1. What is Python?

What are the benefits of using 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.

Benefits of using Python:

 Python is a general-purpose programming language that has a simple, easy-to-learn syntax

that emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance.
Moreover, the language is capable of scripting, is 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.

2. What is a dynamically typed language?

Before we understand a dynamically typed language, we should learn about what typing
is. Typing refers to type-checking in programming languages. In a strongly-typed language,
such as Python, "1" + 2 will 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 -

 Static - Data Types are checked before execution.

 Dynamic - Data Types are checked during execution.

Python is 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.
3. 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.

4. 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 to the Python open-source community requires you to follow
these style guidelines sincerely and strictly.

5. 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:

 A local scope refers to the local objects available in the current function.
 A global scope refers to the objects available throughout the code execution since their
inception.
 A module-level scope refers to the global objects of the current module accessible in the
program.
 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.

6. 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 objects stored in both sequences can have different data types. Lists are
represented with square brackets ['sara', 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'

7. 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 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 categories-

 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 distinct 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 signs as floating-point
float
numbers
complex Stores complex numbers in the form (A + Bj) and has attributes: real and 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 immutable and thus, hashable, and can be used as a dictionary key or as
an element of another set.

 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 to the documentation at docs.python.org for a detailed view of the callable types.

8. 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():
# do nothing
pass
myEmptyFunc() # nothing happens
## Without the pass keyword
# File "<stdin>", line 3
# IndentationError: expected an indented block

9. What are modules and packages in Python?

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

 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.
 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.
 Reusability: Functions defined in a module can be easily reused by other parts of the
application.
 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 help avoid clashes between global variable names, in a similar
manner, packages help avoid clashes between module names.
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.

10. 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 an 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.

Looking to get certified in Python? Check out Scaler Topic's Free Python course with
certification.

11. What is the use of self in Python?

Self is used to represent the instance of the class. With this keyword, you can access the
attributes and methods of the class in python. It binds the attributes with the given arguments.
self is used in different places and often thought to be a keyword. But unlike in C++, self is
not a keyword in Python.

12. 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")

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

 Break The break statement terminates the loop immediately and the control flows to the
statement after the body of the loop.
Continue The continue statement terminates the current iteration of the statement, skips the
rest of the code in the current iteration and the control flows to the next iteration of
the loop.
Pass As explained above, the pass keyword in Python is generally used to fill up empty
blocks 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

14. What are unit tests in Python?

 Unit test is a unit testing framework of Python.

 Unit testing means testing different components of software separately. Can you think about
why unit testing is important? Imagine a scenario, you are building software that 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 turn failed component B, and this actually failed the
software. There can be many such combinations.
 This is why it is necessary to test each and every component properly so that we know which
component might be highly responsible for the failure of the software.

15. 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.

16. 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]

17. Explain how can you make a Python Script executable on Unix?
 Script file must begin with #!/usr/bin/env python.

18. 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

Python OOPS Interview Questions

39. How do you create a class in Python?

To create a class in python, we use the keyword “class” as shown in the example below:

class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name

To instantiate or create an object from the class created above, we do the following:

emp_1=InterviewbitEmployee("Mr. Employee")

To access the name attribute, we just call the attribute using the dot operator as shown below:

print(emp_1.emp_name)
# Prints Mr. Employee

To create methods inside the class, we include the methods under the scope of the class as
shown below:

class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name

def introduce(self):
print("Hello I am " + self.emp_name)

The self parameter in the init and introduce functions represent the reference to the current
class instance which is used for accessing attributes and methods of that class. The self
parameter has to be the first parameter of any method defined inside the class. The method of
the class InterviewbitEmployee can be accessed as shown below:
 emp_1.introduce()

The overall program would look like this:

class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name

def introduce(self):
print("Hello I am " + self.emp_name)

# create an object of InterviewbitEmployee class

emp_1 = InterviewbitEmployee("Mr Employee")
print(emp_1.emp_name) #print employee name
emp_1.introduce() #introduce the employee

40. How does inheritance work in python? Explain it with an example.

Inheritance gives the power to a class to access all attributes and methods of
another class. It aids in code reusability and helps the developer to maintain
applications without redundant code. The class inheriting from another class is a
child class or also called a derived class. The class from which a child class
derives the members are called parent class or superclass.

Python supports different kinds of inheritance, they are:

 Single Inheritance: Child class derives members of one parent class.

# Parent class
class A:
def __init__(self, a_name):
self.a_name = a_name

# Intermediate class
class B(A):
def __init__(self, b_name, a_name):
self.b_name = b_name
# invoke constructor of class A
A.__init__(self, a_name)

# Child class
class C(B):
def __init__(self,c_name, b_name, a_name):
self.c_name = c_name
# invoke constructor of class B
B.__init__(self, b_name, a_name)

def display_names(self):
print("A name : ", self.a_name)
print("B name : ", self.b_name)
print("C name : ", self.c_name)

# Driver code
obj1 = C('child', 'intermediate', 'parent')
print(obj1.a_name)
obj1.display_names()
 Multiple Inheritance: This is achieved when one child class derives members from more
than one parent class. All features of parent classes are inherited in the child class.

# Parent class1
class Parent1:
def parent1_func(self):
print("Hi I am first Parent")

# Parent class2
class Parent2:
def parent2_func(self):
print("Hi I am second Parent")

# Child class
class Child(Parent1, Parent2):
def child_func(self):
self.parent1_func()
self.parent2_func()

# Driver's code
obj1 = Child()
obj1.child_func()

 Hierarchical Inheritance: When a parent class is derived by more than one child class, it is
called hierarchical inheritance.
# Base class
class A:
def a_func(self):
print("I am from the parent class.")

# 1st Derived class

class B(A):
def b_func(self):
print("I am from the first child.")

# 2nd Derived class

class C(A):
def c_func(self):
print("I am from the second child.")

# Driver's code
obj1 = B()
obj2 = C()
obj1.a_func()
obj1.b_func() #child 1 method
obj2.a_func()
obj2.c_func() #child 2 method

41. How do you access parent members in the child class?

 Following are the ways using which you can access parent class members within a child
class:

 By using Parent class name: You can use the name of the parent class to access the
attributes as shown in the example below:

class Parent(object):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name

class Child(Parent):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name, age):
Parent.name = name
self.age = age

def display(self):
print(Parent.name, self.age)

# Driver Code
obj = Child("Interviewbit", 6)
obj.display()

 By using super(): The parent class members can be accessed in child class using the super
keyword.

class Parent(object):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name

class Child(Parent):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name, age):
'''
In Python 3.x, we can also use super().__init__(name)
'''
super(Child, self).__init__(name)
self.age = age

def display(self):
# Note that Parent.name cant be used
# here since super() is used in the constructor
print(self.name, self.age)

# Driver Code
obj = Child("Interviewbit", 6)
obj.display()

42. Are access specifiers used in python?

Python does not make use of access specifiers specifically like private, public, protected, etc.
However, it does not derive this from any variables. It has the concept of imitating the
behaviour of variables by making use of a single (protected) or double underscore (private) as
prefixed to the variable names. By default, the variables without prefixed underscores are
public.
Example:

# to demonstrate access specifiers

class InterviewbitEmployee:

# protected members
_emp_name = None
_age = None

# private members
__branch = None

# constructor
def __init__(self, emp_name, age, branch):
self._emp_name = emp_name
self._age = age
self.__branch = branch

#public member
def display():
print(self._emp_name +" "+self._age+" "+self.__branch)

43. Is it possible to call parent class without its instance creation?

Yes, it is possible if the base class is instantiated by other child classes or if the base class is a
static method.

44. How is an empty class created in python?

An empty class does not have any members defined in it. It is created by using the pass
keyword (the pass command does nothing in python). We can create objects for this class
outside the class.
For example-

class EmptyClassDemo:
pass
obj=EmptyClassDemo()
obj.name="Interviewbit"
print("Name created= ",obj.name)

Output:
Name created = Interviewbit

45. Differentiate between new and override modifiers.

The new modifier is used to instruct the compiler to use the new implementation and not the
base class function. The Override modifier is useful for overriding a base class function
inside the child class.

46. Why is finalize used?

Finalize method is used for freeing up the unmanaged resources and clean up before the
garbage collection method is invoked. This helps in performing memory management tasks.
 47. What is init method in python?

The init method works similarly to the constructors in Java. The method is run as soon as an
object is instantiated. It is useful for initializing any attributes or default behaviour of the
object at the time of instantiation.
For example:

class InterviewbitEmployee:

# init method / constructor

def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name

# introduce method
def introduce(self):
print('Hello, I am ', self.emp_name)

emp = InterviewbitEmployee('Mr Employee') # __init__ method is called

here and initializes the object name with "Mr Employee"
emp.introduce()

48. How will you check if a class is a child of another class?

This is done by using a method called issubclass() provided by python. The method tells us if
any class is a child of another class by returning true or false accordingly.
For example:

class Parent(object):
pass

class Child(Parent):
pass

# Driver Code
print(issubclass(Child, Parent)) #True
print(issubclass(Parent, Child)) #False

 We can check if an object is an instance of a class by making use of isinstance() method:

obj1 = Child()
obj2 = Parent()
print(isinstance(obj2, Child)) #False
print(isinstance(obj2, Parent)) #True