OCR Coding Challenges - Solutions

As a background task, I've started work on possible solutions to the OCR Coding Challenges. Remember that my solution is just one of a number of possible solutions, and I don't claim that it's necessarily the best one. If you want a Python reference or would like to recap any programming techniques, I have also added a Python course to the Computing and ICT in a Nutshell YouTube channel.

Note that, although I have been programming for almost 40 years, I don't claim to be an expert in Python, or even believe that Python is the best language for the job. For that reason, I have avoided using any techniques, such as list comprehension, that are particularly Pythonic.

Apart from the Arithmetic Test example (which requires a bit more work as it loads other modules), solutions open in Basthon, which is a French IDE that doesn't require you to register. Click the Exécuter button to run them - and make sure that you don't translate the page!

No.	Link
1	Factorial Finder (iterative solution) Factorial Finder (recursive solution)
2	Speed Tracker
3	Thief!
4	Classification (video explanation)
5	Fruit Machine
7	Credit Card Validator
8	Arithmetic Test*
9	Happy Numbers
10	Number Names
13	Caesar Cipher
15	Pangrams - ASCII version Pangrams - Dictionary version
16	Kaprekar
17	Number Table
18	Years in Range
19	Logic Gate
20	Palindrome (string slicing) Palindrome (recursive)
23	Fibbing
33	Mor-se Coding
34	What's the day?
36	Triangulate
37	Fizz Buzz
38	Sing Along
41	Prime Factorisation
67	What have the Romans ever done for us?
70	Of Mice and Men
71	Goldbach

* Some of the tasks are more open-ended and I have included similar examples from other sources, such as previous coursework tasks.

You'll notice that I tend to use lists or tuples in my code to avoid the need for multiple IFs, and also demonstrate how it can be used to improve a common Magic 8 Ball program here. You can also make use of True and False to avoid the need for a lot of IFs in your code. Finally, there is a video on recursion, in which I explain how the factorial, palindrome and prime factorisation programs work.

If you prefer to use a local IDE, you can download these programs. You can also download further programming examples in BASIC, JavaScript and Python.