3. Show Text Quiz

3.1. Question 1

What is the default delay time between characters when using the display.show() function without specifying a custom delay?

150 milliseconds

Incorrect. 150ms is the default delay for the text scrolling function, not the show function.

200 milliseconds

Incorrect. 200ms is a custom short delay option mentioned in the tasks.

400 milliseconds

Correct. The documentation specifies that each character or digit is shown with a default of 400ms between them.

500 milliseconds

Incorrect. 500ms is used for pauses or custom slower displays.

3.2. Question 2

What happens to the micro:bit LED display after executing a basic display.show(3.14) statement without any additional clearing commands?

The display goes completely blank immediately.

Incorrect. The function does not clear itself automatically by default.

The text will continuously flash on and off.

Incorrect. Flashing requires a loop with explicit clear and sleep states.

The final digit or character (‘4’) remains visible on the display.

Correct. After using display.show, the last digit or character is left displayed on the screen.

The micro:bit restarts to reset the screen.

Incorrect. Hardware resets do not occur from a standard display call.

3.3. Question 3

Which function should be called to completely wipe or remove the last left-over character from the micro:bit screen?

display.reset()

Incorrect. There is no reset function in the display module for this purpose.

display.clear()

Correct. The display.clear() function is explicitly used to remove the last character from the display.

display.sleep()

Incorrect. Sleep is a global function used to pause program execution time, not clear the screen.

display.show(None)

Incorrect. Passing None is invalid syntax for removing text characters.

3.4. Question 4

What is the primary difference between the behavior of these two code examples?

Example A:

display.show(3.14)

Example B:

while True:
    display.show(3.14)
    display.clear()
    sleep(2000)

Example A repeats infinitely while Example B runs only once.

Incorrect. It is the opposite; Example B contains an infinite loop block.

Example A leaves the digit “4” static on the screen, while Example B clears it and creates a 2-second blank pause before repeating.

Correct. Example A leaves the final character up, whereas Example B deliberately blanks the display periodically.

Example B throws a syntax error because of the sleep statement.

Incorrect. Sleep is completely valid and keeps the screen blank for a short time.

They display characters at completely different speeds.

Incorrect. Both use the default character delay speed.

3.5. Question 5

If a developer sets the parameter clear=True inside display.show('Hi', clear=True), what action is performed automatically?

The entire script terminates immediately after showing ‘Hi’.

Incorrect. It does not stop execution of the script.

The string is displayed in reverse character order.

Incorrect. Character order remains sequentially normal.

The screen clears the final character automatically once the sequence finishes.

Correct. If clear is True, the display will be cleared after it has finished showing the sequence.

The character delay drops down to 0ms automatically.

Incorrect. The character-to-character delay parameter is independent of clearing.

3.6. Question 6

Which of the following lines correctly sets a custom delay of 150ms between sequence characters using keyword arguments?

display.show(5.64, delay=150)

Correct. This properly specifies the value and uses the named parameter syntax.

display.show(5.64, 150ms)

Incorrect. Appending ‘ms’ to a number is invalid syntax in Python.

display.show(delay=150)

Incorrect. The sequence value to display is entirely missing from this function call.

display.show(“5.64” + 150)

Incorrect. This attempts to perform an invalid addition between a string and an integer.

3.7. Question 7

Look closely at the following code structure:

from microbit import *

while True:
    display.show('I like the ', delay=200)
    display.show('NBA', delay=400)
    display.clear()
    sleep(2000)

What is the core design purpose of modifying the delay parameters in this specific way?

To conserve the physical battery life of the micro:bit device.

Incorrect. Adjusting screen delays does not materially alter device power modes.

To use a shorter delay for initial text context, and a longer, more readable delay for the main info.

Correct. Varying speeds allows secondary structural text to pass quickly and core content slowly.

To make the text ‘NBA’ scroll across the display horizontally.

Incorrect. The show function sequences elements statically one character at a time; it does not scroll.

To ensure the loop finishes running after 2000 iterations.

Incorrect. A while True condition loops indefinitely regardless of internal delays.

3.8. Question 8

What data types can be successfully passed as the first argument into the display.show() function sequence?

Only text strings wrapped in quotation marks.

Incorrect. It can process numerical digits directly too.

Integers only.

Incorrect. Strings and decimals can be shown just as easily.

Strings, floats, and integers.

Correct. The function sequentially displays letters or digits from strings, floating-point decimals, or whole integers.

Strictly lists or boolean objects.

Incorrect. These are not supported data sequences for standard sequential text display.

3.9. Question 9

A student wants to display the word “ABC” such that the final character ‘C’ is removed right away, followed by a brief half-second pause. Which option is correct?

display.show("ABC")
sleep(500)

Incorrect. This does not use clear parameters or clear commands, leaving ‘C’ stuck on screen.

display.show("ABC", clear=True)
sleep(500)

Correct. It automatically removes the last character via clear=True and pauses for 500ms (half a second).

display.show("ABC", clear=False)
sleep(50)

Incorrect. This explicitly stops the character from being cleared, and pauses for only 50ms.

display.show("ABC", delay=500)

Incorrect. This merely slows the timing between characters to 500ms instead of creating a final blank screen pause.

3.10. Question 10

Why are variables useful when passing statistics (like player names or scores) to a series of display.show() instructions?

They are mandatory because the function cannot display raw values.

Incorrect. Raw values can easily be passed directly to the function parameters.

They make it easy to see, organize, and edit data values at the top of the program without messing up the logic.

Correct. Isolating variables keeps the core display loop clean and easy to modify.

They automatically convert standard text into a scrolling animation.

Incorrect. Variables hold data but do not change the core behavior of the show function.

They clear the memory blocks of the micro:bit hardware automatically.

Incorrect. Variables occupy space in execution memory and do not perform cleanup tasks.