Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries Teacher Stats

cchartm16
PLUS
cchartm16
Courses Plus Student 2,464 Points

My code works in IDE why not here?

Why doesn't this code work?

teachers.py
# The dictionary will look something like:
# {'Andrew Chalkley': ['jQuery Basics', 'Node.js Basics'],
#  'Kenneth Love': ['Python Basics', 'Python Collections']}
#
# Each key will be a Teacher and the value will be a list of courses.
#
# Your code goes below here.


def num_teachers(arg):
    count = 0
    for key in arg:
        count += 1

    return count

def num_courses(arg):
    count = 0
    for key in arg:
        count += len(arg[key])
    return count

def courses(arg):
    ret_courses = []
    for key in arg:
        ret_courses.extend(arg[key])

    return ret_courses

def most_courses(arg):
    most_teacher_val = max(arg[key] for key in arg)
    for key in arg:
        if arg[key] == most_teacher_val:
            return key

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Your external testing may have just been lucky. I'm not sure how "max" evaluates the "magnitude" of a list, but I'm pretty sure it's not based on the number of elements. But your method could probably be made to work if it was based on the length of the lists.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

:information_source: After a bit of research, I found out that "max" compares lists by comparing the items inside them