CSc 120 (Fall 2026): Assignment 1

This assignment aims to review various Python concepts covered in CSC 110—specifically: reading from a file; lists; 2-D lists (lists of lists); simple conditionals and loops; and functions (including passing values into and out of functions).

General Requirements

1. You do not need to provide comments for the short problems.
2. For the long problems, your code should follow the style guidelines for the class. Your long programs must define a main() function. For reference, see the 01_Python_review lecture slides, from slide 110 to 115.
3. You may not use material not yet covered in class. See the Restrictions section below. If you don't know what any of those Python contructs are, don't worry, because you can't use them accidentally.
4. Use of any restricted material will result in a -20 point deduction, or in some cases, even -80 points.

Restrictions

You may not use concepts and/or short-hand syntax not yet covered in class. The restrictions include the following:
• dictionary or list comprehensions, e.g., [n * 2 for i in range(10)]
• with open (explicitly open and close the file instead)
• the ternary operator (use an if instead)
• nested functions (using def within a function to define another function)
• exceptions (try/except)
• type annotations
• lambda expressions
• map/filter
• generators and user defined iterators
• default arguments
• decorators
• importing libraries (unless a library is explicitly mentioned in the specification)

Submission Instructions

Short Problems:

Your short problems should be submitted to Gradescope. Gradescope:

Long Problems:

Submit the following files to Gradescope:

NOTE: use underscores in the file names, not dashes.

word_grid.py
word_search.py

Short Problems (Due 7:00pm Tue, Sep 1)

(20 points)

The problems below must be solved and submitted to the PA-01-Shorts folder on Gradescope. Please follow this guide for turning in your short problems: Guide to submitting the short problems

The descriptions of the short problems for this assignment are the following:

1. Number to letter

2. List to string (Version 1)

3. List to string (Version 2)

4. Column to list

5. Grid is square

6. cv_match

7. max consec sum

Long Problems (Due 7:00pm Sat, Sep 5)

(30 + 50 = 80 points)

1. Word grid

2. Word search