Part 3: Control Flow — If, Else, and Making Decisions (with AI-Powered Practice)

So far, you’ve learned how to write Python scripts that take input and display output. Now it’s time to make your programs smart — capable of making decisions.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• Conditional logic using if, elif, and else
• Comparison and logical operators
• Real examples and AI tools to help you practice and test logic

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🔁 What Is Control Flow?

Control flow allows your program to make decisions and run different code depending on certain conditions. Python uses:

• if — checks a condition
• elif — checks another condition if the first is false
• else — runs if none of the above are true

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🧪 Example 1: Simple Conditional

age = int(input("Enter your age: "))

if age >= 18:
    print("You're an adult!")
else:
    print("You're a minor.")

Try changing the age to test different outcomes!

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🧠 AI Tip: Let ChatGPT Quiz You on Conditionals

Ask ChatGPT:

“Can you give me 5 beginner challenges using if/else logic in Python?”

It might respond with challenges like:

• Check if a number is even or odd
• Grade a test score
• Recommend weather attire based on temperature

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🔍 Comparison Operators

Operator	Meaning	Example
==	Equals	x == 5
!=	Not equal	x != 3
>	Greater than	x > 10
<	Less than	x < 7
>=	Greater or equal	x >= 18
<=	Less or equal	x <= 100

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🔗 Logical Operators

Use these to combine multiple conditions:

• and — all conditions must be true
• or — at least one must be true
• not — inverts the condition

temperature = 75
is_raining = False

if temperature > 70 and not is_raining:
    print("It's a great day for a walk!")

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🤖 Use AI to Analyze Logic

Try this in ChatGPT:

“Explain this code and how the condition works: if score >= 90 and attendance >= 80:”

You’ll get a step-by-step breakdown of how the logic is evaluated.

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🎯 Practice Challenge

Write a program that:

1. Asks for a user’s exam score (0–100)
2. Prints:
   • "A" if score ≥ 90
   • "B" if score ≥ 80
   • "C" if score ≥ 70
   • "D" if score ≥ 60
   • "F" otherwise

Bonus: Ask ChatGPT to help you add input validation or suggest a different grading scale!

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🛠️ Tools to Reinforce Learning

• 🔗 Real Python: If Statements
• 🔗 W3Schools: Python Conditions
• 🔗 ChatGPT: Turn your logic into quizzes or request logic breakdowns

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🏁 Coming Up in Part 4…

In the next post, we’ll dive into loops — the key to repeating actions and building simple games. You’ll learn about forand while loops, and we’ll use AI to generate custom loop challenges.

Bonus preview: We’ll create a simple “number guessing game”!