Pokemon Evolution - codepath/compsci_guides GitHub Wiki

Unit 5 Session 1 (Click for link to problem statements)

U-nderstand

Understand what the interviewer is asking for by using test cases and questions about the problem.

• What if the starting Pokemon has no evolutionary line?
  • The function should still return a list containing only the starter Pokemon.

P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: Traverse through the evolutionary chain of the given Pokemon and compile a list of all forms from the starter to its final evolution.

1) Initialize a list `evolution` with the `starter_pokemon` as its first element.
2) Set a variable `current_pokemon` to the `starter_pokemon`.
3) Use a while loop to follow the evolution chain:
  a) While `current_pokemon.evolution` is not None:
    i) Append the next evolution to the `evolution` list.
   ii) Move to the next Pokemon in the evolutionary line by setting `current_pokemon` to `current_pokemon.evolution`.
4) Return the `evolution` list containing the starter Pokemon and all its evolutions.

⚠️ Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to handle cases where a Pokemon does not evolve.
• Failing to update the current_pokemon variable within the loop, which could lead to an infinite loop.

I-mplement

def evolve(starter_pokemon):
  evolution = [starter_pokemon]

  current_pokemon = starter_pokemon
  while current_pokemon.evolution:
    evolution.append(current_pokemon.evolution)
    current_pokemon = current_pokemon.evolution

  return evolution
  
# Testing:
evolution = evolve(charmander)
for pokemon in evolution:
  print(pokemon.name)