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Grade 6 · lesson 2 of 4

Trace a Repeat Inside a Repeat

Distinguish outer iterations, inner iterations and initialization scope.

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Supplied materials

  • Paper and pencil; an adult may read aloud. No device, account or purchase is needed.

Learn the idea

A nested loop runs one loop inside another. Each outer iteration starts a complete inner loop. Keep separate counters for the outer and inner positions so every visit is visible. Here repeat exactly means a fixed number of repetitions, and total is initialized only once before either loop.

Pseudocode: total = 0; repeat 2 times: repeat 3 times: total = total + 1; after both loops, show total. The inner addition runs three times in the first outer iteration and three times in the second. If the initialization were moved inside the outer loop, the earlier group’s total would be erased.

  1. Make columns outer iteration, inner iteration and total.
  2. Start total = 0 before the first row.
  3. Write rows (1,1), (1,2), (1,3), (2,1), (2,2), (2,3).
  4. Add 1 per row and compare the six visits with 2 × 3.
Worked example

See the method in action

The six rows end with totals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Shown result: 6. With total = 0 moved just inside the outer loop, each outer group ends at 3 and the final result is 3.

Your turn

Check your reasoning

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Keep total = 0 outside both loops. Repeat 3 times outside and 2 times inside, adding 2 per inner visit. What is shown?

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See the answer and explanation

12

There are 3 × 2 = 6 inner visits, each adding 2; the total is 12.

Take it further

Change only the original outer repeat count to 4. Expected inner visits: 4 × 3 = 12; final total 12.

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These LifeStarter passages, scenarios and exercises are authored for this Academy with AI assistance and review. External resources keep their publishers’ terms. A grade label suggests a starting level; it does not establish alignment with your school’s complete requirements.