Python Coding Exercise #43: Shall We Continue?

The question

This program should print out the message “hi” and then ask “Shall we continue?” until the user inputs “no”. Then the program should print out “okay then” and finish. Please have a look at the example below.

hi
Shall we continue? yes
hi
Shall we continue? oui
hi
Shall we continue? jawohl
hi
Shall we continue? no
okay then

What is new here: a loop

Until now, every program in this series ran from the first line to the last line once. This exercise needs the program to repeat some lines, and to decide by itself when to stop. That is what a loop does.

A while loop repeats its indented block again and again, for as long as its condition is true:

while condition:
    # these lines repeat

In this exercise, we don’t know how many times the user will answer “yes”, so there is no number to count up to. The program has to keep going until the user types no.

My Solution

while True:
    print("hi")
    answer = input("Shall we continue? ")
    if answer == "no":
        break

print("okay then")

How My Solution Works

1. while True: starts a loop that never ends on its own

A while loop keeps going as long as its condition is true. Here the condition is simply True, and True is always true, so the loop would run forever. The only way out is the break inside it.

2. Everything indented is loop code block

The three lines under while True: are indented, so they are the loop’s block, and they repeat every time:

• print("hi") shows the message.
• answer = input("Shall we continue? ") asks the question and stores what the user types.
• The if checks the answer.

3. break leaves the loop

When the answer is "no", the if is true and Python runs break. That ends the loop immediately, and Python jumps to the first line after the loop. For any other answer, the if is false, nothing happens, and the loop goes back to the top and prints hi again.

4. print("okay then") is outside the loop

This last line is not indented, so it is not part of the loop. It runs only once, after the loop has ended. If it were indented, the program would print okay then after every answer.

Following the sample

Step	Python prints	User types	answer == "no"?	What happens
1	hi, then the question	yes	No	Loop again
2	hi, then the question	oui	No	Loop again
3	hi, then the question	jawohl	No	Loop again
4	hi, then the question	no	Yes	break, leave the loop
5	okay then			Program finishes

Notice that hi is printed before the question every time, including the first time. So even if the user types no straight away, the output is:

hi
Shall we continue? no
okay then

University Solution

while True:
    print("hi")
    answer = input("Shall we continue? ")
    if answer == "no":
        break
print("okay then")

The University Solution is the same as My Solution. The only difference is the blank line before the last print(), and a blank line doesn’t change anything in Python. It is there only to separate the loop from the line after it, so the code is easier to read.

Things to notice

The answer has to be exactly no. The comparison answer == "no" is case-sensitive and exact, as in Exercise #37. So No, NO and no (with a space at the end) don’t stop the program, and it asks again.

A loop that never ends. while True is useful when you don’t know how many rounds you need, but a loop without a working break runs forever. If that happens while testing, press Ctrl + C in the terminal to stop the program.

Key takeaways

• A while loop repeats its indented block for as long as its condition is true.
• while True: creates a loop that only ends when break runs.
• break ends the loop at once, and the program continues with the first line after it.
• Only the indented lines belong to the loop. An unindented line runs once, after the loop.
• Use a loop when you don’t know in advance how many times something has to repeat.
• The stop word has to be typed exactly, so No doesn’t match no.

✦ This is part of my Python Practice Exercise series, where I work through exercises while learning Python and explain each answer in plain language. ✦

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Practice Source: This exercise is taken from the Python Programming MOOC 2026 by the University of Helsinki. I’m working through the exercises as part of my Python learning journey and documenting my answers and explanations here.