PythonBeginner45–60 minutes

Student Attendance Tracker

A simple classroom-style program that works entirely on one laptop. Students practice lists, loops, conditions, and basic data handling without needing a database or internet connection.

Starter code

Read it. Run it. Change it.

Save the code below as attendance_tracker.py. The example is intentionally small enough for a student to explain line by line before adding new features.

attendance_tracker.pyPython

students = ["Aarav", "Riya", "Kabir", "Meera"]
present = []
absent = []

for student in students:
    answer = input(f"Is {student} present? (yes/no): ").lower()

    if answer == "yes":
        present.append(student)
    else:
        absent.append(student)

print("\nPresent students:", present)
print("Absent students:", absent)
print("Total present:", len(present))
print("Total absent:", len(absent))

How to run it on a laptop

1. Install Python 3 if it is not already available.
2. Open IDLE, Thonny, VS Code, or any simple text editor.
3. Copy the code into a new file named attendance_tracker.py.
4. Run the file. No internet connection, database, or server is required.

Build it step by step

Create the class list

Store student names inside a Python list.

Ask about each student

Use a loop so the same question can be repeated automatically.

Sort the answers

Add names to present or absent lists based on the response.

Show the result

Print the names and totals at the end.

Make it your own

Let the user type the student names before attendance begins.
Calculate the percentage of students present.
Save the final attendance as a text file after learning file handling.