Love this question.
Based on all the indexing, slicing, masking, and
modification tasks you’ve done so far, here are possible interview
questions (ranging from beginner to tricky) that test your conceptual
understanding of NumPy arrays:
🔹 Basic Indexing & Slicing
1. How do you access a specific element in a 2D NumPy array?
Arr[row, col]
2. How would you retrieve a slice of the first 3 elements in a 1D
array?
Arr[0:3]
3. How do you reverse a NumPy array using slicing?
Arr[::-1]
4. How do you extract every 2nd element from a 1D array?
Arr[0::2]
5. How do you get the last N elements of a NumPy array?
Arr[-N:]
🔹 Advanced Indexing
6. How can you access multiple non-consecutive elements by
index in NumPy?
(e.g., positions 1, 3, 4 from an array)
Index= [1,3,4]
Arr[index]
7. How would you retrieve elements at positions (0,1), (1,2),
and (2,0) from a 2D array?
Arr[0,1],arr[1,2] arr[2,0] ?? wromg
Correct: arr[[0,1,2],[1,2,0]]
8. How do you replace only elements at odd rows and odd
columns in a 2D array?
Arr[1::2, 1::2] = replacement
🔹 Boolean Masking
9. How do you get all elements greater than a certain value in
an array?
arr[(arr > value)]
10. How do you replace all negative values in an array with
their absolute values?
arr[(arr < 0)] *= -1
11. How do you extract only even numbers from an array?
arr[::2]* =2
12. How do you conditionally modify elements (e.g., set all
elements > 10 to 0)?
arr[(arr > 10)] = 0
🔹 Modification & Broadcasting
13. How would you replace an entire column or row in a 2D
array?
To replace col
Arr[:,[0,2]] replaces 0th and 2nd col
Arr[[0,4],:] 2nd and 4th row
14. How do you double the values at even indices in a 1D
array?
Arr[(arr %2 == 0)] *= 2
15. How can you replace the first and last column in a 2D
array with 0s?
Arr[:,[0,-1]] =0
16. How do you replace elements divisible by 3 with a
specific value?
arr[(arr %3 ==0)] = specific value
17. Can you assign a string value like 'Divisible by 7' in a
numerical array? What changes are needed in the dtype?
While creating np.array use
Arr= np.array([1,2,3,4], dtype=object)
Then arr[(arr %7 == 0)] = ‘divisble by 7’
🔹 Trickier/Conceptual
18. What’s the difference between arr[::2] and arr[1::2]?
First give even nos 2nd gives odd numbers
19. What does dtype=object do, and when would you use
it?
Allows any datatype to b stored in np array
20. Explain the behavior when you try to modify part of an
array using a condition — does it change the original array
or a copy?
It changes the orginal
21. What's the difference between arr[0::3] and arr[:, [0,
3]]?
First : starts from 0 index and returns every 3rd index value,
Second: return 0th and 3rd col
22. What does NumPy broadcasting mean? How does it
work in assignment or arithmetic operations?
IDK
🔹 Bonus Conceptual
23. How is NumPy indexing different from standard Python
list indexing?
Numpy indexing is faster ?? idk what else is special
Ans : Can use boolean masks, array-based indexing
More powerful slicing
Supports broadcasting
Doesn’t throw IndexError as easily on slicing
24. Can you use a boolean mask to replace elements in an
array? Show how.
Mask = condition
Then use arr[mask]
25. Why does trying to assign a string to a numeric array
sometimes fail? What is the fix? Cos arrays only take int
value to accept string use dtype= object
Wanna go through mock answers or try solving 5 random ones like a
rapid-fire round? 😎
📚 Python Data Types & Their Built-in Functions
Data Type Common Built-in Functions / Methods
int, float, abs(), round(), pow(), divmod(), complex(), int(), float(),
complex type(), isinstance()
len(), lower(), upper(), capitalize(), title(), strip(), replace(),
str split(), find(), startswith(), endswith(), join(), isalpha(),
isdigit(), islower(), isupper(), count()
len(), append(), extend(), insert(), remove(), pop(), clear(),
list
index(), count(), sort(), reverse(), copy()
len(), count(), index(), type(), isinstance() (only 2 methods:
tuple
count() and index())
range len(), list(), tuple(), type(), used in loops
add(), update(), remove(), discard(), pop(), clear(), union(),
set
intersection(), difference(), issubset(), issuperset(), copy()
union(), intersection(), difference(), issubset(), issuperset(),
frozenset
copy() (immutable version, so no add() or remove())
len(), keys(), values(), items(), get(), update(), pop(),
dict
popitem(), clear(), copy(), setdefault()
bool int(), str(), bool(), can be used in conditions (if, while)
Data Type Common Built-in Functions / Methods
len(), decode(), find(), count(), replace(), split(), join(),
bytes
startswith(), endswith()
len(), append(), extend(), insert(), remove(), pop(),
bytearray
reverse(), decode()
memoryvie
len(), tolist(), tobytes(), slicing operations
w
NoneType
is None (used mainly in comparisons, no methods directly)
(None)
🎯 Important:
len(), type(), and isinstance() work on almost everything.
Some types are immutable (string, tuple, frozenset, bytes) — so no
add, remove, modify methods.
✨ Visual Quick Notes:
Mutable? Data Types
✅ Mutable list, set, dict, bytearray
int, float, complex, str, tuple,
❌ Immutable
frozenset, bytes
