Day 3: Thursday the 3rd of July 2025.

Welcome back! 🎉

Yesterday, you wrote your first chatbot using print() and input(), and you learned how to store user input in variables. At this point, your “Cerebot” should at least be able to greet the user! Furthermore, depending on how creative you are, it should be able to ask about their favorite things.

Today, we’re going to make the bot smarter.

We’ll teach it how to make decisions using something called conditionals in programming. This will let your bot react differently depending on what the user says. It’s kind of like giving it a personality — or at least a set of basic reflexes.

The idea is for the Cerebot to say something predefined based on a condition.

Objectives for Today

Learn how to write decision-making code using if, else, and elif
Get comfortable with indentation (Python is strict about it!)
Make your chatbot respond to different answers with different outputs
Write and save a new chatbot file with logic-based conversation
Push your updated code to GitHub

Agenda

Time	What to do
15 min	Quick recap of variables and input handling
30 min	Learn and explore conditionals in Python
30 min	Build a chatbot that responds differently based on answers
30 min	Add some funny or custom reactions (a “secret password” maybe?)
30 min	Save your file, push to GitHub

🧠 Python Stuff: Giving Your Bot a Brain

So far, your chatbot could only say the same thing no matter what the user typed.

But that’s not how real conversations work. You want your bot to respond to the user, to think just a little before replying. This is where conditionals come in.

A conditional lets you tell the computer:

“If this thing is true, do this. Otherwise, do something else.”

You’ll use if, elif (which means “else if”), and else to set up these choices.

Example:

name = input("What's your name? ")

if name == "Batman":
    print("Welcome, Dark Knight.")
elif name == "Harry":
    print("You're a wizard!")
else:
    print("Nice to meet you, " + name + "!")

Even this tiny snippet - your bot already has an “attitude”.

✅ Key Python Concepts Today ✅

Concept	What It Means	Example
`if`	Tests whether something is true	`if name == "Alice":`
`else`	What to do if the `if` wasn’t true	`else: print("Hi!")`
`elif`	A second test if the first `if` wasn’t true	`elif name == "Bob":`
`==`	Comparison operator — checks if two things are equal	`if color == "blue":`
Indentation	Tabs/spaces used to show what belongs inside the `if`, `else`, etc.	(Use 4 spaces or Tab key)

Remember: in Python, indentation is not optional. It’s how the language knows which code belongs to which block. If something is not indented properly, Python will complain! I highly recommend looking at Python tutorials for further help with this, for example this one that you are likely familiar with.

✅ What Are We Building Today? ✅

Today, I would love if we could build (at the very least) a chatbot that:

Asks for the user’s name
Responds differently depending on the name
Asks for the user’s favorite color
If the color is “blue”, says “That’s the color of the sky!”
If the color is “red”, says something else (you decide)
Otherwise, just says “Nice choice”

This might sound small — but it’s the first step toward dynamic logic. Real programs are full of ifs and elses, and this is your first one.

Later, we’ll be using this to build whole conversation flows!

✅ File Structure So Far ✅

Here’s how your project folder might look now:

cerebot/
├── chatbot_hello.py          # Your very first script
├── chatbot_greetings.py      # Today’s file with conditionals
└── README.md                 # A file explaining your project

We’re separating each chatbot experiment into its own file. This keeps things clean and makes it easier to test ideas.

🚀 Push to GitHub 🚀

As long as you save your work on your own laptop, there is no need to worry about this part. It is optional but SUPER nice to have. If you’ve been successful setting up Git and a GitHub account, let’s save your progress online.

You should be doing this at least at the end of your day! Please do let me know if you are finding it a bit too challenging with this bit!

If using GitHub Desktop:

Open your repo folder
Click “Commit to main”
Message: Add greeting chatbot with if-else
Click Push origin

If using Terminal:

git add chatbot_greetings.py
git commit -m "Add greeting chatbot with if-else"
git push origin main

And just like that, you’ve backed up your work and can show it to the world. I’ll remind you that this is how software engineers document their work!

🏠 Homework for Day 3 🏠

Try adding one more question to your bot (e.g. “What’s your mood today?”) and use if/else to respond.
Try writing a version where a certain input gives a special reply (“You found the easter egg! 🥚”)
Go crazy with the if-else statements! The sky’s the limit. Invent complex scenarios and try solidifying the logic into if-else statements!
Watch this great beginner-friendly video on conditionals: Python If Else Statements – Real Python.

🔁 Tomorrow: Modular Brains and Functions 🔁

Right now, all your chatbot logic is in one big pile. That’s fine for now — but soon, it will get messy.

Tomorrow, we’ll start learning how to organize your bot’s brain using functions. This lets you reuse logic, stay clean, and build more complex bots step by step. You’re doing amazing. See you tomorrow!

The Cerebot Project

Summer Internship 2025