pythonbeginner10 minutes

Refactor a Function to Calculate Factorial More Cleanly

Improve the clarity and simplicity of a provided factorial function without changing its behavior. Practice writing clean and readable Python code.

Challenge prompt

You are given a function that calculates the factorial of a number using a while loop and extra variables. Refactor the function to make it cleaner and more Pythonic, maintaining the same output, but removing unnecessary variables and improving readability. The function should return the factorial of the given non-negative integer.

Guidance

• Keep the same functionality of computing the factorial.
• Simplify variable usage and consider using a for loop if it improves readability.
• Make sure the function is easy to understand at a glance.

Hints

• Factorials can be computed cleanly using a for loop running from 1 up to the number.
• Try to name variables descriptively or reduce them to just what is necessary.

Starter code

def factorial(n):
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    result = 1
    i = 1
    while i <= n:
        result = result * i
        i = i + 1
    return result

Expected output

factorial(5) returns 120

Core concepts

functionsloopsvariablescode readability

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