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Wrong quote type breaks the string
🐛 Fix the bug Topic: strings Difficulty: easy Free
What this problem practises
Python strings are immutable sequences. "Fixing" a string always produces a new one, so the return value has to be captured; slicing rules apply, and every method — upper(), strip(), split(), join() — behaves differently from the in-place mutation you might be picturing.
This is a fix-the-bug problem: a short program is given in its broken state, and the task is to repair the code so it produces the required output. The interactive editor runs your fixed version in the browser and checks it for you — no setup, no local interpreter.
Difficulty: easy — the fix or the trick is normally a single line, and a careful read should be enough.
The challenge
This should print a name with an apostrophe, but crashes. Fix it.
The code runs in PyDebug’s in-browser compiler. Open the problem, run the snippet, watch the exact error or output, and keep iterating until it is right. Signed-in solves count toward XP and your daily streak.
The error it raises
Run the broken snippet and Python stops with this exact error: SyntaxError: invalid syntax. Match it to the Python errors guide, then repair the line that produced it — knowing the message is half the fix.
The snippet
The interactive editor pre-fills exactly this code, broken and ready to repair:
name = 'It's Riya's laptop'
print(name)Understand the rule
A string that contains the same quote character it is delimited by ends earlier than intended: 'it's fine' terminates at the apostrophe, leaving s fine' as garbage the parser cannot read. The result is SyntaxError: unterminated string literal (or 'invalid syntax' pointing into the leftovers). Python offers three exits: switch the outer quotes, escape the inner one, or use triple quotes.
How to trace it
- Look at the syntax-highlighted line: editors flip colours exactly where the string really ends.
- Find the inner character matching the outer delimiter — an apostrophe inside single quotes, a quote mark inside doubles.
- Prefer swapping the delimiters: "it's fine" needs no escapes and stays readable.
- Escape (\') or use triple quotes only when the text mixes both quote types.
Common wrong fixes
- Deleting the apostrophe from the text to appease the parser, changing the actual content.
- Escaping every quote in sight instead of choosing the delimiter that needs no escaping.
- Confusing straight quotes with curly quotes pasted from a document — Python only treats straight ones as delimiters.
Rule to remember
A string ends at the first unescaped copy of its own delimiter. Pick the quote style the text does not contain — that is why Python accepts both single and double quotes.
🐍 Learning path: Python Basics
Problem 1 of 12 in this path. Work them in order — each one builds on the rule before it.
More strings problems
- String concatenation with + easy
- join() and split() medium
- zip() combining two lists medium
Keep going
- Python debugging guide — a systematic method for finding bugs like this one fast.
- Browse every strings problem in this topic.
- Common Python errors and what they actually mean, plus the Python glossary for any term used on this page.