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

Returning the name of teacher with the most courses.

Not sure what the hint in the challenge means when it says hold onto some sort of max count variable. Is there a max count method built into python?

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(single_arg):
    return len(single_arg)

def num_courses(single_arg):
    my_list = []
    my_value = single_arg.values()
    for value in my_value:
        my_list.extend(value)
    return len(my_list)

def courses(single_arg):
    my_list = []
    my_value = single_arg.values()
    for value in my_value:
        my_list.extend(value)
    return my_list

def most_courses(single_arg):
    count = 0

1 Answer

Manish Giri
Manish Giri
16,266 Points

The hint indicates to keep a variable that will hold the current count for the number of courses taught by the teacher, as you iterate through the list. If you come across a teacher who has more courses than the value in the current variable, you change the variable to hold this teacher's name.

Consider this example -

maxItem = 0
for num in [10, 2, 4, 1, 40]:
    if num > maxItem:
        maxItem = num

Here, you start by iterating through the list. You check if the current element is greater than the value stored in the maxItem variable, if so - you update it.

At the end, maxItem will hold the value of the largest element in the list.