What is Python Challenge ?
Python challenge is a set of puzzles that can be solved with Python.
Currently there are 33 levels.
IMHO Python Challenge is not for beginners who have never coded in Python before or have little experience in Python.
It’s for people who have some experience in Python but just aren’t super good.
If it’s your first time writing Python code I wouldn’t try to solve these problems. Reading O’reilly books or learning from online courses would help you more.
For courses I recommend:
The course explains Python in a pretty detailed manner for beginners.
You should try to read as many Python books as possible.
Each level in Python Challenge usually requires you to use a certain module.
Level 0
The title for level0 is warming up. It’s always a good idea to check the HTML title because the HTML titles are usually hints to solve the problems.
By looking at the tab where you opened the pythonchallenge problem, you can check the title.
The title of level0 is warming_up.
After checking the HTML title you should also have a look at the image file Python Challenge provides you.
Usually the image files title are also hint to solve the puzzle. You can view that using right-click and Inspect. You’ll then see some HTML tags.
The tag after <img src> is the name of the file.
In level 0 <img src="calc.jpg"> it’s calc.jpg.
From the title I can guess that this level shouldn’t be that hard.
Level0 has a picture of an old desktop PC
On the monitor there is a yellow rectangle with 2**38 written on it.
Below the image of the computer there is a hint that tells you to change the URL address.
With all the information given it looks like I should use 2**38 and change the URL.
The current URL is http://www.pythonchallenge.com/pc/def/0.html.
If you look closely you can see that the html file starts with a number.
Calculating 2**38 and replacing it from 0 would probably solve level0.
Python has many ways to calculate 2**38.
1. Using the ** operator
You can directly use ** to calculate powers of numbers.
print(2**38)
2. Using the bit shift operator
Python provides bit shifting operators. That would be another option.
print(2 << 37)
3. Using the pow function
Python provides the built-in pow to calculate powers of numbers.
The pow function also let’s you calculate the modular as well.
print(pow(2, 38))
2**38 gives us 274877906944.
Changing the URL from 0.html to 274877906944.html takes you to level1.
I’ll try to explain the code and how to solve these problems in detail as much as possible.
I struggled a lot when solving these problems on my own.
The solutions or writeups I found online were hard to understand.
That might be because I’m dumb or something lol but anyways…