GIAC GFACT Exam Review Book 2
Low level programming language a programming language that is closer to how the processor thinks and hardware
(machine code), are quite difficult to learn (EX. C)
High level programming language a language where the code you write is more abstract from the machine code that it
produces (EX. Python); enables development of a program in a much more user-
friendly programming context
Version Control System powerful tools that enable you to track changes to programming projects; enable
you to look back at your code at any point in time in the past, collaborate with other
developers and merge the work of many into a working product
Repository (Repo) the place where a project lives
Commit an incremental change to the repository
Origin the location of the remote repository
Master the name of the default branch in the git repository
Branches in Git allow you to work on specific features independently, without touching the
code in master
Types:
*The master branch
*The dev branch
Master Branch the production state of your application.
Dev Branch the testing state of your application, which would be what you test on
Pull request (pr) allow you to review all the code that would be changed in the merge and either
approve or reject it.
script.py the filename of the Python program you want to run
Variables a way of storing data in programs; the act of assigning a value where we use the
equals (=) operator.
String A series of characters (basically, text); are always surrounded by quotes
Stuvia 2026-2027
, GIAC GFACT Exam Review Book 2
Integer A whole number (could be positive or negative)
Float A number with a decimal point
Boolean A True or False value; can be represented as 1 (True) and 0 (False)
"Whitespace" refers to a type of character that doesn't print anything out, but adds some sort of
spacing formatting to the output.
\n character combination tell the program where we want our line breaks
\t character combination can add tabs to our output
lstrip() can strip whitespace off the left side of a string
email = ' '
email.lstrip()
Output: " "
rstrip() can strip whitespace off the right side of a string
email = ' '
email.rstrip()
Output: " "
strip() strip both sides of a string at the same time
email = " "
email.strip()
Output: ""
print() program will output the result of a string/mathematical operator
round() function it rounds decimal numbers up or down, to a given preferred decimal place
Lists a list of things stored in a particular order
(EX. fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu']
Index of -1 Python will always return the last item in the list
(EX. print(fav_linux_distros[-1]) )
upper() function modified an item from our list to appear in all uppercase
(EX. top_fav_distro.upper() )
Stuvia 2026-2027
, GIAC GFACT Exam Review Book 2
len() function get a quick count of the things in our list
(EX. print(len(fav_linux_distros)) )
sort() function sorts a list alphabetically
(EX.
fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Arch']
fav_linux_distros.sort()
Output: ['Arch', 'Debian', 'Fedora', 'Manjaro', 'Mint', 'Ubuntu'] )
reverse() funtcion reverse the order of a list
(EX.
fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Arch']
fav_linux_distros.reverse()
Output: ['Ubuntu', 'Mint', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Debian', 'Arch'] )
append() function allows us to stick items onto the end of a list.
(EX. travel_bucket_list.append('Toronto') )
insert() fucntion add items into an existing list at any position we want
(EX. travel_bucket_list.insert(0, 'New York') )
pop() fucntion taken the last item from the list and "popped" it off
(EX. visited = travel_bucket_list.pop() )
remove() function will allow us to remove an item from our list without specifying an index
(EX. travel_bucket_list.remove('Hawaii') )
Tuples similar to lists, except for 1 important quality: they are immutable; content items in
the list can't be changed once they are set.
(EX. stonehenge = ('51.1739726374', '-1.82237671048') )
Dictionaries in Python is similar to a list in that it's a collection of "things" we can store together;
in which that information is stored and retrieved
(EX. case_stats = {'total': 21, 'solved': 12, 'unsolved': 8} )
Code Comments are pieces of information you put in the code that the computer ignores; allows us to
add notes and narration into our code without having to worry about syntax, to help
make it clear to ourselves - and to others - what our program is intended to do
(EX.
# Say hello to the user
print("Hello User!") )
Conditionals allows us to check if certain conditions are being met before we run certain parts of
the program; often referred to more casually as "if statements" or "if tests"
lower() fucntion takes a string and changes any uppercase letters it finds within the string to their
lowercase counterparts
(EX. drink_available.lower() )
Stuvia 2026-2027
Low level programming language a programming language that is closer to how the processor thinks and hardware
(machine code), are quite difficult to learn (EX. C)
High level programming language a language where the code you write is more abstract from the machine code that it
produces (EX. Python); enables development of a program in a much more user-
friendly programming context
Version Control System powerful tools that enable you to track changes to programming projects; enable
you to look back at your code at any point in time in the past, collaborate with other
developers and merge the work of many into a working product
Repository (Repo) the place where a project lives
Commit an incremental change to the repository
Origin the location of the remote repository
Master the name of the default branch in the git repository
Branches in Git allow you to work on specific features independently, without touching the
code in master
Types:
*The master branch
*The dev branch
Master Branch the production state of your application.
Dev Branch the testing state of your application, which would be what you test on
Pull request (pr) allow you to review all the code that would be changed in the merge and either
approve or reject it.
script.py the filename of the Python program you want to run
Variables a way of storing data in programs; the act of assigning a value where we use the
equals (=) operator.
String A series of characters (basically, text); are always surrounded by quotes
Stuvia 2026-2027
, GIAC GFACT Exam Review Book 2
Integer A whole number (could be positive or negative)
Float A number with a decimal point
Boolean A True or False value; can be represented as 1 (True) and 0 (False)
"Whitespace" refers to a type of character that doesn't print anything out, but adds some sort of
spacing formatting to the output.
\n character combination tell the program where we want our line breaks
\t character combination can add tabs to our output
lstrip() can strip whitespace off the left side of a string
email = ' '
email.lstrip()
Output: " "
rstrip() can strip whitespace off the right side of a string
email = ' '
email.rstrip()
Output: " "
strip() strip both sides of a string at the same time
email = " "
email.strip()
Output: ""
print() program will output the result of a string/mathematical operator
round() function it rounds decimal numbers up or down, to a given preferred decimal place
Lists a list of things stored in a particular order
(EX. fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu']
Index of -1 Python will always return the last item in the list
(EX. print(fav_linux_distros[-1]) )
upper() function modified an item from our list to appear in all uppercase
(EX. top_fav_distro.upper() )
Stuvia 2026-2027
, GIAC GFACT Exam Review Book 2
len() function get a quick count of the things in our list
(EX. print(len(fav_linux_distros)) )
sort() function sorts a list alphabetically
(EX.
fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Arch']
fav_linux_distros.sort()
Output: ['Arch', 'Debian', 'Fedora', 'Manjaro', 'Mint', 'Ubuntu'] )
reverse() funtcion reverse the order of a list
(EX.
fav_linux_distros = ['Mint', 'Debian', 'Ubuntu', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Arch']
fav_linux_distros.reverse()
Output: ['Ubuntu', 'Mint', 'Manjaro', 'Fedora', 'Debian', 'Arch'] )
append() function allows us to stick items onto the end of a list.
(EX. travel_bucket_list.append('Toronto') )
insert() fucntion add items into an existing list at any position we want
(EX. travel_bucket_list.insert(0, 'New York') )
pop() fucntion taken the last item from the list and "popped" it off
(EX. visited = travel_bucket_list.pop() )
remove() function will allow us to remove an item from our list without specifying an index
(EX. travel_bucket_list.remove('Hawaii') )
Tuples similar to lists, except for 1 important quality: they are immutable; content items in
the list can't be changed once they are set.
(EX. stonehenge = ('51.1739726374', '-1.82237671048') )
Dictionaries in Python is similar to a list in that it's a collection of "things" we can store together;
in which that information is stored and retrieved
(EX. case_stats = {'total': 21, 'solved': 12, 'unsolved': 8} )
Code Comments are pieces of information you put in the code that the computer ignores; allows us to
add notes and narration into our code without having to worry about syntax, to help
make it clear to ourselves - and to others - what our program is intended to do
(EX.
# Say hello to the user
print("Hello User!") )
Conditionals allows us to check if certain conditions are being met before we run certain parts of
the program; often referred to more casually as "if statements" or "if tests"
lower() fucntion takes a string and changes any uppercase letters it finds within the string to their
lowercase counterparts
(EX. drink_available.lower() )
Stuvia 2026-2027
