Welcome to this introductory lesson focused on Advanced Slice Operations without using built-in functions. While many programming languages offer built-in methods to handle slices (or arrays/lists), understanding the underlying concepts of these key functions enhances your ability to tackle complex problems and prepares you for situations where such functions may not be available or optimal.

Consider a function, countOccurrences, that takes in a slice and a target element as input. The function should return the number of times the target element appears in the slice. To deepen our understanding, we will implement this without using any built-in functions.

Our approach to the countOccurrences function is:

1. Initialize Counter: Declare and initialize a variable count to zero. This will keep track of the occurrences of the target in the slice.

2. Set Up a Loop: Utilize a for loop to iterate through each element of the slice. The loop variable i starts at zero and increments by one until i is less than the length of the slice.

3. Check for Target Match: Inside the loop, use an if statement to check if the current slice element slice[i] is equal to the target.

4. Increment Counter if Match: If the current element matches the target, increment the count variable by one.

5. Return Counter: After the loop completes, return the count variable, which now contains the total number of occurrences of the target element in the slice.

Here's the solution:

Consider a function, findIndex, that takes in a slice and a target element as input. The function should return the index of the first occurrence of the target element in the slice. If the target is not found, the function should return -1.

Our approach to the findIndex function is:

1. Set Up a Loop: Utilize a for loop to iterate through each element of the slice. The loop variable i starts at zero and increments by one until i is less than the length of the slice.

2. Check for Target Match: Inside the loop, use an if statement to check if the current slice element slice[i] is equal to the target.

3. Return Index if Match: If the current element matches the target, return the current index i immediately, indicating the position of the first occurrence of the target in the slice.

4. Return -1 if Not Found: If the loop completes without finding the target element, return -1 to indicate that the target is not present in the slice.

Here's the solution:

Grasping the concepts covered in these instructions is critical to succeeding in the practice exercises that follow, so take the time to understand these concepts thoroughly. Remember, we are not just learning algorithms but cultivating a deeper understanding of how we can break down and solve complex problems with relatively simple code. Therefore, get ready and anticipate an exciting, revealing practice session!