Discover challenging Python brain teasers that test your skills and stretch your thinking. Gain insights into advanced concepts and enhance your understanding of this versatile language.

Forget Scrabble, Boggle, or Wordle. Tease your mind and test your skills with these fun brain teasers designed to stretch your thinking and expand your understanding of one of the most widely used languages out there. 

Python is simple. These puzzles are not. Good luck!

Python Brain Teasers

## Try it yourself
Try running the code below to verify the result:

import re

text = 'The vote was 65 in favour, 43 against and 21 abstentions'
match = re.search(r'(\d+).*(\d+).*(\d+)', text)
print(match.group(1), match.group(2), match.group(3))

## Explanation

Most people expect the answer to be `65 43 21`. The reason for the actual output is that the `.*` regular expression is **greedy**, which means it will match as much as it can. Let’s break down the sequence so we can see what happened:


- The first `.*(\d+)` will match `65`.
- The `.*` after it will match `in favour, `43 against and`.
- The next .`*(\d+)` will match `2`.
- The `.*` after it will match the empty string since `*` means zero or more. 
- The final `.*(\d+)` will match `1`.

### Solution

To make `.*` **nongreedy**, add `?` at the end.

The following snippet will work as expected:
 
``` Python
match = re.search(r'(\d+).*?(\d+).*?(\d+)', text)
```
We can use sites such as [www.pyregex.com](#) to test our regular expressions.

# Try it yourself
Try running the code below to verify the result:

# Explanation

Most people expect the answer to be `65 43 21`. The reason for the actual output is that the `.*` regular expression is **greedy**, which means it will match as much as it can. Let’s break down the sequence so we can see what happened:


- The first `.*(\d+)` will match `65`.
- The `.*` after it will match `in favour, `43 against and`.
- The next .`*(\d+)` will match `2`.
- The `.*` after it will match the empty string since `*` means zero or more. 
- The final `.*(\d+)` will match `1`.

## Solution

To make `.*` **nongreedy**, add `?` at the end.

The following snippet will work as expected:
 
``` Python
match = re.search(r'(\d+).*?(\d+).*?(\d+)', text)
```
We can use sites such as [www.pyregex.com](#) to test our regular expressions.

Let’s learn how regular expression works in Python.

Before We Begin

Python Puzzles

Wrapping Up

Puzzle 26: Explanation

Try it yourself

Explanation