Final answer:
A conditional statement to increment or decrement 'num_users' based on the value of 'update_direction' can be written using a ternary operator in programming. For example, 'num_users += 1 if update_direction == 3 else -1' in Python.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is about writing a conditional expression that determines whether to increment or decrement the variable num_users based on the value of update_direction. In programming, a conditional expression (also known as a ternary operator) can be used to execute different operations based on a condition.
Here is an example of how you can write such a statement in Python:
num_users += 1 if update_direction == 3 else -1
This line of code checks whether update_direction is equal to 3. If it is, num_users is incremented by 1, otherwise, it is decremented by 1. This is a compact and efficient way to perform an action based on a condition.