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Digital · Guided lesson

Define states separately from events

About 12 minutes · 4 reading + 8 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A tested fictional equipment-repair workflow with a transition table, guarded actions, rejected transitions and a trace of two complete cases.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • A workflow map with distinct states and events.
  • A complete allowed-transition table and a rejection case.
  • A guarded verification matrix with accepted and rejected cases.
  • An impossible-event test with state preservation.
  • Complete, resumed and rejected workflow traces.
  • A tested finite workflow model with honest completion boundaries.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The implementation or declared simulation follows the supplied contract and retains inspectable original inputs.
  • Normal, boundary and rejected cases are recorded with expected versus observed results.
  • The changed case has a correct explanation and does not rely on hidden state.
  • The project includes source, outputs, instructions and honest tool, privacy and verification limits.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

States are new, triaged, repair, tested, closed. Events are triage, start_repair, verify, close.

The idea

A state is where work currently stands; an event is an attempt to change it. Stable terms make it possible to test allowed and impossible journeys.

Follow along

Define states separately from events — original worked practice

A state is where work currently stands; an event is an attempt to change it. Stable terms make it possible to test allowed and impossible journeys.

States are new, triaged, repair, tested, closed. Events are triage, start_repair, verify, close.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Place five state labels in a sequence.

    You should see: new→triaged→repair→tested→closed.

    This keeps the rule and its observable result together.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Label each arrow with its event.

    You should see: triage, start_repair, verify, close respectively.

    This keeps the rule and its observable result together.

  3. 3. Step 3

    Distinguish repair from start_repair.

    You should see: repair is state; start_repair is event.

    This keeps the rule and its observable result together.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Write a state/event vocabulary card.

    You should see: A workflow map with distinct states and events.

    This keeps the rule and its observable result together.

Now change one thing

The current state is repair. Enter the name of the event that attempts to move it to tested.

Your work

What to finish

A workflow map with distinct states and events.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Naming an event as a state and losing the distinction between an action and the resulting condition.

How can I tell I understand it?

Explain and demonstrate the required distinction: A state is where work currently stands; an event is an attempt to change it. Stable terms make it possible to test allowed and impossible journeys. Show a changed input and the expected result without weakening this contract.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1Which label is an event in the repair workflow?
2What does closed represent?
3Why do we use distinct state and event names?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
1
Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

Python built-in mapping types — dictionaries
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

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