---
type: challenge
title: "The Slicer"
xp: 50
duration: 25
difficulty: 2
---

# The Slicer

> **[INCOMING — Mission Control, Earth]**
>
> Cadet, *slicing* grabs a chunk of a string instead of one character.
> The syntax is `s[start:end]` — `start` is included, `end` is not.
>
> ```python
> s = "ANDROMEDA"
> s[0:3]   # "AND"
> s[3:7]   # "ROME"
> s[-2:]   # "DA"
> ```
>
> Telemetry packets always arrive in this exact format (length 30):
>
> ```
> TIMESTAMP=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ
> ```
>
> Implement `extract(header)` that returns a tuple `(date, time)`:
>
> - `date` = `YYYY-MM-DD` (10 chars)
> - `time` = `HH:MM:SS` (8 chars)
>
> Figure out which slice positions hold each piece.
>
> [END TRANSMISSION]

## Your Task

In `starter/starter.py`, return `(date, time)` extracted with slicing.

## Objectives

- `extract("TIMESTAMP=2026-05-04T14:32:01Z")` → `("2026-05-04", "14:32:01")`
- Works for any header in the same fixed format