Writing programs: the written tasks

At the end of the informatics part an empty field and one sentence wait on the answer sheet: “…write a program in Python that prints… For example:” — next to a small Giriş / Çıxış (input / output) table. There are no answer options: the program you write is marked by examiners (markers). There is good news too: all eight written Python tasks of the four exams of 2025–2026 belonged to a few families. If you know the skeleton of each family, the task turns into “write the condition”.

What a written task looks like and how it is marked

The informatics part is tasks 61–90: 22 closed (61–82), 5 coded (83–87) and 3 written (88–90). Task 88 asks for a flowchart (see the lesson “Building flowcharts: the written tasks”), tasks 89 and 90 for Python programs. Markers check the written tasks against criteria and give each one 0, ⅓, ½, ⅔ or 1 point. DİM does not publish the detailed criteria, so the goal is simple: a complete, correct and readable program with every part — input, calculation, output — in place.

The most valuable part of the task is the Giriş / Çıxış table. The left column shows what is typed on the keyboard — each line is one input() call. The right column shows exactly what the program must print: a number, a word, a list in square brackets or several lines. Read the table like this:

1. 1
   Count the lines

   How many input lines does one example have? If the first line is n and exactly n lines follow, read n first, then n numbers in a loop.

2. 2
   Choose the type

   A whole number — int(input()); text — input(); several values on one line separated by spaces — input().split(' ').

3. 3
   Look at the output shape

   One number — one print after the loop; [15, 6, 7] — print(b); each number on its own line — print inside the loop.

4. 4
   Check the rule

   Work out one example by hand: why exactly this answer? Watch the difference between “greater” and “greater or equal”, “count” and “sum”.

5. 5
   Find the special case

   If one output is a word instead of a number (yoxdur, Azerbaijani for “none”), you need an if–else after the loop.

The skeleton of a program: input → processing → output

Every exam program has three parts, always written in this order. Input: all input() lines at the start. Processing: a counter or a sum is set to zero before the loop (k = 0, s = 0, b = []), the loop checks the condition and collects the result. Output: without indentation, after the loop — with a yoxdur branch if needed. The ten examples below fall into five families; the first solution of each family is the skeleton for the whole family.

Model solutions: five families, ten tasks

Family 1 — numbers in a range and divisors. The loop runs over range(a, b + 1) or range(1, n + 1), and a counter or a sum grows when the condition holds. In 2025–2026 this family gave tasks of the types “squares of odd numbers in a segment” and “sum of the odd divisors”.

a = int(input())
b = int(input())
s = 0
for x in range(a, b + 1):
    r = int(x ** 0.5)
    if x % 2 == 0 and r * r == x:
        s = s + x
if s == 0:
    print('yoxdur')
else:
    print(s)

n = int(input())
k = 0
s = 0
for d in range(1, n + 1):
    if n % d == 0 and d % 2 == 0:
        k = k + 1
        s = s + d
print(k, s)

Family 2 — remainder classes. Numbers are written into a table like a snake, and you are asked in which column a number lies. Two rows of the table form one period: with 3 columns the period is 6, with 4 columns it is 8. In 2025 this family gave a table with three columns.

a = int(input())
r = a % 8
if r == 1 or r == 0:
    print('A')
elif r == 2 or r == 7:
    print('B')
elif r == 3 or r == 6:
    print('C')
else:
    print('D')

Family 3 — n numbers read into a list. First n, then n numbers are read and collected in an empty list; then the list is processed either as a whole (min, max, sum) or element by element. In 2026 this family gave tasks of the types “each element plus the smallest element” and “files that fill whole clusters”.

n = int(input())
a = []
for i in range(0, n):
    a.append(int(input()))
m = max(a)
b = []
for x in a:
    b.append(m - x)
print(b)

n = int(input())
a = []
for i in range(0, n):
    a.append(int(input()))
s = 0
for x in a:
    k = x // 8
    if x % 8 != 0:
        k = k + 1
    s = s + k * 8
print(s)

n = int(input())
a = []
for i in range(0, n):
    a.append(int(input()))
m = sum(a) / n
k = 0
for x in a:
    if x > m:
        k = k + 1
print(k)

Family 4 — the digits of each number. The digits of every number are checked separately; it is convenient to put this into a helper function (see the lesson “Functions: def, parameters and return”). In 2026 the task “numbers whose digits are all odd” came from this family.

def even_digits(n):
    while n > 0:
        if n % 10 % 2 == 1:
            return False
        n = n // 10
    return True

n = int(input())
a = []
for i in range(0, n):
    a.append(int(input()))
k = 0
for x in a:
    if even_digits(x):
        print(x)
        k = k + 1
if k == 0:
    print('yoxdur')

a = int(input())
b = int(input())
k = 0
for x in range(a, b + 1):
    if str(x) == str(x)[::-1]:
        k = k + 1
print(k)

Family 5 — strings. A string is either read whole (s = input()) and walked character by character, or cut into pieces with split(' '). In 2025 this family gave tasks of the types “number of different characters in a string” and “sum of the indexes of the elements that start with 3 and end with 6”.

s = input()
k = 0
for ch in s:
    if s.count(ch) == 1:
        k = k + 1
print(k)

a = input().split(' ')
b = []
for i in range(0, len(a)):
    w = a[i]
    if w[0] == w[-1]:
        b.append(i)
if len(b) == 0:
    print('yoxdur')
else:
    print(b)

Mistakes that cost points, and self-checking

1. 1
   Trace the examples

   Run every Giriş example through the program with a table of variables; the result must match the Çıxış column exactly.

2. 2
   Check the edges

   The case with no matching element (yoxdur), a one-element list, the ends a and b of the segment themselves.

3. 3
   Check the output shape

   One print after the loop? The list in brackets? The word exactly as in the task (yoxdur)?

4. 4
   Check the syntax

   Colons, indentation, == in conditions, the two pairs of parentheses in int(input()).

5. 5
   Re-read the task

   “count” or “sum”? “odd” or “even”? “greater” or “greater or equal”?

def solve(a, b):
    s = 0
    for x in range(a, b + 1):
        r = int(x ** 0.5)
        if x % 2 == 0 and r * r == x:
            s = s + x
    if s == 0:
        return 'yoxdur'
    return s

tests = [(10, 70, 116), (50, 60, 'yoxdur'), (1, 4, 4)]
for a, b, expected in tests:
    got = solve(a, b)
    print(a, b, got, got == expected)

10 70 116 True
50 60 yoxdur True
1 4 4 True

When you prepare at home, check a program like this: turn the calculation into a function and run all the examples of the task at once. Then replace b + 1 with b and run it again — the third test gives False. This is what a mistake-catching test looks like: the right end of the segment (b = 4) is itself the answer.

a = 20
b = 60
# exam version: a = int(input()) and b = int(input())

4

line = '7 12 5 30 8'
# exam version: line = input()

4

The best way to prepare for the written tasks is to write one task of each family on paper against the clock and then check it on a computer with the examples. Reading programs (closed and coded tasks) is practised in the lesson “Analysing programs: from the output back to the input”, and the flowchart of task 88 in the lesson “Building flowcharts: the written tasks”.