How To Create a Countdown Timer Using Python? (original) (raw)
Last Updated : 09 May, 2025
In this article, we will see how to create a countdown timer using Python. The code will take input from the user regarding the length of the countdown in seconds. After that, a countdown will begin on the screen of the format ‘minutes: seconds’. We will use the time module here.
Step-by-Step Approach
In this project, we will be using the time module and its sleep() function. Follow the below steps to create a countdown timer:
**1. Import the time module using import time.
**2. Get user input for countdown duration (in seconds).
**3. Convert input to integer (as input() returns a string).
**4. Define a function countdown(t) to perform the countdown.
**5. Use a while loop to run the countdown until t reaches 0.
**6. Inside the loop:
- Use **divmod(t, 60) to convert seconds to minutes and seconds.
- Format the time string using ‘****{:02d}:{:02d}’.format(mins, secs)**.
- Print the time on the same line using **end=’\r’ to overwrite the previous output.
- Pause the loop for 1 second using **time.sleep(1).
- Decrease **t by **1 each iteration.
7. After the loop finishes, print “Fire in the hole!!” to indicate the timer has ended.
Python Code: Countdown Timer
Python `
import time
def countdown(t): while t: mins, secs = divmod(t, 60) timer = '{:02d}:{:02d}'.format(mins, secs) print(timer, end='\r') # Overwrite the line each second time.sleep(1) t -= 1
print("Fire in the hole!!")t = input("Enter the time in seconds: ")
countdown(int(t))
`
**Output: