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Python Interview Questions and Answers (2021) - InterviewBit

This document provides an overview of Python and answers common interview questions about Python. It discusses key topics like: - What Python is and its benefits like simple syntax, readability, modularity, and support for third-party packages. - Concepts like dynamic typing, interpreted languages, namespaces, scope, and decorators. - How memory is managed in Python through its private heap space and garbage collection. - PEP 8 style guidelines and their importance for contributing to Python open-source projects. - The differences between lists and tuples, with lists being mutable sequences and tuples being immutable sequences.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
157 views

Python Interview Questions and Answers (2021) - InterviewBit

This document provides an overview of Python and answers common interview questions about Python. It discusses key topics like: - What Python is and its benefits like simple syntax, readability, modularity, and support for third-party packages. - Concepts like dynamic typing, interpreted languages, namespaces, scope, and decorators. - How memory is managed in Python through its private heap space and garbage collection. - PEP 8 style guidelines and their importance for contributing to Python open-source projects. - The differences between lists and tuples, with lists being mutable sequences and tuples being immutable sequences.

Uploaded by

chaitra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interview Questions and Answers (2020) | Python I…I…

This page will guide you on how to crack any python programming interview, including:

1. Real-World Python interview questions asked in companies like Microsoft, Google,


Amazon and how to answer them (saving your interview preparation time).

2. Python practice problems which you can solve right away.

Let’s get started!

1. What is Python?
Python is a high-level, interpreted, general-purpose programming language. Being a general-purpose
language, it can be used to build almost any type of application with the right tools/libraries. Additionally,
python supports objects, modules, threads, exception-handling and automatic memory management
which help in modelling real-world problems and building applications to solve these problems.

2. What are the benefits of using Python?


Python is a general-purpose programming language that has simple, easy-to-learn syntax which
emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. Moreover, the
language is capable of scripting, completely open-source and supports third-party packages
encouraging modularity and code-reuse.

Its high-level data structures, combined with dynamic typing and dynamic binding, attract a huge
community of developers for Rapid Application Development and deployment.

3. What is a dynamically typed language?


Before we understand what a dynamically typed language, we should learn about what typing is.
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Typing refers to type-checking in programming languages. In a strongly-typed   language, such as
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result in a type error, since these languages don't allow for "type-coercion"
(implicit conversion of data types). On the other hand, a weakly-typed  language, such as Javascript,
will simply output "12" as result.

Type-checking can be done at two stages -

1. Static - Data Types are checked before execution.


2. Dynamic - Data Types are checked during execution.

Python being an interpreted language, executes each statement line by line and thus type-checking is
done on the fly, during execution. Hence, Python is a Dynamically Typed language.

4. What is an Interpreted language?


An Interpreted language executes its statements line by line. Languages such as Python, Javascript,
R, PHP and Ruby are prime examples of Interpreted languages. Programs written in an interpreted
language runs directly from the source code, with no intermediary compilation step.

5. What is PEP 8 and why is it important?


PEP stands for Python Enhancement Proposal. A PEP is an official design document providing
information to the Python Community, or describing a new feature for Python or its processes. PEP 8 is
especially important since it documents the style guidelines for Python Code. Apparently contributing in
the Python open-source community requires you to follow these style guidelines sincerely and strictly.

6. How is memory managed in Python?


Memory management in Python is handled by the Python Memory Manager. The memory allocated
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private, it is inaccessible to the programmer. Though, python does provide some
core API functions to work upon the private heap space.

Additionally, Python has an in-built garbage collection to recycle the unused memory for the private
heap space.

7. What are Python namespaces? Why are they used?


A namespace in Python ensures that object names in a program are unique and can be used without
any conflict. Python implements these namespaces as dictionaries with 'name as key' mapped to a
corresponding 'object as value'. This allows for multiple namespaces to use the same name and map it
to a separate object. A few examples of namespaces are as follows:

Local Namespace includes local names inside a function. the namespace is temporarily created for
a function call and gets cleared when the function returns.
Global Namespace includes names from various imported packages/ modules that is being used in
the current project. This namespace is created when the package is imported in the script and lasts
until the execution of the script.
Built-in Namespace includes built-in functions of core Python and built-in names for various types
of exceptions.

Lifecycle of a namespace depends upon the scope of objects they are mapped to. If the scope of an
object ends, the lifecycle of that namespace comes to an end. Hence, it isn't possible to access inner
namespace objects from an outer namespace.
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8. What is Scope in Python?


Every object in Python functions within a scope. A scope is a block of code where an object in Python
remains relevant. Namespaces uniquely identify all the objects inside a program. However, these
namespaces also have a scope defined for them where you could use their objects without any prefix.
A few examples of scope created during code execution in Python are as follows:

1. A local scope refers to the local objects available in the current function.
2. A global scope refers to the objects available throught the code execution since their inception.
3. A module-level scope refers to the global objects of the current module accessible in the program.
4. An outermost scope refers to all the built-in names callable in the program. The objects in this
scope are searched last to find the name referenced.

Note: Local scope objects can be synced with global scope objects using keywords such as global.

9. What is Scope Resolution in Python?


Sometimes objects within the same scope have the same name but function differently. In such cases,
scope resolution comes into play in Python automatically. A few examples of such behaviour are:

Python modules namely 'math' and 'cmath' have a lot of functions that are common to both of them -
log10() , acos() , exp() etc. To resolve this amiguity, it is necessary to prefix them with their
respective module, like math.exp() and cmath.exp() .
Consider the code below, an object temp has been initialized to 10 globally and then to 20 on
function call. However, the function call didn't change the value of the temp globally. Here, we can
observe that Python draws a clear line between global and local variables treating both their
namespaces as separate identities.
temp = 10 # global-scope variable

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def func ():


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      print(temp)

print(temp) # output => 10

func() # output => 20

print(temp) # output => 10

This behaviour can be overriden using the global keyword inside the function, as shown in the
following example:

temp = 10 # global-scope variable

def func():

      global temp

      temp = 20 # local-scope variable

      print(temp)

print(temp) # output => 10

func() # output => 20

print(temp) # output => 20

10. What are decorators in Python?


Decorators in Python are essentially functions that add functionality to an existing function in Python
without changing the structure of the function itself. They are represented by the @decorator_name in
Python and are called in bottom-up fashion. For example:
# decorator function to convert to lowercase

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string_lowercase = func.lower()

return string_lowercase

return wrapper

# decorator function to split words

def splitter_decorator(function):

def wrapper():

func = function()

string_split = func.split()

return string_split

return wrapper

@splitter_decorator # this is executed next

@lowercase_decorator # this is executed first

def hello():

return 'Hello World'

hello() # output => [ 'hello' , 'world' ]

The beauty of the decorators lies in the fact that besides adding functionality to the output of the
method, they can even accept arguments for functions and can further modify those arguments before
passing it to the function itself. The inner nested function, i.e. 'wrapper' function, plays a significant
role here. It is implemented to enforce encapsulation and thus, keep itself hidden from the global
scope.

# decorator function to capitalize names

def names_decorator(function):

def wrapper(arg1, arg2):

arg1 = arg1.capitalize()

arg2 = arg2.capitalize()

string_hello = function(arg1, arg2)

return string_hello

return wrapper

@names_decorator

def say_hello(name1, name2):

return 'Hello ' + name1 + '! Hello ' + name2 + '!'

say_hello('sara', 'ansh') # output => 'Hello Sara! Hello Ansh!'

11. What are lists and tuples? What is the key difference
between the two?
Lists and Tuples are both sequence data types that can store a collection of objects in Python. The
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objects stored in both sequences can have different data types. Lists are represented with square
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6, 0.19] , while tuples are represented with parantheses ('ansh', 5, 0.97) .

But what is the real difference between the two? The key difference between the two is that while lists
are mutable, tuples on the other hand are immutable objects. This means that lists can be modified,
appended or sliced on-the-go but tuples remain constant and cannot be modified in any manner. You
can run the following example on Python IDLE to confirm the difference:

my_tuple = ('sara', 6, 5, 0.97)

my_list = ['sara', 6, 5, 0.97]

print(my_tuple[0]) # output => 'sara'

print(my_list[0]) # output => 'sara'

my_tuple[0] = 'ansh' # modifying tuple => throws an error

my_list[0] = 'ansh' # modifying list => list modified

print(my_tuple[0]) # output => 'sara'

print(my_list[0]) # output => 'ansh'

12. What are Dict and List comprehensions?


Python comprehensions, like decorators, are syntactic sugar constructs that help build altered and
filtered lists, dictionaries or sets from a given list, dictionary or set. Using comprehensions, saves a lot
of time and code that might be considerably more verbose (containing more lines of code). Let's check
out some examples, where comprehensions can be truly beneficial:

Performing mathematical operations on the entire list

my_list = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

squared_list = [x**2 for x in my_list] # list comprehension

# output => [4 , 9 , 25 , 49 , 121]

squared_dict = {x:x**2 for x in my_list} # dict comprehension

# output => {11: 121, 2: 4 , 3: 9 , 5: 25 , 7: 49}

Performing conditional filtering operations on the entire list

my_list = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

squared_list = [x**2 for x in my_list if x%2 != 0] # list comprehension

# output => [9 , 25 , 49 , 121]

squared_dict = {x:x**2 for x in my_list if x%2 != 0} # dict comprehension

# output => {11: 121, 3: 9 , 5: 25 , 7: 49}

Combining multiple lists into one

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a = [1, 2, 3]

b = [7, 8, 9]

[(x + y) for (x,y) in zip(a,b)] # parallel iterators

# output => [8, 10, 12]

[(x,y) for x in a for y in b] # nested iterators

# output => [(1, 7), (1, 8), (1, 9), (2, 7), (2, 8), (2, 9), (3, 7), (3, 8), (3, 9)]

Flattening a multi-dimensional list

A similar approach of nested iterators (as above) can be applied to flatten a multi-dimensional list or
work upon its inner elements.

my_list = [[10,20,30],[40,50,60],[70,80,90]]

flattened = [x for temp in my_list for x in temp]

# output => [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90]

Note: List comprehensions have the same effect as the map method in other languages. They follow the
mathematical set builder notation rather than map and filter functions in Python.

13. What are the common built-in data types in Python?


There are several built-in data types in Python. Although, Python doesn't require data types to be
defined explicitly during variable declarations but type errors are likely to occur if the knowledge of data
types and their compatibility with each other are neglected. Python provides type() and
isinstance() functions to check the type of these variables. These data types can be grouped into the

following catetgories-

None Type

None keyword represents the null values in Python. Boolean equality operation can be performed

using these NoneType objects.

Class Name Description

NoneType Represents the NULL values in Python

Numeric Types

There are three distint numeric types - integers, floating-point numbers, and complex numbers.
Additionally, booleans are a sub-type of integers.

Class Name Description

int Stores integer literals including hex, octal and binary numbers as integers
Stores literals containing decimal values and/or exponent sign as floating-point
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Stores complex number in the form (A + Bj) and has attributes: real and
complex
imag

bool Stores boolean value (True or False)

Note: The standard library also includes fractions to store rational numbers and decimal to store floating-
point numbers with user-defined precision.

Sequence Types

According to Python Docs, there are three basic Sequence Types - lists, tuples, and range objects.
Sequence types have the in and not in operators defined for their traversing their elements. These
operators share the same priority as the comparison operations.

Class Name Description

list Mutable sequence used to store collection of items.

tuple Immutable sequence used to store collection of items.

range Represents an immutable sequence of numbers generated during execution.

str Immutable sequence of Unicode code points to store textual data.

Note: The standard library also includes additional types for processing:

1. Binary data such as


bytearray bytes memoryview
, and

2. Text strings such as str


.

Mapping Types

A mapping object can map hashable values to random objects in Python. Mappings objects are mutable
and there is currently only one standard mapping type, the dictionary.

Class Name Description

dict Stores comma-separated list of key: value pairs

Set Types

Currently, Python has two built-in set types - set and frozenset. set type is mutable and supports
methods like add() and remove() . frozenset type is immutable and can't be modified after creation.

Class Name Description

set Mutable unordered collection of distinct hashable objects

frozenset Immutable collection of distinct hashable objects


Note: set is mutable and thus cannot be used as key for a dictionary. On the other hand, frozenset is
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immutable and thus, hashable, and can be used as a dictionary key or as an element of another set.

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Modules

Module is an additional built-in type supported by the Python Interpreter. It supports one special
operation, i.e., attribute access: mymod.myobj , where mymod is a module and myobj references a
name defined in m's symbol table. The module's symbol table resides in a very special attribute of the
module __dict__, but direct assignment to this module is neither possible nor recommended.

Callable Types

Callable types are the types to which function call can be applied. They can be user-defined
functions, instance methods, generator functions, and some other built-in functions, methods
and classes.

Refer the documentation at docs.python.org


(https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html)
for a
detailed view into the callable types.

14. What is lambda in Python? Why is it used?


Lambda is an anonymous function in Python, that can accept any number of arguments, but can only
have a single expression. It is generally used in situations requiring an anonymous function for a short
time period. Lambda functions can be used in either of the two ways:

Assigning lambda functions to a variable

mul = lambda a, b : a * b

print(mul(2, 5)) # output => 10

Wrapping lambda functions inside another function

def myWrapper(n):

return lambda a : a * n

mulFive = myWrapper(5)

print(mulFive(2)) # output => 10

15. What is pass in Python?


The pass keyword represents a null operation in Python. It is generally used for the purpose of filling
up empty blocks of code which may execute during runtime but has yet to be written. Without the pass
statement in the following code, we may run into some errors during code execution.
def myEmptyFunc():

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myEmptyFunc() # nothing happens

## Without the pass keyword

# File "<stdin>", line 3

# IndentationError: expected an indented block

16. How do you copy an object in Python?


In Python, the assignment statement ( = operator) does not copy objects. Instead, it creates a binding
between the existing object and the target variable name. To create copies of an object in Python, we
need to use the copy module. Moreover, there are two ways of creating copies for the given object
using the copy module -

Shallow Copy is a bit-wise copy of an object. The copied object created has an exact copy of the
values in the original object. If either of the values are references to other objects, just the reference
addresses for the same are copied.
Deep Copy copies all values recursively from source to target object, i.e. it even duplicates the objects
referenced by the source object.

from copy import copy, deepcopy

list_1 = [1, 2, [3, 5], 4]

## shallow copy

list_2 = copy(list_1)

list_2[3] = 7

list_2[2].append(6)

list_2 # output => [1, 2, [3, 5, 6], 7]

list_1 # output => [1, 2, [3, 5, 6], 4]

## deep copy

list_3 = deepcopy(list_1)

list_3[3] = 8

list_3[2].append(7)

list_3 # output => [1, 2, [3, 5, 6, 7], 8]

list_1 # output => [1, 2, [3, 5, 6], 4]

17. What is the difference between xrange and range in


Python?
xrange() and range() are quite similar in terms of functionality. They both generate a sequence of
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integers, with the only difference that range() returns a Python list, whereas, xrange() returns an
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xrange object.

So how does that make a difference? It sure does, because unlike range(), xrange() doesn't
generate a static list, it creates the value on the go. This technique is commonly used with an object
type generators and has been termed as "yielding".

Yielding is crucial in applications where memory is a constraint. Creating a static list as in range() can
lead to a Memory Error in such conditions, while, xrange() can handle it optimally by using just enough
memory for the generator (significantly less in comparison).

for i in xrange(10): # numbers from o to 9

print i # output => 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

for i in xrange(1,10): # numbers from 1 to 9

print i # output => 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

for i in xrange(1, 10, 2): # skip by two for next

print i # output => 1 3 5 7 9

Note: xrange has been deprecated as of Python 3.x. Now range does exactly the same what xrange
used to do in Python 2.x, since it was way better to use xrange() than the original range() function in Python
2.x.

18. What are modules and packages in Python?


Python packages and Python modules are two mechanisms that allow for modular programming in
Python. Modularizing ahs several advantages -

1. Simplicity: Working on a single module helps you focus on a relatively small portion of the problem
at hand. This makes development easier and less error-prone.
2. Maintainability: Modules are designed to enforce logical boundaries between different problem
domains. If they are written in a manner that reduces interdependency, it is less likely that modifications
in a module might impact other parts of the program.
3. Reusability: Functions defined in a module can be easily reused by other parts of the application.
4. Scoping: Modules typically define a separate namespace, which helps avoid confusion between
identifiers from other parts of the program.

Modules, in general, are simply Python files with a .py extension and can have a set of functions,
classes or variables defined and implemented. They can be imported and initialized once using the
import statement. If partial functionality is needed, import the requisite classes or functions using from

foo import bar .


Packages allow for hierarchial structuring of the module namespace using dot notation. As, modules
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Creating a package is easy since it makes use of the system's inherent file structure. So just stuff the
modules into a folder and there you have it, the folder name as the package name. Importing a module
or its contents from this package requires the package name as prefix to the module name joined by a
dot.

Note: You can technically import the package as well, but alas, it doesn't import the modules within the
package to the local namespace, thus, it is practically useless.

19. What are global, protected and private attributes in


Python?
Global variables are public variables that are defined in the global scope. To use the variable in the
global scope inside a function, we use the global keyword.
Protected attributes are attributes defined with a underscore prefixed to their identifier eg. _sara. They
can still be accessed and modified from outside the class they are defined in but a responsible
developer should refrain from doing so.
Private attributes are attributes with double underscore prefixed to their identifier eg. __ansh. They
cannot be accessed or modified from the outside directly and will result in an AttributeError if such an
attempt is made.

20. What is self in Python?


Self is a keyword in Python used to define an instance or an object of a class. In Python, it is explicity
used as the first paramter, unlike in Java where it is optional. It helps in disinguishing between the
methods and attributes of a class from its local variables.

21. What is __init__?


__init__ is a contructor method in Python and is automatically called to allocate memory when a new

object/instance is created. All classes have a __init__ method associated with them. It helps in
distinguishing methods and attributes of a class from local variables.

# class definition

class Student:

def __init__(self, fname, lname, age, section):

self.firstname = fname

self.lastname = lname

self.age = age

self.section = section

# creating a new object

stu1 = Student("Sara", "Ansh", 22, "A2")

22. What is break, continue and pass in Python?


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Break
and the control flows to the statement after the body of the loop.

The continue statement terminates the current iteration of the statement,

Continue skips the rest of the code in the current iteration and the control flows to the next
iteration of the loop.

As explained above, pass keyword in Python is generally used to fill-up empty


blocks

Pass
and is similar to an empty statement represented by a semi-colon in languages
such as Java, C++, Javascript etc.

pat = [1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0, 1, 3]

for p in pat:

pass

if (p == 0):

current = p

break

elif (p % 2 == 0):

continue

print(p) # output => 1 3 1 3 1

print(current) # output => 0

23. What is pickling and unpickling?


Python library offers a feature - serialization out of the box. Serializing a object refers to transforming it
into a format that can be stored, so as to be able to deserialize it later on, to obtain the original object.
Here, the pickle module comes into play.

Pickling
Pickling is the name of the serialization process in Python.
Any object in Python can be serialized into a
byte stream and dumped as a file in the memory. The process of pickling is compact but pickle objects
can be compressed further. Moreover, pickle keeps track of the objects it has serialized and the
serialization is portable across versions.

The function used for the above process is pickle.dump() .

Unpickling
Unpickling is the complete inverse of pickling. It deserializes the byte stream to recreate the objects
stored in the file, and loads the object to memory.

The function used for the above process is pickle.load() .


Note: Python has another, more primitive, serialization module called marshall, which exists primarily to
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24. What are generators in Python?


Generators are functions that return an iterable collection of items, one at a time, in a set manner.
Generators, in general, are used to create iterators with a different approach. They employ the use of
yield keyword rather than return to return a generator object.

Let's try and build a generator for fibonacci numbers -

## generate fibonacci numbers upto n

def fib(n):

p, q = 0, 1

while(p < n):

yield p

p, q = q, p + q

x = fib(10) # create generator object

## iterating using __next__(), for Python2, use next()

x.__next__() # output => 0

x.__next__() # output => 1

x.__next__() # output => 1

x.__next__() # output => 2

x.__next__() # output => 3

x.__next__() # output => 5

x.__next__() # output => 8

x.__next__() # error

## iterating using loop

for i in fib(10):

print(i) # output => 0 1 1 2 3 5 8

25. What is PYTHONPATH in Python?


PYTHONPATH is an environment variable which you can set to add additional directories where Python
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26. What is the use of help() and dir() functions?


help() function in Python is used to display the documentation of modules, classes, functions,
keywords, etc. If no parameter is passed to the help() function, then an interactive help utility is
launched on the console.

dir() function tries to return a valid list of attributes and methods of the object it is called upon. It
behaves differently with different objects, as it aims to produce the most relevant data, rather than the
complete information.

For Modules/Library objects, it returns a list of all attributes, contained in that module.
For Class Objects, it returns a list of all valid attributes and base attributes.
With no arguments passed, it returns a list of attributes in the current scope.

27. What is the difference between .py and .pyc files?


.py files contain the source code of a program. Whereas, .pyc file contains the bytecode of your
program. We get bytecode after compilation of .py file (source code). .pyc files are not created for all
the files that you run. It is only created for the files that you import.
Before executing a python program python interpreter checks for the compiled files. If the file is
present, the virtual machine executes it. If not found, it checks for .py file. If found, compiles it to .pyc
file and then python virtual machine executes it.
Having .pyc file saves you the compilation time.

28. How Python is interpreted?


Python as a language is not interpreted or compiled. Interpreted or compiled is the property of the
implementation. Python is a bytecode(set of interpreter readable instructions) interpreted generally.
Source code is a file with .py extension.
Python compiles the source code to a set of instructions for a virtual machine. The Python
interpreter is an implementation of that virtual machine. This intermediate format is called “bytecode”.
.py source code is first compiled to give .pyc which is bytecode. This bytecode can be then
interpreted by official CPython, or JIT(Just in Time compiler) compiled by PyPy.

29. What are unittests in Python?


unittest is a unit testing framework of Python.
Unit testing means testing different components of software separately. Can you think why unit
testing is important? Imagine a scenario, you are building software which uses three components
namely A, B, and C. Now, suppose your software breaks at a point time. How will you find which
component was responsible for breaking the software? Maybe it was component A that failed, which in
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component might be highly responsible for the failure of the software.

30. What is docstring in Python?


Documentation string or docstring is a multiline string used to document a specific code segment.
The docstring should describe what the function or method does.

31. How are arguments passed by value or by reference in


python?
Pass by value: Copy of the actual object is passed. Changing the value of the copy of the object
will not change the value of the original object.
Pass by reference: Reference to the actual object is passed. Changing the value of the new object
will change the value of the original object.

In Python, arguments are passed by reference, i.e., reference to the actual object is passed.

def appendNumber(arr):

arr.append(4)

arr = [1, 2, 3]

print(arr) #Output: => [1, 2, 3]

appendNumber(arr)
print(arr) #Output: => [1, 2, 3, 4]

32. What are iterators in Python?


Iterator is an object.
It remembers its state i.e., where it is during iteration (see code below to see how)
__iter__() method initializes an iterator.
It has a __next__() method which returns the next item in iteration and points to the next element.
Upon reaching the end of iterable object __next__() must return StopIteration exception.
It is also self iterable.
Iterators are objects with which we can iterate over iterable objects like lists, strings, etc.
class ArrayList:

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def __init__(self, number_list):

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= number_list

def __iter__(self):

self.pos = 0

return self

def __next__(self):

if(self.pos < len(self.numbers)):

self.pos += 1

return self.numbers[self.pos - 1]
else:
raise StopIteration

array_obj = ArrayList([1, 2, 3])

it = iter(array_obj)

print(next(it)) #output: 2

print(next(it)) #output: 3

print(next(it))

#Throws Exception

#Traceback (most recent call last):

#...

#StopIteration

33. What is slicing in Python?


As the name suggests, ‘slicing’ is taking parts of.
Syntax for slicing is [start : stop : step]
start is the starting index from where to slice a list or tuple
stop is the ending index or where to sop.
step is the number of steps to jump.
Default value for start is 0, stop is number of items, step is 1.
Slicing can be done on strings, arrays, lists, and tuples.

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]


print(numbers[1 : : 2]) #output : [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

34. Explain how can you make a Python Script executable


on Unix?
Script file must begin with #!/usr/bin/env python

35. Explain how to delete a file in Python?


Use command os.remove(file_name)
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os.remove("ChangedFile.csv")

print("File Removed!")

36. Explain split() and join() functions in Python?


You can use split() function to split a string based on a delimiter to a list of strings.
You can use join() function to join a list of strings based on a delimiter to give a single string.

string = "This is a string."

string_list = string.split(' ') #delimiter is ‘space’ character or ‘ ‘

print(string_list) #output: ['This', 'is', 'a', 'string.']

print(' '.join(string_list)) #output: This is a string.

37. What is the difference between Python Arrays and lists?


Arrays in python can only contain elements of same data types i.e., data type of array should be
homogeneous. It is a thin wrapper around C language arrays and consumes far less memory than lists.
Lists in python can contain elements of different data types i.e., data type of lists can be
heterogeneous. It has the disadvantage of consuming large memory.

import array

a = array.array('i', [1, 2, 3])

for i in a:

print(i, end=' ') #OUTPUT: 1 2 3

a = array.array('i', [1, 2, 'string']) #OUTPUT: TypeError: an integer is required (got type str)

a = [1, 2, 'string']

for i in a:

print(i, end=' ') #OUTPUT: 1 2 string

38. What does *args and **kwargs mean?


*args

*args is a special syntax used in function definition to pass variable-length argument.


“*” means variable length and “args” is the name used by convention. You can use any other.
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for num in argv:
mul *= num

return mul

print(multiply(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)) #output: 120

**kwargs

**kwargs is a special syntax used in function definition to pass variable-length keyworded argument.
Here, also, “kwargs” is used just by convention. You can use any other name.
Keyworded argument means a variable which has a name when passed to a function.
It is actually a dictionary of variable name and its value.

def tellArguments(**kwargs):

for key, value in kwargs.items():

print(key + ": " + value)

tellArguments(arg1 = "argument 1", arg2 = "argument 2", arg3 = "argument 3")

#output:

# arg1: argument 1

# arg2: argument 2

# arg3: argument 3

39. What are negative indexes and why are they used?
Negative indexes are the indexes from the end of the list or tuple or string.
Arr[-1] means last element of array Arr[]

arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

#get the last element

print(arr[-1]) #output 6

#get the second last element

print(arr[-2]) #output 5

Practice Python Questions asked in


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Q - Suppose list1 = [3,4,5,2,1,0], what is list1 after list1.pop(1)?
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list1 = [3,4,5,2,1]


list1 = [3,4,5,2,0]


list1 = [3,5,2,1,0]


list1 = [3,4,5,2]

Q - What is the output of the following statement "Hello World"[::-1] ?


"Hello World"


"World Hello"


"dlroW olleH"


"olleH dlroW"

Q - What is the difference between lists and tuples?


List is a sequence data type, while tuple is not.


Tuples are mutable but lists are immutable.


Tuple is a sequence data type, while lists is not.


Lists are mutable but tuples are immutable.

Q - Let func = lambda a, b : (a ** b) , what is the output of


func(float(10),20) ?


100000000000000000000


1e+20


100000000000000000000.0


1.0e+20

Q - Which statement is false for __init__?


__init__ is called manually on object creation.


__init__ is a constructor method in Python.


All classes have a __init__ method associated with them.


__init__ allocates memory for objects.
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Q - Which of the following is the function responsible for pickling?
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pickle.save()


pickle.store()


pickle.pickle()


pickle.dump()

Q - Which of the following is a protected attribute?


__sara__


__ansh


_sara_


ansh__

Q - Which of the following is untrue for Python namespaces?


Python namespaces are implemented as a dictionary in Python.


Python namespaces have keys as addresses of the objects.


Lifecycle of a namespace depends upon the scope of the objects they are mapped to.


Namespaces ensure that object names in a program are unique.

Q - Let list1 = ['s', 'r', 'a', 's'] and list2 = ['a', 'a', 'n', 'h'] , what
is the output of ["".join([i, j]) for i, j in zip(list1, list2)] ?


['s', 'a', 'r', 'a', 'a', 'n', 's', 'h']


['s', 'r', 'a', 's', 'a', 'a', 'n', 'h']


['sa', 'ra', 'an', 'sh']


['sa', 'sa', 'sn', 'sh', 'ra', 'ra', 'rn', 'rh', 'aa', 'aa', 'an', 'ah', 'sa', 'sa', 'sn', 'sh']

Q - time.time() in Python returns?


Current time.


Current time in milliseconds.


Current time in milliseconds since midnight, January 1, 1970.


Current time in milliseconds since midnight, January 1, 1970 GMT (the Unix time).
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