Answer: Python Puzzler #728

The answer is D. The program prints:

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

Why?

Python counts list positions from 0, so position 4 is the fifth item.

Trace table

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

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

The code again

basket = ["banana", "melon", "pear", "mango", "plum", "apple"]
print(basket[4])

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