I’m not really a fan of this kind of question. Especially if there’s enough questions that time will be an issue for most. Because at first glance it’s easy to think the answer might be the length of a day.
There shouldn’t be a need to try to trick people into the wrong answer on an open question. Maybe with multiple choice but not an open answer question.
I get your point about it being a trick question but I think in this case it’s pretty reasonable that you would see code like this in real life. Where the programming metaphor and your understanding of the real world clash. It’s a very important skill to be able to spot the difference.
The compiler or interpreter does that for you. There’s no point in these “gotcha’s”. They are cute brain teasers that belong on those useless “are you a programmer” quizzes you find on random meme websites, not an exam.
In the error shown a compiler would be just fine and run as usual but the person programming it would be expecting a different result so a compiler wouldn’t do this for you since it’s a logical error and not a syntax error.
If it’s a statically typed language and x is of type Date, it’s for sure throw a type error when trying to assign a string to it. If it had autoboxing / auto type conversion from String to Date, length could return a number or a string.
If this were Javascript on NodeJS, it would fail at print(x) because that doesn’t exist in JS. If it were Python it would fail at x.length because that has to be len(x). And so on.
If this were all to pass, at the latest at runtime, when the programmer sees the output “6”, they would know something’s up.
Well, both. If you rushed through without recalling that length has specific meaning relative to strings, even though you do know that, that’s a critical thinking failure. But yeah, not knowing strings could do it too.
A correct answer cannot be reached without an understanding of programming.
Yes. It does not follow, though, that knowledge of programming always leads to a correct answer. Since you seem like someone who might appreciate a formal logical description, you are affirming the consequent here.
Again, without sufficient critical thinking one might just miss the detail that “Monday” is a string and not a custom unit-of-time object, inheriting from Day.
But you can only mistake it as a custom object of you understand how coding works. I’m not saying an understanding will prevent you from being wrong, I’m saying having critical thinking will not reach the answer if you don’t have an understanding.
What is the type of the variable day though? As it is we have to make multiple assumptions, based on popular programming languages, about the internals of the string type and the print function to assume that it prints “6”.
Yes, it’s a full 24 hours, but a library doesn’t use 24:00:00 to represent the last hour, it’s 23:59:59. Once it hits 24:00, it rolls over to 00:00:00.
Hence my initial error of answering 23.
It’s not valid, but I don’t edit out erronous answers because I believe all data should be preserved, no matter how dumb it makes one look.
I wonder if day length is given separately in a table prior to the question? I’m not sure what they wanted except maybe seconds?
It’s the length of the string. The number of characters is 6. It’s a play on words and a question.
I’m not really a fan of this kind of question. Especially if there’s enough questions that time will be an issue for most. Because at first glance it’s easy to think the answer might be the length of a day.
There shouldn’t be a need to try to trick people into the wrong answer on an open question. Maybe with multiple choice but not an open answer question.
I get your point about it being a trick question but I think in this case it’s pretty reasonable that you would see code like this in real life. Where the programming metaphor and your understanding of the real world clash. It’s a very important skill to be able to spot the difference.
The compiler or interpreter does that for you. There’s no point in these “gotcha’s”. They are cute brain teasers that belong on those useless “are you a programmer” quizzes you find on random meme websites, not an exam.
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In the error shown a compiler would be just fine and run as usual but the person programming it would be expecting a different result so a compiler wouldn’t do this for you since it’s a logical error and not a syntax error.
If it’s a statically typed language and
xis of typeDate, it’s for sure throw a type error when trying to assign a string to it. If it had autoboxing / auto type conversion fromStringtoDate, length could return a number or a string.If this were Javascript on NodeJS, it would fail at
print(x)because that doesn’t exist in JS. If it were Python it would fail atx.lengthbecause that has to belen(x). And so on.If this were all to pass, at the latest at runtime, when the programmer sees the output “6”, they would know something’s up.
As I said, cute, but worthless test.
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Software engineering as a discipline is pretty much a series of trick questions.
It relies on critical thinking (meaning thinking about your own thinking), basically, and most students aren’t very good at that.
This doesn’t rely on critical thinking. It just relies on understanding what “.length” does, which would’ve been previously covered in the lessons.
Well, both. If you rushed through without recalling that length has specific meaning relative to strings, even though you do know that, that’s a critical thinking failure. But yeah, not knowing strings could do it too.
If you didn’t know the answer, it’s a critical thinking exercise? Not at all.
Answering this question relies completely on understanding programming. A correct answer cannot be reached without an understanding of programming.
Yes. It does not follow, though, that knowledge of programming always leads to a correct answer. Since you seem like someone who might appreciate a formal logical description, you are affirming the consequent here.
Again, without sufficient critical thinking one might just miss the detail that “Monday” is a string and not a custom unit-of-time object, inheriting from
Day.But you can only mistake it as a custom object of you understand how coding works. I’m not saying an understanding will prevent you from being wrong, I’m saying having critical thinking will not reach the answer if you don’t have an understanding.
Conversations about language aside, the error is that “Monday” is a string with a length of 6.
What is the type of the variable
daythough? As it is we have to make multiple assumptions, based on popular programming languages, about the internals of thestringtype and theprintfunction to assume that it prints “6”.There is a fairly good chance that there has been more info presented in the class than we have been given here.
That’s the variable name, not the type
I’m assuming they wanted the literal length of the string
Naw, they wanted the metaphorical length. Computers are great at metaphors.
That seems to be the consensus.
Most date libraries count to 23h 59m 59s then roll over to 00h 00m 00s. So the answer is 23 hours, not 24.
Edit: I’m big dum dum. It’s asking string length of “Monday”, thus 6.
You’re also mistaken about the time too. The first second of the day is 00:00:00 the last second of the day is 23:59:59
That’s still a full and exact 24 hours.
Yes, it’s a full 24 hours, but a library doesn’t use 24:00:00 to represent the last hour, it’s 23:59:59. Once it hits 24:00, it rolls over to 00:00:00.
Hence my initial error of answering 23.
It’s not valid, but I don’t edit out erronous answers because I believe all data should be preserved, no matter how dumb it makes one look.
00:00:00 is the 1st second of the day. 23:59:59 is the 86400th second of the day. That’s 24 hours.
Doing the lord’s work.
I have but one up vote and you already have it.