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Practice

Conditional Statements (if, elif, else)

Sometimes your program needs to make decisions, just like you do in real life:

  • If your score is above 90, you get an A.
  • If it's above 80, you get a B.
  • Otherwise, you try harder next time.

This is the essence of conditional logic.


How Python Makes Decisions​

Python uses the keywords if, elif, and else to decide which lines of code should run.

Here's a simple example:

Conditional Statements
score = 85

if score >= 90:
    print("Grade: A")
elif score >= 80:
    print("Grade: B")
else:
    print("Grade: C or below")

What's Happening Here?​

  • Python checks the first condition: score >= 90. It is false, so that block is skipped.
  • Then it checks the next condition: score >= 80. It is true, so it prints Grade: B.
  • Once a condition is met, Python does not check the others.
  • If none are true, the else block runs.

Key Ideas to Remember​

  • Conditions are checked from top to bottom.
  • Indentation shows which lines belong to each block.
  • You can use multiple elif statements, but only one if and one else.

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