Are parentheses necessary? I'm learning v2.7 online and it doesn't show () around quotes

Answer 1

Python 2.xx presents print as a statement, hence
print "Hello world"

Python 3.xx presents print as a function, hence
print("Hello world")

This platform uses the latter version so I guess you will need to make little modification to the version 2.xx you are learning to make it follow along the codes on this platform.