Are you ready to dive deeper into Python? In this lesson, we will learn about Control Structures in Python, especially the if and else conditional statements. Control structures are fundamental building blocks in programming that empower your code to take different actions based on varying situations.

We'll be focusing on an important concept known as conditional statements, more specifically, if and else. These are the cornerstones of decision making in Python. To illustrate, suppose you want to travel, but your ability to do so depends on whether you have a passport. In programming terms, we model this real-world scenario as follows:

As you can see, the if statement checks whether the condition — in this case, the passport being True (or available) — is met. If so, the action within the if-block, printing "You are eligible to travel", is executed. Otherwise, the code within the else block, which states "You cannot travel without a passport," is executed.

In addition to understanding the if and statements, mastering the syntax, particularly the use of indentation and the colon () that follows these statements, is crucial. The colon and indentation together play a vital role in defining the scope of each condition and its corresponding actions in Python.