Categorise the following as syntax error, logical error or runtime error: a) 25 / 0 b) num1 = 25; num2 = 0; nu

Exercises · Q8

Q. Categorise the following as syntax error, logical error or runtime error:

a) 25 / 0

b) num1 = 25; num2 = 0; num1/num2

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Concept understanding — Error Type Classification

Think about the three ways a cooking attempt can go wrong. You might write the recipe itself in broken language, so nobody can even begin ("stir the until brown the"). You might write it correctly but hit an impossible instruction halfway through — "pour the milk" when there is no milk in the house. Or the dish might come out of the oven looking fine but tasting wrong, because you wrote "salt" where you meant "sugar". Programs fail in exactly these three ways, and Python treats each one differently. Knowing which kind of failure you are looking at tells you where to search and how to fix it.

The three classes are:

Syntax errors. The code breaks the grammar rules of Python — a missing colon after an if, unmatched brackets, a misspelt keyword like whlie. Python refuses to run the program at all; it stops at translation time and points at (or near) the offending line. These are the easiest to fix because the interpreter finds them for you before a single statement executes.
Runtime errors (exceptions). The grammar is fine, so the program starts running, but some statement asks for the impossible while it executes. Dividing a number by zero raises ZeroDivisionError, using a variable that was never created raises NameError, adding a number to a string raises TypeError, asking for position 10 in a 3-item list raises IndexError, and int("hello") raises ValueError. The program crashes at that moment with a traceback naming the exception.
Logical errors. The most dangerous kind. The program runs from start to finish and prints something — but the something is wrong, because your reasoning was wrong. Using the wrong condition, adding where you should subtract, looping one time too few. Python raises no complaint, because Python cannot know what you intended.

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Both statements are syntactically valid — Python only discovers the problem while executing them, when it attempts a division by zero. That makes both runtime errors (a ZeroDivisionError).

>>> 25 / 0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
>>> num1 = 25; num2 = 0; num1/num2
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
``` …

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Both (a) and (b) are runtime errors — each is grammatically correct Python that crashes with ZeroDivisionError the moment the division is executed.

Recall the three categories:

Syntax error — the code violates Python's grammar, so it never starts running (e.g. a missing colon).
Logical error — the code runs to completion but produces a wrong result because the logic is flawed (e.g. using + where - was intended).
Runtime error — the code is grammatically valid and starts executing, but an operation becomes impossible while it runs, raising an exception.

a) 25 / 0 — the expression parses fine; the interpreter only discovers the impossible operation when it evaluates the division:

>>> 25 / 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

This is a runtime error.

b) num1 = 25; num2 = 0; num1/num2 — the first two assignments execute normally; the third statement then divides by the value of num2, which happens to be 0:

>>> num1 = 25; num2 = 0; num1/num2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
``` …

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Q.Categorise the following as syntax error, logical error or runtime error:

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