What are lists and dictionaries?

In Python, lists and dictionaries are two important data types that allow you to store and organize data in different ways.

A list is an ordered collection of items where each item is identified by an index (starting from 0). Lists are created using square brackets []. For example,

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]
print(fruits[0])  # Output: apple

A dictionary is a collection of key-value pairs where each value is accessed by its unique key, not by index. Dictionaries are created using curly braces {}. For example,

person = {"name": "Alice", "age": 25}
print(person["name"])  # Output: Alice

Both are very flexible and widely used for different purposes in Python programming.