Homework 3: Ranking Scholarship Applications

Order a list of scholarship applications from the lowest review score to the highest, without sorted(), .sort(), min(), or max(). Across seven test-driven phases you will build the solution out of small functions with clear contracts: one comparison rule that settles what a tie means, a function that combines two ordered groups, a function that splits a group in two, a function that orders the groups too small to split, and a function that uses all of them to order a group of any size. Then you will add a policy for applications with missing or unusable scores and print an exactly formatted ranking report. Each phase ships with its own tests, and only at the end are you asked to name the method you have built.

Related session: Session 4 — Functions and Decomposition

The Phases

The point is not “produce ordered output”. It is to write focused functions with clear inputs, outputs and responsibilities, test each one on its own, combine them into a larger solution, and revise the design when hidden cases surface.

Topics Covered

• Functions as contracts: name, parameters, return value, documented edge cases
• Decomposition — building one behavior out of several smaller ones
• Recursion, and the base case that stops it
• Returning new data instead of modifying the input
• Deciding a policy for missing and unusable values
• Test-driven work, one phase at a time
• String formatting for an exactly specified report

Instructions

The full instructions, the starter file, and the per-phase tests are released through the course template. On the course server run ifi8410-update, then read Assignments/HW03/instructions/homework03_instructions.md and work in Assignments/HW03/submission/.

No pandas, no numpy, no file reading — the dataset is a list of dictionaries defined in the starter file. Hand in with ifi8410-test and ifi8410-submit.