EvilCoding

Let's pick a short and well working program and mess it up like hell!

Who can create the worst nightmare from a simple python script?

Round 2 - Getting a Chuck Norris joke

Let's fetch a random category Chuck Norris joke from here

This could look like:

In [1]: import requests

In [2]: import random

In [3]: categories_url = 'https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/categories'

In [4]: cat_res = requests.get(categories_url)

In [5]: category = random.choice(cat_res.json())

In [6]: joke_url = 'https://api.chucknorris.io/jokes/random'

In [7]: joke_res = requests.get(joke_url, params={'category': category})

In [8]: print(joke_res.json()['value'])
Chuck Norris can do a wheelie on a unicycle.

But there must be a worse way!

Round 1 - Starting simple

Task: Add all numbers from 1 to 1000.

One could simply write:

In [1]: sum(range(1000 + 1))
Out[1]: 500500

But this makes it much too easy for others to find out what's going on.

Rules

• Do not write more than 100 lines, but make them read as hard as possible
• Each line which is not an empty one must be called/used in the code
• The resulting program must print a random Chuck Norris joke to the console
• Contribute your version as round_<number>_<user>.py in a PR

Ideas

Some inspiring ideas to get you started.

Avoid built-ins

Cool kids code their own sum. Try to find a good name for it. Nobody shall know it's actually sum.

def add_up_numbers(numbers):
    result = 0
    for number in numbers:
        result += number
    return result

Use short variable names

Why not start with a, b, ... , A, B, ... , aa, bb. This will make your code look dense and thoughtful.

c = a.text  # python3!
d = b in c
e = a.url
f = e == A + U

Wrap primitive data into complex objects

And find important-sounding names for both the class and its methods.

Good class names end on words like Manager or Agent, good method names use words like run, execute, check or initialize.

Comments

Your secret weapon and advanced obfuscation tool. A simple comment can keep useless lines alive for a LONG time!

Test your readers attention by having both super-important and 100% useless/misleading comments in the code. You never know until you've checked the whole thing!

Try to break your reader by also commenting on the following line like Now the if or next is for-loop.

Overengineering

This case is too simple for range. We should build our own generator with blackjack and hookers!

Do not hesitate to write a temple of computing purity arround a simple problem!

Using lambda

def is for lame people. Protect your code by using lambda, this will scare off beginners and looks like super-magic stuff.

# define some basic functions ...
P = lambda p: print(p)
L = lambda l: len(l)
I = lambda i: intern(i)

Make your program fragile

Do not allow easy changes on your code. This can mostly be achieved by using the techniques described above. Or you just comment DO NOT CHANGE.

Use *args and **kwargs completely wrong

Do not forget *args and **kwargs in all your function signatures, make sure to add some extra useless arguments whenn calling them.

def something(a, b, *args, **kwargs):
    '''only use a and b!'''
    return a + b
    
# 30 lines down the road you call ... make sure to use important-sounding keyword arguments!
something(a, b, True, False, [1, 3, 5], match=False)

The naming game

Finding misleading names is an art only the best obfuscators can master. Some words bring certain meaning with them in programming context like key or token. Using such words with a different meaning will make your readers nose bleed and create the most beautiful bugs! Consider shadowing built-ins when you get the chance!

Build your own namespace hell to trap your readers, Kudos to fpichl:

true = False
reverseԀ = list
reverseď = reversed
reverseԁ = range
reverseɖ = len
reverseɗ = str
reverseđ = int

Make use of pythons unicode compatibility!

Kudos to fpichl:

def ٶ(**ٸ):
    ٷ = ٸ['ܔ']
    ڈ = ٸ['ܓ']
    ډ = not (not ٸ['ܓ'] or not ٸ['ܔ'])
    ڊ = all(ڋ == true for ڋ in [ڈ, ٷ]) or ډ
    return ڊ

What a beauty!

Write code generating even more code

Break all line limits by writing code, which generates and executes more code! Use eval and friends. Consider using inspect and ast to realize all your code generator dreams.