PCEP Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Given the tuple t = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), which expression returns the last element?

Accepted Answer

t[-1]. In Python, negative indices count from the end of a sequence. For the tuple t = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), t[-1] accesses the last element (5), because -1 refers to the final position. This is a standard feature of Python's sequence indexing.

Answer

t[5]

Answer

t[4]

Answer

t[0]

Question 2

Which THREE of the following are built-in Python data types? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

str. Option A, str, is correct because str is a built-in Python type representing immutable Unicode text strings, created via literals like 'abc' or the str() constructor. Option C, int, is correct because int is a built-in Python type for arbitrary-precision integers, produced by literals like 42 or int(). Option D, list, is correct because list is a built-in Python type for mutable ordered sequences, created with literals like [1, 2] or list(). Option B, boolean, is not a built-in Python type name; the actual built-in type is bool (a subclass of int), so 'boolean' is not a valid Python type. Option E, array, is not a built-in Python type; arrays are provided by the standard-library array module (array.array) or third-party libraries such as NumPy, not as a core built-in type.

Answer

boolean

Answer

array

Question 3

Given x = 5, which of the following assignments will cause a runtime error?

Accepted Answer

x //= 0. Division by zero is undefined in Python, and the floor division assignment operator `//=` with a divisor of 0 raises a `ZeroDivisionError` at runtime. The other operators (`**=`, `-=`, `+=`) perform valid arithmetic on the integer 5 and do not cause errors.

Answer

x **= 2

Answer

x -= 3

Answer

x += 2

Question 4

A beginner writes: x = '10'; y = 20; print(x + y). What happens?

Accepted Answer

Raises TypeError. Python's type system does not allow implicit concatenation of a string and an integer. The variable `x` is a string (`'10'`), and `y` is an integer (`20`). The `+` operator with these types triggers a `TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'` (or vice versa), as Python refuses to guess the programmer's intent.

Answer

Prints 30

Answer

Prints 10 + 20

Answer

Prints 1020

Question 5

You are maintaining a Python script that calculates team bonuses based on sales data. The script reads a dictionary where keys are employee names and values are total sales (float). It then applies a 10% bonus if sales exceed 5000. The code snippet is:

def calculate_bonus(sales):
    for name, value in sales.items():
        if value > 5000:
            print(f"{name} gets bonus")

However, the manager wants the script to return a list of employees who qualify, not just print them. They also want to avoid side effects. What is the best way to modify this function?

Accepted Answer

Build a list inside the function and return it at the end.. It modifies the function to build a list of qualifying employee names inside the function and returns that list. This avoids side effects (no global variables, no mutation of the input dictionary) and follows the principle of returning results rather than printing them, making the function reusable and testable.

Answer

Create a global list variable at the top of the script and append each qualifying name to it.

Answer

Keep the function as is and have the caller capture the printed names by redirecting stdout.

Answer

Use the dictionary's update method to mark bonus status in the original sales dictionary.

Question 6

A developer needs to implement a loop that prints numbers from 10 down to 1. Which loop correctly achieves this?

Accepted Answer

for i in range(10, 0, -1): print(i). `range(10, 0, -1)` generates numbers from 10 down to 1 inclusive. The start is 10, the stop is 0 (exclusive), and the step is -1, so the sequence is 10, 9, 8, ..., 1. This matches the requirement exactly.

Answer

for i in range(10, 0): print(i)

Answer

for i in reversed(range(1, 10)): print(i)

Answer

for i in range(10, 1, -1): print(i)

Question 7

What does the following code print? text = 'Hello World'; print(text.replace('o', '0').upper())

Accepted Answer

HELL0 W0RLD. The code first replaces all occurrences of 'o' with '0' in 'Hello World', resulting in 'Hell0 W0rld'. Then it applies the .upper() method, converting all characters to uppercase, yielding 'HELL0 W0RLD'. Therefore, the output is 'HELL0 W0RLD'.

Answer

hell0 w0rld

Answer

HELLO WORLD

Answer

Hell0 W0rld

Question 8

A junior developer writes a Python script to sum all numbers greater than 10 from a list. The code is:

numbers = [5, 12, 8, 15, 3]
total = 0
for num in numbers:
    if num > 10:
        total = total + 1
print(total)

The output is 2, but the expected sum is 27 (12+15). Which change will produce the correct output?

Accepted Answer

Change `total = total + 1` to `total += num`. The original code increments `total` by 1 for each qualifying number, counting them instead of summing their values. Changing `total = total + 1` to `total += num` adds the actual number to the accumulator, producing the correct sum of 12 + 15 = 27.

Answer

Change `total = 0` to `total = []`

Answer

Change `if num > 10:` to `if num >= 10:`

Answer

Change `for num in numbers:` to `for num in range(numbers):`

Question 9

A function is defined as: def func(*args, **kwargs): print(args, kwargs). It is called as func(1, 2, a=3, b=4). What is printed?

Accepted Answer

(1, 2) {'a': 3, 'b': 4}. The function uses `*args` to capture positional arguments into a tuple and `**kwargs` to capture keyword arguments into a dictionary. When called as `func(1, 2, a=3, b=4)`, `args` becomes `(1, 2)` and `kwargs` becomes `{'a': 3, 'b': 4}`, so `print(args, kwargs)` outputs `(1, 2) {'a': 3, 'b': 4}`. Option B is correct because it matches this exact output.

Answer

(1, 2, a=3, b=4)

Answer

TypeError

Answer

[1, 2] {'a': 3, 'b': 4}

Question 10

A Python program is designed to process user input and store results in a dictionary. The code uses the statement: my_dict[user_key] = value. Under which condition will this statement raise a TypeError?

Accepted Answer

If the key is a list.. Dictionary keys must be immutable (hashable) types. A list is mutable and therefore unhashable, so using it as a key in a dictionary assignment raises a TypeError. The statement `my_dict[user_key] = value` will fail at runtime if `user_key` is a list.

Answer

If the key is None.

Answer

If the key already exists and you try to assign a different value.

Answer

If the key does not already exist in the dictionary.

Question 11

Which THREE of the following code snippets will successfully print the string 'Hello, World!'? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

print('''Hello, World!'''). Option A is correct because triple-quoted strings ('''...''') are valid Python string literals, and since the content 'Hello, World!' contains no conflicting triple quotes, print('''Hello, World!''') outputs the string successfully. Option C is correct because a double-quoted string literal "Hello, World!" is valid Python syntax, and print("Hello, World!") outputs the exact text. Option E is correct because a single-quoted string literal 'Hello, World!' is valid Python syntax, and print('Hello, World!') outputs the exact text. Option B is incorrect because the inner double quotes around Hello! terminate the string early, causing a SyntaxError. Option D is incorrect because the apostrophe in It's prematurely closes the single-quoted string, also causing a SyntaxError.

Answer

print("He said, "Hello!"")

Answer

print('It's a beautiful day')

Question 12

Evaluate the expression: not (True or False) and (False or True). What is the result?

Accepted Answer

False. The expression is evaluated step by step: first, `True or False` evaluates to `True`; then `False or True` evaluates to `True`; the `not` operator negates the first `True` to `False`; finally, `False and True` evaluates to `False`. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

Answer

SyntaxError

Answer

True

Answer

None

Question 13

A beginner writes: x = 10; y = "20"; print(x + y). What will happen?

Accepted Answer

It raises a TypeError. Python does not allow implicit type conversion between a string and an integer in an addition operation. The `+` operator with a string and an integer raises a `TypeError`, as Python's dynamic typing requires explicit conversion (e.g., `int(y)` or `str(x)`) for such mixed-type operations.

Answer

It prints 30 as a string

Answer

It prints 1020

Answer

It prints 30

Question 14

Which of the following expressions evaluate to True? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

3 ** 2 == 9. Option A is correct because the exponentiation operator ** raises 3 to the power of 2, yielding 9, and 9 == 9 evaluates to True. Option B is correct because in Python, comparing a float and an int with == performs numeric value comparison: 4.0 and 4 represent the same numeric value, so 4.0 == 4 is True. Option D is correct because the in operator performs a substring membership test on strings, and the substring "Py" occurs at the start of "Python", so the expression is True. Option C is not correct because 10 % 3 returns the remainder 1 (not 0), so 1 == 0 is False. Option E is not correct because bool(0) evaluates to False, not True, since zero is a falsy value in Python.

Answer

10 % 3 == 0

Answer

bool(0)

Question 15

Which of the following correctly creates a tuple with a single element 5?

Accepted Answer

t = (5,). In Python, a tuple with a single element requires a trailing comma after the element. Without the comma, parentheses are treated as grouping operators for expression evaluation, not as a tuple literal. Thus, `t = (5,)` creates a tuple containing the integer 5.

Answer

t = (5)

Answer

t = (5)

Answer

t = (5, 5)