Apr 27, 2026

Build-It Project: A Chatbot

Time for a project that pulls together the whole phase: a chatbot. It keeps reading what you type and replies based on what it spots in your message. It’s just a while loop (keep chatting), input (read the message), and if/elif (pick a reply) — tools you already have.

Step 1: spot a word in a message

The in keyword checks whether a word appears inside a string. With .lower(), capitals don’t matter:

Your code — edit it, then press Run

message = input("Say hi to the bot: ")
if "hello" in message.lower():
  print("Bot: Hi there!")
else:
  print("Bot: ...are you going to say hello?")

"hello" in message.lower() is True if the message contains “hello” anywhere — “Hello!”, “oh hello there”, all count.

Step 2: several possible replies

Use elif to give the bot different responses for different keywords:

Your code — edit it, then press Run

message = input("Talk to the bot: ")
text = message.lower()

if "hello" in text or "hi" in text:
  print("Bot: Hello, friend!")
elif "name" in text:
  print("Bot: I'm PyBot, nice to meet you.")
elif "joke" in text:
  print("Bot: Why did the programmer quit? They didn't get arrays. (a raise!)")
else:
  print("Bot: Tell me more!")

Notice "hello" in text or "hi" in text — the bot replies to either greeting. That’s the or from the booleans lesson, doing real work.

Step 3: keep the conversation going

A real chatbot doesn’t stop after one message. Wrap it in a while loop that keeps chatting until you type bye:

Your code — edit it, then press Run

print("Bot: Hi! Chat with me. Type 'bye' to leave.")
message = ""

while message.lower() != "bye":
  message = input("You: ")
  text = message.lower()

  if "hello" in text or "hi" in text:
      print("Bot: Hello!")
  elif "name" in text:
      print("Bot: I'm PyBot.")
  elif "how are you" in text:
      print("Bot: I'm just code, but I'm happy!")
  elif text == "bye":
      print("Bot: Goodbye! Come back soon.")
  else:
      print("Bot: Interesting. Tell me more.")

Each message pops a box; the bot replies; the loop repeats until you type bye. You built a conversation!

Make it your own 🚀

Give the bot a personality. Start from the looping version and:

Add new keywords and replies (about a pet, a game, the weather, your favorite food).
Make it answer to your own name.
Add a score-style counter that counts how many messages you sent, and have the bot mention it when you say bye.
Bonus: use a function reply(text) that returns the bot’s response, to keep the loop tidy.

Your code — edit it, then press Run

print("Bot: Hey! What's up? (type 'bye' to go)")
message = ""
while message.lower() != "bye":
  message = input("You: ")
  text = message.lower()
  # add your own keyword replies here
  if text == "bye":
      print("Bot: See ya!")
  else:
      print("Bot: Cool!")

What you learned

"word" in text checks whether a message contains a word; .lower() makes it case-proof.
or lets one branch react to several keywords.
A while loop keeps the conversation going until a quit word.
Real interactive programs are just loops + input + decisions working together.

Next time is the grand finale of Phase II — a text adventure game — plus a look ahead at Phase III, where you’ll work with real data and a first taste of AI. 🗺️

Build-It Project: A Chatbot

Step 1: spot a word in a message

Step 2: several possible replies

Step 3: keep the conversation going

Make it your own 🚀

What you learned

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