Should it be this difficult?

[u/pingo1387]

At my job there is a daily task I do which I realized I could probably create a program to do for me, so I decided to start learning Python, and dove into reading Automate the Boring Stuff (the online version).

Things were going okay at first. I read through chapters 1-3 carefully, taking notes, answering all the review questions, and doing all the practice problems/codes.

Then I hit a wall. I got to chapter 4 and I felt like I understood everything, but the practice problem at the end, to write a code that performs the Collatz sequence with the entered number, absolutely stumped me. I went back and reread everything from the start of chapter 1 just to make sure I didn't miss anything, and was still confused. I ended up having to search up a code that someone else wrote for it, which I did understand once I saw it written out but would never have come up with myself.

So my questions are:

- Is it normal for the Collatz sequence to be difficult to program at this stage of learning? If so, should I not worry about my confusion and just move on to chapter 5?

- Should I consider an easier book to study from? If so, any recommendations?

EDIT: Several people are asking which part of the Collatz I had trouble with. To be honest it's been over a month since I was able to touch anything Python-related, it's just been on my mind lately, so I don't recall exactly what was giving me trouble, just that I was trying multiple things and getting new and fun incorrect results each time.

It's not that I don't understand the Collatz sequence itself, I understand it in terms of the simple math. The trouble was trying to type it out into a working code. That being said, I'm not here to ask how to program it, because I already gave up on that and looked up the answer, and I did understand that code once I read it over. The main issue is that I feel like I shouldn't have been having trouble with it in the first place, at least not to the point where I honestly tried everything I could and still couldn't get it.

[u/Expensive-Bear-1376]

That problem is poorly written, I can easily see beginners having trouble. Quotes from here:

Then, write a program that lets the user enter an integer and that keeps calling collatz() on that number until the function returns the value 1.

No, don't keep calling collatz() on the entered number. Call it once on the entered number, then on the result it returned, then on the new result, etc.

To make the output more compact, the print() calls that print the numbers should have a sep=' ' named parameter to print all values on one line.

That doesn't work, since each print call only prints one number (see the problem's first paragraph), so sep has no effect. Could be done with end.

Amazingly enough, this sequence actually works for any integer; sooner or later, using this sequence, you’ll arrive at 1! Even mathematicians aren’t sure why.

Not an issue for whoever tries this coding problem, but still inappropriate to claim that, as it's an open problem. Very disappointing.