Overview›SLOP1001

Foundations of Programming

A first course in programming, taught in Python. Demonstration course, Semester 2, 2026 — the teaching weeks and dates below are fictional.

Demonstration teaching week 12 of 12, derived from this course's fixed fictional term dates. It is not the real ANU teaching calendar.

Course information

Course outlinePageA first programming course in Python, taught in four blocks, assessed by portfolio.

Assessments

Portfolio 1 — Expressions and decisionsAssessmentFour short programs, each with a paragraph explaining what you expected and what actually happened.
Portfolio 2 — Structure and dataAssessmentThree programs from weeks 6 to 9, one of which must be a refactor of something you wrote earlier.
Final project — A small working programAssessmentOne program of your own choosing, with a test plan and an account of one bug you fixed.

Week 7

Iteration and accumulationPageLoops that build a result, the accumulator pattern, and the two off-by-one errors that account for most of them.

Week 8

Week 9

Dictionaries and recordsPageWhen a list stops being the right shape, and what a dictionary gives you that an index cannot.

Other course resourcesresources with no week — filed here automatically

Course Python style guideReferenceThe naming, layout and comment conventions every submission in this course is expected to follow.