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Challenge 188: 2026 Winter Games Day 9: Skeleton

curriculum/challenges/english/blocks/daily-coding-challenges-python/697a49e6ff50d756c9b69365.md

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--description--

Given a string representing the curves on a skeleton track, determine the difficulty of the track.

  • The given string will only consist of the letters:

    • "L" for a left turn
    • "R" for a right turn
    • "S" for a straight segment

  • Each direction change adds 15 points (an "L" followed by an "R" or vice versa).

  • All other curves add 5 points each (all other "L" or "R" characters).

  • Straight segments add 0 points.

The difficulty of the track is based on the total score. Return:

  • "Easy" if the total is 0 - 100
  • "Medium" if the total is 101-200
  • "Hard" if the total is over 200

--hints--

get_difficulty("SLSLLSRRLSRLRL") should return "Easy".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("SLSLLSRRLSRLRL"), "Easy")`)
}})

get_difficulty("LLRSLRLRSLLRLRSLRRLRSRLLS") should return "Hard".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("LLRSLRLRSLLRLRSLRRLRSRLLS"), "Hard")`)
}})

get_difficulty("SRRRRLSLLRLRSSRLSRL") should return "Medium".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("SRRRRLSLLRLRSSRLSRL"), "Medium")`)
}})

get_difficulty("LSRLRLSRLRLSLRSLRLLRLSRLRLRSL") should return "Hard".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("LSRLRLSRLRLSLRSLRLLRLSRLRLRSL"), "Hard")`)
}})

get_difficulty("SLLSSLRLSLSLRSLSSLRL") should return "Medium".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("SLLSSLRLSLSLRSLSSLRL"), "Medium")`)
}})

get_difficulty("SRSLSRSLSRRSLSRSRSLSRLSRSR") should return "Easy".

js
({test: () => { runPython(`
from unittest import TestCase
TestCase().assertEqual(get_difficulty("SRSLSRSLSRRSLSRSRSLSRLSRSR"), "Easy")`)
}})

--seed--

--seed-contents--

py
def get_difficulty(track):

    return track

--solutions--

py
def get_difficulty(track):
  score = 0

  for i in range(len(track)):
    current = track[i]
    previous = track[i - 1] if i > 0 else None

    if current == 'S':
      score += 0
    elif current == 'L' or current == 'R':
      if previous and previous != 'S' and previous != current:
        score += 15
      else:
        score += 5

  if score <= 100:
    return 'Easy'
  elif score <= 200:
    return 'Medium'
  else:
    return 'Hard'