Nested Loops Mini Project — Hangman

The problem...

One player knows the word. The other doesn't.

Letter by letter — the word gets revealed. Or the player runs out of chances.

The idea!

Player 1 enters the word. The screen clears with empty lines. Player 2 guesses one letter at a time. while keeps the game running. for checks each guess against every letter in the word.

The setup

word = input("Player 1 — enter a word: ").lower()
print("\n" * 50)    # clear the screen

50 empty lines push the word off screen. Not perfect — but good enough for two players sitting together.

The solution

word = input("Player 1 — enter a word: ").lower()
print("\n" * 50)

guessed = ""
max_attempts = 6
# longer words need more chances
wrong = 0

while wrong < max_attempts:
    display = ""
    for letter in word:
        if letter in guessed:
            display += letter + " "
        else:
            display += "_ "

    print(f"Word: {display}")
    print(f"Wrong attempts: {wrong}/{max_attempts}")
    print(f"Guessed: {guessed}")

    if "_" not in display:
        print("Player 2 wins!")
        break

    guess = input("Guess a letter: ").lower()

    if guess in guessed:
        print("Already guessed.")
        continue

    guessed += guess

    found = False
    for letter in word:
        if letter == guess:
            found = True
            break

    if not found:
        wrong += 1
        print(f"Wrong! {max_attempts - wrong} attempts left.")
else:
    print(f"Player 2 loses. The word was '{word}'.")

Test it

# Player 1 — enter a word: python
# Word: _ _ _ _ _ _
# Wrong attempts: 0/6
# Guessed:
# Guess a letter: p
# Word: p _ _ _ _ _
# Wrong attempts: 0/6
# Guessed: p
# Guess a letter: x
# Wrong! 5 attempts left.

What's really happening

while keeps the game alive — as long as wrong attempts are under the limit. The first for builds the display — checking each letter against what's been guessed. The second for checks if the new guess is in the word. continue skips duplicate guesses. while...else handles the loss — it runs only if the loop exhausted all attempts without a break.

Go further

• Add a drawing — print a simple ASCII hangman that grows with each wrong guess
• Allow guessing the full word — not just one letter
• Add a round counter — best of 3

What you should understand now

• while controls the game — for processes letters inside each turn
• Two for loops — one builds the display, one checks the guess
• continue skips duplicate guesses cleanly
• while...else handles the loss — runs only when the loop wasn't interrupted by break