The answer is A. The program prints:
23
Why?
The loop remembers the biggest number it has seen so far, and replaces it whenever it finds a bigger one. This is how computers find the maximum.
Trace table
A trace table follows the program step by step. Here’s this one:
| n | n > biggest? | biggest |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | yes | 21 |
| 5 | no | 21 |
| 1 | no | 21 |
| 23 | yes | 23 |
| 15 | no | 23 |
The code again
numbers = [21, 5, 1, 23, 15]
biggest = 0
for n in numbers:
if n > biggest:
biggest = n
print(biggest)Try it: change one number in the program and predict the new output before you run it.