! Important: As of October 2, 2018, this repository and all its contents are now under the GNU General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3) See the LICENSE file for more information

Esoteric Python Challenges

Esoteric programming challenges for the Python programming language.

These challenges are maintained by the Python Discord server. Come check us out!

Challenge Information

Every week or so, we will be posting a new challenge to solve. Generally, challenges will involve a problem to solve (e.g. implement a specific algorithm), a goal (e.g. code golf (shortest number of characters in source code)) and sometimes even some restrictions (e.g. no use of imports)

Please note that while these challenges have these rules and restrictions, you are free to submit solutions that do not take them into consideration. If you do, please simply make note of the limitations of your solutions in a comment in the source code! The ultimate goal is to have fun, be creative and show off your esoteric coding chops! There are no prizes or true winners. You win if you had fun trying to solve some challenges or learn a thing or two from other peoples' solutions :) Feel free to golf your solutions to non-golf challenges or to add further restrictions for your own challenge.

Test Cases

Challenges generally include Test Cases to help you validate your solution.

test_runner.py is a very simple test case runner written for these challenges testcases.json is a simple JSON file containing a list of objects with two fields: input and expected_output

To test your code, simply import the test_runner functions into your code. Two basic functions are provided: test() and case().

test(solution_function) takes one argument: the main function from your solution where the input is inserted. The test runner will run this function against all the test cases present in the testcases file and output a simple report of which tests succeeded and which ones failed. For the failed test cases, details about the expected output vs the actual output will be shown.

case(number, solution_function) is to test against a particular test case. Useful when there are either a lot of test cases, the code takes a while to run or you simply want less clutter. The first argument in this case is the number of the test case (which is its index in the list of test cases, you can find it in the report given by test)

Feel free to add your own test cases to the file, but please don't include the modified testcases.json in your merge request.

Quick, simple example:

from test_runner import test, case

def my_solution(x, y):
    return x*y

test(my_solution)

case(1, my_solution)

Submission Guidelines

At the top of the file, add a comment block with your name, and any notes regarding your solution (e.g. restrictions not followed, instructions on how to use the code, etc.)

Tip: If your submission is a codegolf, it'd be helpful to fellow coders if you also appended to your code a less-condensed version of the golf annotated with comments on how it works

You may submit more than one solution for a challenge! Just append subsequent solutions to the same file.

Adding your solution to the repository:

To contribute solutions, you will need a GitHub account and Git installed on your computer. The instructions assume you are using the command line. See the documentation specific to your software if you are using a graphical Git client.

If you need any help at all with the contribution process, do not hesitate to ask for help on the Discord server!

Step 1: Fork and clone the repository

Head to https://github.com/python-discord/esoteric-python-challenges/ and click the Fork button. This will copy this repository to your account. Then, clone your version of the repository locally:

Open a terminal and type

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/esoteric-python-challenges.git

Be sure to replace <your-username> with your actual GitHub username.

Step 2: Adding your solution

In the appropriate directory for the challenge, under the solutions folder, add either

• A) A single .py file with the name your_name_or_handle.py
• B) If your solution spans multiple files, add a directory named your_name_or_handle and place the files inside this new directory

Important: Try not modifying any other files, as it complicates the merging process

Step 3: Add and commit your changes

Run the following commands on your local repository:

• git add . This adds all modified files to the staging area
• git commit -m "message" This commits the changes. Replace "message" with a short description such as -m "add bob's solution"
• git push This will apply the changes to (your) remote repository (i.e. the version you can see on GitHub)

Step 4: Submit a pull request

Head over to the New Pull Request page, then click the compare across forks link and select your own fork as the head repository. You may then proceed to create the pull request.

Step 5: Wait

A repository maintainer will get to your pull request in the briefest of delays and (hopefully) merge it! Don't hesitate to ping Zhawn or Juanita if your pull request hasn't been accepted within a couple of days!

Licensing Information

By contributing to this repository, you understand and agree that all code in this repository is licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (GPLv3).