Educational Python repository for WGU's Master of Science in Software Engineering - AI Engineering program. Interactive Jupyter notebooks teaching data structures with ADHD-friendly exercises.
View the Project on GitHub chevyphillip/python-data-structures-practice
01_lists_basics.ipynb (3 hours)02_dictionaries_basics.ipynb (3 hours)03_sets_basics.ipynb (2 hours)04_combined_practice.ipynb (5 hours)05_ai_scenarios.ipynb (4 hours)# Think: "Items in sequence, duplicates OK"
playlist = ["song1", "song2", "song1"] # Order matters, duplicates allowed
# Think: "Key opens the door to value"
student_grades = {"Alice": 95, "Bob": 87} # Key → Value mapping
# Think: "No duplicates allowed, no order"
unique_emails = {"alice@email.com", "bob@email.com"} # Unique only
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
my_list[0] # First: 1
my_list[-1] # Last: 5
my_list[1:3] # Slice: [2, 3]
my_list[::2] # Every 2nd: [1, 3, 5]
my_list.append(6) # Add to end
my_dict = {"a": 1, "b": 2}
my_dict["a"] # Get value: 1
my_dict["c"] = 3 # Add/update
my_dict.get("d", 0) # Safe get: 0
my_dict.keys() # All keys
my_dict.values() # All values
set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
set1 & set2 # Intersection: {3}
set1 | set2 # Union: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
set1 - set2 # Difference: {1, 2}
# Wrong approach
original = [1, 2, 3]
modified = original
modified.append(4) # Changes original too!
# Correct approach
modified = original.copy() # or original[:]
# Risky
grade = student_grades["Unknown"] # KeyError!
# Safe
grade = student_grades.get("Unknown", 0)
# Sets don't maintain order
my_set = {3, 1, 2}
print(my_set) # Could print {1, 2, 3} or {2, 1, 3}