Random Alphabet Challenge

Welcome to the Random Alphabet Challenge! This set of three Python programming challenges is designed to test your problem-solving skills, creativity, and ability to manipulate strings and data structures.

But first let’s see if you can solve the following puzzle:

Coding Challenge #1: Find the Correctly Placed Letter.

You are given a string of 26 uppercase letters, representing a shuffled version of the English alphabet. In this shuffled string, only one letter remains in its correct position (i.e., its position in the alphabet). Your task is to write a Python script that identifies which letter is correctly placed.

Example:

  • Input: “IVKOCEPJLTAMZNSYXUWRHFBDGQ”
  • Output: “N” (because “N” is the 14th letter of the alphabet and also the 14th letter in the given string)

Python Code
Complete your code using the following online Python IDE:

Suggested Approach
Our recommended approach to solve this challenge is write a Python program to:

  • Iterate through each letter in the input string.
  • Compare the position of each letter in the string with its position in the alphabet.
  • Identify the letter where these positions match.

Testing
See if your code can find the letter in the correct position for the following shuffled alphabets:

Test # Input Values Output?
#1 SZDABJWLNRITXOUGQHEFPMVCKY
#2 OLMETJKXNGVYRZIWADSHPCQFBU
#3 XMBYCNGRQOVZPFWTJLHKEIUADS

Coding Challenge #2: Alphabet Shuffling Algorithm

In Stage 1, you wrote a Python script to identify the correctly placed letter in a shuffled alphabet string. Now, in Stage 2, we flip the script: your task is to generate a shuffled alphabet string where only one letter remains in its correct position.

You will need to write a Python program that:

  • Generates a random permutation of the 26 uppercase letters of the English alphabet.
  • Ensures that only one letter in this permutation is in its correct alphabetical position (e.g., “A” at index 0, “B” at index 1, etc.).

Coding Challenge #3: Quiz Time

This is the final stage of the Random Alphabet Challenge! In Stage 1, you identified the correctly placed letter in a shuffled alphabet. In Stage 2, you generated such a shuffled string. Now, in Stage 3, we combine both to create an interactive 10-round quiz where the player must identify the correctly placed letter in each round. Each correct answer scores one point.

Your Python script will need to:

  • Generate 10 shuffled alphabet strings (using your Stage 2 code), each with only one correctly placed letter.
  • Present each shuffled string to the user and asks them to identify the correctly placed letter.
  • Award one point for each correct answer (you may need to use your code from stage 1 for the computer to identify the correct letter and use this to check if the player’s answer is correct)
  • Display the final score at the end.
unlock-access

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
Find out how to become a member:
➤ Members' Area

Did you like this challenge?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 2

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this challenge interesting...

Follow us on social media!