Parsing Enrollment Records Robustly | Dataford Interview Questions

Write a program to process a batch of student enrollment records from an ambiguous or partially structured text file, ensuring robust error handling for missing fields. Implement process_enrollment_records(text), where records are separated by blank lines and fields may use key=value or key: value syntax with commas, semicolons, or newlines as separators. Return canonical valid records and structured errors for missing or malformed required fields: student_id, course_id, and term.

Constraints

The input is a string containing zero or more records.
Records are separated by one or more blank lines.
Fields use key=value or key: value syntax.
Commas, semicolons, and line breaks may separate fields.
Required fields are student_id, course_id, and term.
Field values do not contain commas or semicolons.
At most 1,000 records are provided.
Unknown fields may appear and should be ignored.

Function Signature

def process_enrollment_records(text):

Your question is Parsing Enrollment Records Robustly. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Constraints

The input is a string containing zero or more records.
Records are separated by one or more blank lines.
Fields use key=value or key: value syntax.
Commas, semicolons, and line breaks may separate fields.
Required fields are student_id, course_id, and term.
Field values do not contain commas or semicolons.
At most 1,000 records are provided.
Unknown fields may appear and should be ignored.

Function Signature

def process_enrollment_records(text):

Your question is Parsing Enrollment Records Robustly. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.