Answer: Python Puzzler #398

The answer is B. The program prints:

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

Why?

Python counts list positions from 0, so position 2 is the third item.

Trace table

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

positionnegative positionitem
0-6banana
1-5pear
2-4plum
3-3melon
4-2grape
5-1mango

The code again

basket = ["banana", "pear", "plum", "melon", "grape", "mango"]
print(basket[2])

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