba, 88,dPYba,,adPYba,   ,adPPYba, ,adPPYba,
a8"    `Y88 ""     `Y8 88P'   "88"    "8a a8P_____88 I8[    ""
8b       88 ,adPPPPP88 88      88      88 8PP"""""""  `"Y8ba,
"8a,   ,d88 88,    ,88 88      88      88 "8b,   ,aa aa    ]8I
 `"YbbdP"Y8 `"8bbdP"Y8 88      88      88  `"Ybbd8"' `"YbbdP"'
 aa,    ,88
  "Y8bbdP"                                        ''')

print("Welcome to Treasure Island!")
print("Your mission is to find the treasure")

direction = input("Left or right? ")

if direction == "Right":
    print("Game Over!")
elif direction == "Left":
    step2 = input("Swim or Wait? ")

    if step2 == "Swim":
        print("Game Over!")

    elif step2 == "Wait":
        step3 = input("Which door? Red, Yellow, or Blue? ")

        if step3 == "Red":
            print("Game Over")

        elif step3 == "Blue":
            print("Game Over")

        elif step3 == "Yellow":
            print("You win!")

One thing I really enjoyed about this project was how a simple program could become interactive just by using conditions and user inputs.

This lesson made me understand how powerful decision-making is in programming because almost every real-world application depends on conditions to make decisions.

Building a Tip Calculator

Ghazal Abdulraheem — Thu, 14 May 2026 22:02:16 +0000

Day 2 of #100DaysOfCode — Tip Calculator Project

Today’s project was quite fun and very interesting because it is something very relatable. Imagine going out for a hangout with friends, colleagues, or business associates, and you feel like tipping the waiter or waitress while still splitting the bill equally among everyone involved. That is the problem today’s lesson focused on solving.

The lesson was centered around Data Types, Numbers, and Operators in Python. You may be wondering: What are data types, and how do they work in Python?

In Python, there are four basic data types covered in today’s lesson:

String
Boolean
Integer
Float

Let’s dive deeper into each data type.

String

As mentioned in Day 1, a string is a collection of characters usually wrapped in either single quotes ('') or double quotes ("").

print("Hello")

The double quotes wrapped around "Hello" tell the Python interpreter that the data should be treated as a string.

Strings allow us to perform different kinds of data manipulation such as:

Accessing characters by index
Counting characters
Combining strings
Converting other data types into strings

Let’s explore some common string operations.

Substring

This gives us the ability to extract characters from a string by specifying the index position of the character.

print("Hello"[2])

Output:

Note: You can get the last character of a string using a negative index.

print("Hello"[-1])

Output:

Concatenation

You can combine two strings together using the + operator.

last_name = "Temmy"
first_name = " Olajide"

full_name = last_name + first_name

print(full_name)

Output:

Temmy Olajide

str()

The str() function allows us to convert non-string data into a string.

admission = "ADM" + str(123)

print(admission)

Output:

ADM123

Integer

An integer is a data type used to represent whole numbers without decimal points.

age = 25

If you are working with large numbers and want them to be more readable, Python allows the use of underscores.

amount_spent = 345_829_202

Just like strings, you can also convert non-integer data into integers using the built-in int() function.

print(int("123"))

Output:

Float

A float is a data type used to represent numbers with decimal points.

application_fee = 1500.89

Python also provides a built-in float() function to convert integers or strings into floats.

print(float(1500))

Output:

1500.0

type()

The type() function is used to check the data type of a value or variable in Python.

Examples:

print(type("Hello"))   # <class 'str'>
print(type(True))      # <class 'bool'>
print(type(123))       # <class 'int'>
print(type(13.68))     # <class 'float'>

Mathematical Operations

One of the reasons Python is widely used in fields like Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Engineering is because of how easy it is to work with mathematical operations.

Addition

3 + 5

Subtraction

5 - 2

Multiplication

4 * 2

Division

6 / 2

Modulo

The modulo operator returns the remainder after division.

5 % 2

Output:

Power

Used for exponents or superscripts.

2 ** 2

Output:

Just like regular mathematics, Python follows the PEMDAS rule:

Parentheses
Exponents
Multiplication
Division
Addition
Subtraction

When writing mathematical expressions, it is important to understand operator precedence to avoid unexpected results.

Number Manipulation and F-Strings in Python

Number Manipulation

Python allows shorthand operations when working with numbers.

Instead of writing:

score = 0
score = score + 1

You can write:

score += 1

The same applies to other operators such as:

-= 
*= 
/=

F-Strings

F-strings are a clean and readable way to insert variables or expressions directly into strings using curly braces {}.

name = "Temmy"

print(f"My name is {name}")

Output:

My name is Temmy

Tip Calculator Project

Now let’s build our Tip Calculator application.

Tip Calculator Algorithm

amount_spent = float(input("Enter the amount spent: $"))
tip = float(input("How much do you want to tip? 5, 10, 12, or 15: "))
num_of_people = float(input("How many people are splitting the bill? "))

tip_calc = (tip / 100) * amount_spent

total_bill = (amount_spent + tip_calc) / num_of_people

print(f"Each person should pay: ${total_bill}")

This simple project calculates:

The total tip amount
Adds it to the original bill
Splits the total equally among everyone involved

A fun and practical beginner-friendly Python project

Build a Band Generator

Ghazal Abdulraheem — Wed, 13 May 2026 08:42:43 +0000

In this post, you'll learn how to build a fun project called "Band Name Generator." But before that, I’d like to explain some fundamental concepts used in building the project.

I started the amazing #100DaysOfCode challenge today, and I picked up Python Crash Course by Angela Yu to unlearn, relearn, and refresh my Python skills as a developer.

Python is a fun programming language to learn, especially if you're just starting out as a developer. It has an easy-to-read syntax and allows you to build real-world relatable projects while learning.

Here are some of the things I learned on Day 1:

String Manipulation

Python gives us the flexibility to manipulate strings. You might ask, what is a string?

A string is a collection of characters arranged together in a linear format. Examples include:

"Great"
"linux123"
"Hello World!"

Error Types

As a Python developer, understanding the types of errors you encounter will help you ask the right questions when searching for solutions.

Here are some basic error types I learned on Day 1:

1. IndentationError

This error occurs when indentation is used incorrectly in your code.

Example:

```python id="i8l5n1"
print("Hello")




Python relies heavily on proper indentation, especially inside functions, loops, and conditionals.

---

### 2. SyntaxError

This error occurs when you do not follow the correct syntax of the language.

Example:



```python id="g42bh3"
print("Hello)

Correct version:

```python id="5bj62q"
print("Hello")




The first example is missing the closing quotation mark.

---

### 3. NameError

This error occurs when you reference a variable name that has not been declared.

Example:



```python id="6h0t5r"
name = "Richard"
print(nama)

The code above will result in a NameError because nama was never defined.

4. TypeError

This error occurs when you try to perform an operation between incompatible data types.

Example:

```python id="5d5e8x"
data = "Skyscrappers"
print("We currently have " + len("three") + data)




This will result in a `TypeError` because `len("three")` returns a number, and Python cannot concatenate a string with an integer directly.

Correct version:



```python id="9l2qj8"
data = "Skyscrappers"
print("We currently have " + str(len("three")) + " " + data)

The str() function converts the number into a string, allowing Python to process the concatenation correctly.

Variables

A variable is a storage container used to hold data for future use.

Example:

```python id="bx38d4"
taxID = 1234567890




---

## **len()**

The `len()` function helps us count the number of characters in a string.

Example:



```python id="wb06dc"
len("Hello")

input()

The input() function allows us to collect data from users for further processing.

Example:

```python id="2jlwmn"
input("What is your name?")




---

## **str()**

The `str()` function converts other data types into strings.

Example:



```python id="3b7e1u"
str(4)

print()

The print() function is one of the most commonly used functions in Python. It displays output in the terminal.

Example:

```python id="q9m4t0"
print("Can I come now?")




---

Now that you understand the basics, let’s build our Band Name Generator app.

# Band Name Generator



```python id="yojv2n"
# Declare variables to store city and pet name

city = input("Which city did you grow up in?\n")

petName = input("What is your favorite pet's name?\n")

# Display the final band name using concatenation
print("Yup! Your band name is " + city + " " + petName)

If you found this interesting, share your thoughts in the comment section.