ENGR 103 — Week 10: List Operations and Mutability

📖 Weekly Overview

This final week completes our study of Python data structures by exploring mutability — the ability to change objects in place. Understanding mutation and aliasing prevents hard-to-find bugs in data analysis pipelines.

🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

Explain and avoid aliasing bugs
Clone lists safely using copy methods
Process lists without mutating inputs
Apply all loop and list patterns to complete data analysis programs

📚 Required Reading

Guttag, "Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python" (3rd Ed)
Week 10 Reading: Ch 5.3–5.5
Complete before the first lecture of the week.

📅 This Week's Schedule

Monday: Monday: Mutation, aliasing, and cloning
Friday: Friday: Loops over lists and course wrap-up.

✅ Assignments Due This Week

Week 10 Quiz — Due Sunday 11:59 PM on Canvas (15 questions, 15 pts)
Week 10 Assignment — Due Sunday 11:59 PM on Canvas (3 coding problems)

🔗 Resources

Lecture slides available on Canvas before each class
Textbook: Guttag Ch 1 available free at MIT OpenCourseWare
Python documentation: docs.python.org
Office hours: Check Canvas calendar for times and Zoom/room info
Course Piazza: Post questions (anonymously if preferred)