Tennis Score

Level: Intermediate 30–60 min

Concepts: State

Solutions: C# | TypeScript | Python

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Create a program to score a tennis match.

Requirements

1. Implement tennis scoring rules:
   • 0 points = “Love”
   • 1 point = “15”
   • 2 points = “30”
   • 3 points = “40”
   • 4+ points = “Game” (if leading by 2)
2. Handle deuce scenarios:
   • Both players at 40 = “Deuce”
   • Player ahead by 1 = “Advantage”
   • Player ahead by 2 = “Game”
3. Support match scoring:
   • Games needed to win a set (6, leading by 2)
   • Sets needed to win the match (2)

Tiebreak rules at 6-6 are a bonus and are not part of the reference implementations linked below.

Test Cases

Scenario	Score	Expected Output
Start of Game	0-0	”Love-Love”
First Point	1-0	”15-Love”
Two Points Each	2-2	”30-30”
Deuce	3-3	”Deuce”
Advantage	4-3	”Advantage Player 1”
Game Win	4-2	”Game Player 1”
Set Win	6-4	”Set Player 1”
Match Win	6-4, 6-3	”Match Player 1”

Stretch Goals (Not in the Reference)

The reference implementations cover the eight scenarios above and stop. If you want to extend further:

• Tiebreak scenarios (at 6-6 in games)
• Match point detection
• Validation against impossible game states
• Negative-score / invalid-input rejection

Tips

• Start with basic point scoring
• Add deuce handling next
• Then implement game scoring
• Finally add set and match scoring
• Consider using enums for score states

Reference Walkthrough

Full C#, TypeScript, and Python implementations live at tddbuddy-reference-katas/tennis-score — the same eight scenarios across all three languages, walked commit-by-commit through the TDD cycle.

• C# (.NET 8, xUnit, FluentAssertions) — walkthrough
• TypeScript (Node 20, Vitest, strict types) — walkthrough
• Python (3.11, pytest) — walkthrough

This is a Pedagogy mode kata — the walkthroughs step through the TDD cycle commit-by-commit. Watch the gear shift from low (fake-it, per-player if ladders) to middle once the Advantage scenario forces the refactor. The teaching point is the state machine that extracts itself: through Love, 15, 30, 40, Deuce the if/else chain looks fine, but Advantage starts comparing counts against each other instead of against fixed values. That’s the cliff. Lift the count into a seven-state enum (Love | Fifteen | Thirty | Forty | Deuce | Advantage | Game) and the formatter becomes a dispatch — the Game scenario that follows passes on arrival. Sets and match are deliberately not a second state machine; they’re integer tallies with win conditions. See the repo’s Gears section for why middle gear is where the state machine lands.

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Related reading

• Test Deletion Is a Privileged Operation
  The cheapest way for an agent to make a failing test pass is to delete it. That is logical for the agent and catastrophic for the codebase. Tests are append-only by default. Deletion needs a human author, a separate commit, and a separate review.
• The Instruction File Is Not the Discipline
  Teams that want their agent to do TDD reach for the instruction file. The TDAD paper measured this directly: adding a 'do TDD' instruction raised regressions by nearly two-thirds. Contextual test discovery cut them by seventy percent. The instruction is theatre. The codebase's test surface is the discipline.
• Tamper-Resistant Test Design Is What the Suite Now Owes the Codebase
  Tests were a contract the team made with itself. Agents made the suite an attack surface. Tamper-resistant test design is what the suite now owes the codebase: expensive to spoof, redundantly verified, partially hidden, and impossible to delete without a separate review.