In python:

how do you replace the middle characters with stars?

for example: mountains turn into m*******s and hello turns into h***o. Cannot be hardcoded so if the user is prompted to ebter any word in the output will look like the above.

secondly, how do you replace the middle character but the first, second and last characters show?

ex. user enters math output becomes ma*h

no hardcoded variables please

no user define functions

try to use slicing