Build Hangman in Python — Learn Lists, Strings, Functions & Sets (Beginner Project)

Subtitle: A fun, bite-sized Python project that teaches four fundamental concepts while you build something playable in under 30 minutes.

Hook: Want a hands-on way to practice Python that’s actually fun to play? Build a Hangman game. You’ll use strings for words, lists and sets for tracking guesses, and functions to keep your code tidy — all while making a small, satisfying game you can share with friends.

Why Hangman?

Hangman is an ideal beginner project because it’s small, interactive, and covers core programming patterns:

• input/output and validation
• state tracking (what’s been guessed)
• loops and conditionals
• modular code with functions

By the end, you’ll not only have a working game, you’ll also understand when and why to use lists vs sets, and how to structure code into reusable pieces.

The full code (copy–paste and run)

import random

# Function to choose a random word
def choose_word():
    words = ["python", "developer", "hangman", "function", "programming", "set", "string", "list"]
    return random.choice(words)

# Function to display progress
def display_progress(word, guessed_letters):
    display = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in guessed_letters:
            display += letter + " "
        else:
            display += "_ "
    return display.strip()

# Function to check guess
def check_guess(guess, word, guessed_letters, wrong_guesses):
    if guess in word:
        guessed_letters.append(guess)
        print(f"✅ Good guess! '{guess}' is in the word.")
    else:
        wrong_guesses.append(guess)
        print(f"❌ Oops! '{guess}' is not in the word.")

# Function to check if game is over
def is_game_over(word, guessed_letters, wrong_guesses, max_attempts):
    unique_letters = set(word)
    if unique_letters.issubset(set(guessed_letters)):
        print("\n🎉 Congratulations! You guessed the word:", word)
        return True
    elif len(wrong_guesses) >= max_attempts:
        print("\n💀 Game Over! The word was:", word)
        return True
    return False

# Main game function
def hangman():
    word = choose_word()
    guessed_letters = []
    wrong_guesses = []
    max_attempts = 6

    print("🔠 Welcome to Hangman!")
    print("You have", max_attempts, "wrong attempts allowed.\n")

    while True:
        print("Word:", display_progress(word, guessed_letters))
        print("Wrong guesses:", wrong_guesses)

        guess = input("👉 Enter a letter: ").lower()

        # Validation
        if len(guess) != 1 or not guess.isalpha():
            print("⚠️ Please enter a single alphabet letter.\n")
            continue
        if guess in guessed_letters or guess in wrong_guesses:
            print("⚠️ You already guessed that letter.\n")
            continue

        # Check guess
        check_guess(guess, word, guessed_letters, wrong_guesses)

        # Check if game is over
        if is_game_over(word, guessed_letters, wrong_guesses, max_attempts):
            break
        print()

# Run the game
hangman()

How it works (plain language)

• The game picks a word (choose_word).
• The display function hides unguessed letters with _.
• When you type a letter, the game checks whether that letter exists in the word and updates either guessed_letters (correct) or wrong_guesses (incorrect).
• Win condition: you’ve guessed every unique letter (sets make this easy).
• Lose condition: you exceed the allowed number of wrong attempts.

What you learn building this

• Strings: manipulation and normalization (lower()), iterating characters.
• Lists: storing guess history and printing it in order.
• Sets: checking unique letters and fast membership.
• Functions: breaking the program into readable, testable parts.

Closing (CTA)

Ready to try it? Paste the code into a file hangman.py and run python hangman.py. If you want, I can:

• add an ASCII hangman drawing so wrong guesses draw the figure step-by-step, or
• convert it into a Tkinter GUI or Flask web app — tell me which and I’ll give the code.

If you want, I’ll now:

• add the ASCII hangman drawing and integrate it with the current code, or
• show a slightly refactored version that uses sets internally and allows a full-word guess.

Which one should I do next? (No need to explain anything — I’ll just add it.)