Project: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock, Paper, Scissors is all about decisions, which makes it the perfect project for what you just learned. You will compare two choices and use if, elif, and else to announce the result.

What You'll Build

A program that takes the player's choice and the computer's choice, then prints who won.

Step 1: The Two Choices

Store both choices in variables. We set them directly so the outcome is predictable while you build; you will add randomness at the end.

Step 2: The Winning Rules

There are exactly three ways the player wins: rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, scissors beats paper. Everything else (that is not a tie) is a loss.

Build It Yourself

Put it together with if / elif / else. With player = 'rock' and computer = 'scissors', produce the exact two lines below.

Make It Random

Real games are unpredictable. random.choice picks a random item from a list, so the computer plays a different move each run. Run this a few times:

Challenge Ideas

• Also pick the player's move at random and see who wins
• Keep a running score across several rounds (you will have loops soon)
• Add "lizard" and "spock" for the expanded version of the game

Key Takeaways

• Games are just decisions, which if / elif / else handles perfectly
• Check the tie first, then the win cases, then let else cover the rest
• random.choice(list) picks a random item, making the game replayable
• Grouping conditions with or keeps the winning rules in one place