Answer: Python Puzzler #736

The answer is C. The program prints:

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

Why?

A negative position counts from the end: -1 is the last item, -2 the one before it. So -6 means item number 6 from the end.

Trace table

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

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

The code again

basket = ["melon", "banana", "plum", "mango", "pear", "apple"]
print(basket[-6])

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