This can certainly be done in a programming class.
What I wanted to get at was to weave programming into math classes. I've seen some Algebra 2 syllabi mention that elementary probability and statistics will be covered and for those courses this type of exercise would be appropriate.
The example given in the article is just a motivating example to highlight, among other things, that a problem normally reserved for an undergraduate or advanced high school probability / statistics class, is conceptually graspable and 'solvable' via programming methods. The students don't need to formally know that they are working with a binomial or a geometric distribution. They just have to conceptually understand what a probabilistic success is.
There are plenty of other math / programming exercises that can be done in an Algebra 2 course. For example, the application of the rational root theorem to find possible rational solutions to an n-degree polynomial with rational coefficients is tedious to work out by hand and, in my honest and humble opinion, is of little conceptual value to students. Nevertheless, since it seems to be a part of the course, it would make for a good (and challenging!) programming exercise. The instructor can "build" up to this, by first having students write a program to factor integers (don't worry about having a sophisticated factorization program).
Another example for an Algebra 2 course is to have students write a program to handle complex arithmetic. While Python has this built-in via the complex type, it is still a nice exercise for students to do.
For example, to add (3 + 4i) + (-2 + 5i), here is a simple method:
>>> def complexadd(comp1, comp2):
##comp1 is a list of two elements, the first element is the real part
##comp2 is like comp1
return [comp1[0] + comp2[0], comp1[1] + comp2[1]]
>>> complexadd([3,4],[-2,5])
[1, 9]
I hope this helps!
