Answer: Python Puzzler #428

The answer is C. The program prints:

1
What the program prints
Checked by running the program for real.

Why?

count goes through the string and counts how many times ‘b’ appears.

Trace table

A trace table follows the program step by step. Here’s this one:

lettermatches?
byes
a
n
a
n
a

The code again

word = "banana"
print(word.count("b"))

Try it: change one number in the program and predict the new output before you run it.