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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dictionaries Teacher Stats

Posted by Sergei Eliseev
Sergei Eliseev
Courses Plus Student 5,452 Points

Completed 1st task, but sometimes it passes and sometimes it fails. What is wrong?

Completed 1st task, but sometimes it passes and sometimes it fails. What is wrong?

teachers.py 
# The dictionary will be something like:
# {'Jason Seifer': ['Ruby Foundations', 'Ruby on Rails Forms', 'Technology Foundations'],
#  'Kenneth Love': ['Python Basics', 'Python Collections']}
#
# Often, it's a good idea to hold onto a max_count variable.
# Update it when you find a teacher with more classes than
# the current count. Better hold onto the teacher name somewhere
# too!
#
# Your code goes below here.
def most_classes(dict1):
  max_classes = 0
  for teacher in dict1:
    classes = dict1[teacher]
    if len(classes) > max_classes:
      teacher_max = teacher
  return teacher_max

1 Answer

Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points
Dan Johnson
Dan Johnson
40,533 Points

It looks like you forgot to update max_classes in your if statement to be the new largest value.

As to why this sometimes passes, it's because the order of a dictionary can change each time the program is run even with the same elements as the hash function is randomized. Without updating max_classes you're basically returning the last key from the dictionary so whenever that happens to be 'Jason Seifer' the test will pass.