STREET PARKING MACHINES PRACTICE PROGRAM

INSTRUCTOR
Connor Jones is a Mechanical Engineer and senior Python developer based in the UK. He holds a PhD of Mechanical Engineering and has participated in  several research projects at the Imperial College in London.

DESCRIPTION
The goal of this project is to write a program to simulate the software behind the street parking machines of an European city.
It is a real life application. There is no graphical interface. Your task is to build the engine embedded in these machines that calculates the final price for any driver willing to park in the city center. The program will have to display the total charge based on the user input as well as multiple conditions such as type of car, parking zone, timetable, etc. Just with conditional statements, “for&while” loops, dictionaries and dates you may complete the assignment. So, it is a fantastic challenge to ensure you understand core tools of Python and you know how to implement them in real world programs.

In addition, one of the objectives of this practice is to work with dates. Being able to deal with times, date formats, time zones and so on it is an essential skill for any Python learner, so after finishing the project you will gain a deep understanding of the datetime library, and working with dates will no longer be an issue for you.

Guided Project

There is also an extensive guidelines section where you will learn to plan and define the roadmap and the variables required to complete the project before starting to code. Moreover, Connor has broken down the program in small parts, each one with a specific purpose. This way you can focus on a particular task and once finished, check if your script yields the same outcome as the solution.

DOWNLOAD / CONTENT
You will receive an email with a protected  ZIP  and a password to access the content. The download is always available on your account.
The downloadable zip  is made up of:
1) INSTRUCTIONS: a PDF with the project description. It includes a guidelines section and a flow diagram to help you complete the challenge step by step. The project is broken down in several exercises or hints that you may follow in case you need guidance (11 pages).
2) SOLUTIONS: a Jupiter Notebook including detailed explanations and comments about how the code works. The code provided in the solutions has been written by a senior developer so it is clean and easy to understand. A great way to learn and adopt right habits to create quality software.
IMPORTANT: to see the solutions (Notebook) you need to have Jupyter or the ANACONDA package installed on your machine. If you do not have it,  you may download it here. It is free.

WHAT YOU WILL PRACTICE
– Ranges.
– “Input” command.
– “enumerate” command in “for” loop.
– Dictionaries.
– Conditional statements.
– Lists.
– Loops (while/for).
– Datetime library.

REQUIREMENTS
This project is highly recommended  for Python students that have finished a python bootcamp or online course and want to put theory into practice.

CONTACT
If you need additional information, do not hesitate to contact us.