Python Interview Qs

Question 1

What is Python?

Answer 1

high-level, interpreted, strongly and dynamically typed general purpose programming language

Question 2

What are the benefits of Python?

Answer 2

Simply, easy to read syntax - reduces the cost of program maintenance.
It is both a scripting and programming language
It’s open source and supports third-party packages

Question 3

What is a dynamically typed language?

Answer 3

Data types are checked during execution. Python is a strong dynamically typed language - there is no implicit conversion of data types. Python executes each statement line by line and thus type-checking is done on the fly, during execution.

Question 4

What is an interpreted language?

Answer 4

Executes statements line by line - Python, JS, R, PHP, Ruby. Program runs directly from source code with no intermediary compilation step.

Question 5

What is PEP 8 and why is it important?

Answer 5

Official style guidelines for Python Code. Important in open-source

Question 6

What is Scope in Python?

Answer 6

Every object functions within a scope - block of code where an object is relevant. Defines where objects can be used and in what ways.
Local scope, global scope, module-level scope, outermost scope

Question 7

Local scope

Answer 7

local objects available in the current function. Local scope objects can be synced with global scope objects with keyword global

Question 8

Global scope

Answer 8

objects available throughout the code execution since their inception

Question 9

module-level scope

Answer 9

global objects of the current module accessible in the program

Question 10

outermost scope

Answer 10

all the built-in names callable in the program. Objects in this scope are searched last to find the name reference

Question 11

Difference between lists and tuples

Answer 11

Both sequence data types that can store a collection of objects in Python.
Lists are mutable. Tuples are not.

Question 12

Common built-in data types

Answer 12

None type
Numeric types: int, float, complex (stores complex numbers in form (A + Bj) and has attr real and imag), bool
Sequence types: list, tuple, range, str, bytearray, bytes, memoryview
Mapping types: dict
Set types: set, frozenset

Question 13

What is pass in Python?

Answer 13

null operation used as a placeholder for empty code blocks

Question 14

Benefits of using modules

Answer 14

Simplicity, Maintainability, Reusability, Scoping

Question 15

What are protected attributes?

Answer 15

Defined with single underscore prefix. Can be accessed and modified from outside the class they are defined in but a responsible developer should refrain from doing so

Question 16

What are private attributes?

Answer 16

double underscore prefix. Cannot be accessed or modified from outside and will result in AttributeError if attempt is made

Question 17

How can you make a Python Script executable on Unix?

Answer 17

script file must begin with
#!/usr/bin/env/python

Question 18

Difference between arrays and lists

Answer 18

Arrays can only contain elements of same data type vs lists can contain difference data types (disadvantage of using more memory)

Question 19

How is memory managed in Python?

Answer 19

Handled by the Python Memory Manager. Memory is allocated by the manager in the form of a private heap space dedicated to Python. Python objects are stored in heap and since its private, it’s inaccessible to the programmer.
Python has built-in Garbage Collection to recycle the unused memory for the private heap space.