Answer: Python Puzzler #401

The answer is C. The program prints:

2
What the program prints
Checked by running the program for real.

Why?

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

Trace table

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

lettermatches?
m
i
s
s
i
s
s
i
pyes
pyes
i

The code again

word = "mississippi"
print(word.count("p"))

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