Lesson 015
Control Flow: If Statements
Conditions · If / Else · Elif
1:00How programs make decisions using if, else, and elif — plus comparison operators, logical operators, short-circuit evaluation, and truthy/falsy values.
By the end, you can
- Explain what an `if` statement does when its condition is True versus False.
- Write correct Python `if`, `if/else`, and `if/elif/else` structures with proper colon and indentation.
- Read any comparison expression and state whether it evaluates to True or False.
- Trace an elif ladder for a given input value and identify which branch runs.
- Predict the result of an `and` or `or` expression, including where short-circuiting stops evaluation.
- Classify Python values as truthy or falsy and explain why `if x:` differs from `if x == True:`.
- Identify and fix the `=` vs `==` pitfall inside a condition.
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