Project: Number Guessing Game

Why this matters

You now know enough to build a real program. This project pulls together everything from the last two modules: input, conversion, comparisons, if / elif / else, while, counters and break.

The idea

You are going to build the classic number guessing game. The program thinks of a secret number; the player keeps guessing, and the program says whether each guess is too low or too high.

Break the problem into small pieces and solve them one at a time. That is how professionals build things:

1. Ask for one guess and say whether it is too low, too high or right. (if / elif / else)
2. Make it repeat until the guess is right. (while and break)
3. Count the guesses. (a counter)
4. Limit the player to 7 guesses. (a loop condition, or a break rule)

Run your program after each step. A program that works at every step is much easier to fix than one you wrote all at once.

Try it

Start with step 1 only: read a single guess and print Too low!, Too high! or Correct! Once that works, wrap it in a loop.

Your turn

The starter has a secret number of 42. Write the game so that:

• Each round, it reads a guess with int(input("Your guess: ")).
• A guess below the secret prints Too low!; above prints Too high!.
• A correct guess prints Correct! Guesses used: N (where N is how many guesses the player made) and the game ends.
• The player gets at most 7 guesses. If all 7 are wrong, print Out of guesses! The number was 42. and the game ends.

For example, if the player types 50, 25, 42, the output is:

Too high!
Too low!
Correct! Guesses used: 3

Going further (not checked): replace secret = 42 with a random number using import random and secret = random.randint(1, 100). Then the game is different every time. Because the checks need a fixed secret, put it back to 42 before pressing Check.

Recap

• Big programs are built by solving small steps one at a time.
• A counter plus a loop condition (or break) keeps loops under control.
• Reading the problem carefully (“at most 7”, “ends the game”) decides where the breaks go.

Common mistakes

• Counting wrongly: count a guess every time one is made, including the correct one.
• Asking for an 8th guess: the loop must stop after 7, even when they are all wrong.
• Printing the “Out of guesses” line when the player won on guess 7. Only print it if the player never got it right.