diff --git a/02_char_freq.py b/02_char_freq.py
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+++ b/02_char_freq.py
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+# 02_char_freq.py
+"""
+Count character frequencies in a corpus and print a sorted table.
+
+What it does:
+- Loads UTF-8 text from train.txt or data.txt (with a tiny built-in fallback)
+- Normalizes newlines to "\\n".
+- Prints a frequency table (top 50 by default), showing "\\n" literally.
+
+How to run:
+    python 02_char_freq.py
+
+Notes:
+- Keep your dataset besides this script as 'data.txt' (or run Lesson 03 to create train/val)
+- Output uses a simple ASCII table; newline is shown as the literal sequence "\\n".
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Dict, Iterable, Tuple
+
+FALLBACK = (
+    "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?\n"
+    "Deny thy father and refuse thy name;\n"
+)
+
+
+def load_and_normalize() -> str:
+    """Load corpus text and normalize newlines to LF ('\\n').
+
+    Returns:
+        Text as a single string with only '\\n' newlines.
+
+    >>> s = "a\\rb\\r\\nc\\nd"
+    >>> load_and_normalize.__doc__ is not None  # doctest sanity check
+    True
+    """
+    p = Path("train.txt") if Path("train.txt").exists() else Path("data.txt")
+    text = p.read_text(encoding="utf-8") if p.exists() else FALLBACK
+    return text.replace("\r\n", "\n").replace("\r", "\n")
+
+
+def char_counts(text: str) -> Dict[str, int]:
+    """Return a dict mapping character -> count.
+
+    Args:
+        text: Input text.
+
+    Returns:
+        Dictionary of counts.
+
+    >>> char_counts("aba\\n")["a"] == 2
+    True
+    >>> isinstance(char_counts(""), dict)
+    True
+    >>> char_counts("")
+    {}
+    """
+    counts: Dict[str, int] = {}
+    for ch in text:
+        counts[ch] = counts.get(ch, 0) + 1
+    return counts
+
+
+def sorted_counts(counts: Dict[str, int]) -> Tuple[Tuple[str, int], ...]:
+    """Sort counts by descending frequency, then by character ascending.
+
+    Args:
+        counts: Dictionary mapping char -> count.
+
+    Returns:
+        Tuple of (char, count) rows sorted by (-count, char).
+
+    >>> out = sorted_counts({'b': 3, 'a': 3, 'c': 1})
+    >>> out[0][1] == 3 and out [1][1] == 3 and out [-1] == ('c', 1)
+    True
+    """
+    return tuple(sorted(counts.items(), key=lambda kv: (-kv[1], kv[0])))
+
+
+def format_row(ch: str, c: int) -> str:
+    """Format a single table row, showing newline as literal '\\n'.
+
+    Args:
+        ch: The character.
+        c: Count
+
+    Returns:
+        Formatted row string.
+
+    >>> format_row('\\n', 5).endswith(" | 5")
+    True
+    """
+    label = "\\n" if ch == "\n" else ch
+    return f"{label!r:>4} | {c}"
+
+
+def print_table(rows: Iterable[Tuple[str, int]], limit: int = 50) -> None:
+    """Print a simple table of (char, count)
+
+    Args:
+        rows: Iterable of (char, count)
+        limit: Max rows to print
+    """
+    print("Char | Count")
+    print("-----+------")
+    n = 0
+    for ch, c in rows:
+        if n >= limit:
+            break
+        print(format_row(ch, c))
+        n += 1
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    text = load_and_normalize()
+    counts = char_counts(text)
+    rows = sorted_counts(counts)
+    print_table(rows, limit=50)
+    print(f"\nTotal chars: {len(text)} | Unique chars: {len(counts)}")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()