PCEP Practice Test 23 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A developer wants to read a floating-point number from user input and compute its square. Which code snippet correctly accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

num = float(input()); result = num ** 2. It uses `float(input())` to convert the user's input (which is always a string) into a floating-point number, and then computes the square using the exponentiation operator `**`. This ensures that decimal values are handled correctly, which is required for computing the square of a floating-point number.

Answer

num = input(); result = num * num

Answer

result = input() ** 2

Answer

num = int(input()); result = num ** 2

Question 2

What is the output of the following code? try: print(1/0); except ZeroDivisionError: print('error'); finally: print('done')

Accepted Answer

error
done. The code attempts to divide 1 by 0, which raises a ZeroDivisionError. The except block catches this specific exception and prints 'error', then the finally block always executes, printing 'done'. The output is therefore 'error' followed by 'done' on separate lines.

Answer

error

Answer

done
error

Answer

1/0
done

Question 3

A program prompts a user for their age using input(). Which line of code correctly stores the age as an integer?

Accepted Answer

age = int(input("Enter age: ")). The `int()` function explicitly converts the string returned by `input()` into an integer, which is required for storing a numeric age value. The `input()` function always returns a string in Python, so without conversion, arithmetic operations would fail or produce unexpected results.

Answer

age = str(input("Enter age: "))

Answer

age = float(input("Enter age: "))

Answer

age = input("Enter age: ")

Question 4

What is the output of the following code?

def f():
    try:
        raise ValueError('error1')
    except ValueError:
        raise TypeError('error2')

try:
    f()
except TypeError as e:
    print(e)
except ValueError:
    print('ValueError')

Accepted Answer

error2. The code raises a `ValueError` inside the `try` block of function `f()`, which is caught by the `except ValueError` handler. That handler then raises a new `TypeError('error2')`. This new exception propagates out of `f()` and is caught by the outer `except TypeError as e` block, which prints the exception message `'error2'`.

Answer

Error: unhandled exception

Answer

error1

Answer

ValueError

Question 5

A programmer writes: x = 5; y = "10"; z = x + y. What will happen?

Accepted Answer

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'. Python does not implicitly convert between incompatible types for the '+' operator. When an integer (int) and a string (str) are used with '+', Python raises a TypeError, as it cannot decide whether to perform arithmetic addition or string concatenation without explicit conversion.

Answer

Prints error but continues execution

Answer

Prints 510

Answer

Prints 15

Question 6

What is the output of the following code?

config = {}
print('Not set' if config.get('timeout') is None else config.get('timeout'))

Accepted Answer

Not set. The code attempts to access a dictionary key 'timeout' that does not exist. Using square bracket access on a missing key raises a KeyError, but the code uses the .get() method, which returns None by default if the key is missing. Since the key 'timeout' is not in the dictionary, .get('timeout') returns None, and the print statement outputs 'Not set' because the condition `config.get('timeout') is None` evaluates to True.

Answer

KeyError: 'timeout'

Answer

None

Answer

False

Question 7

A developer writes the following code to calculate a total price with tax:

price = 19.99
tax_rate = 0.08
total = price + price * tax_rate
print(round(total, 2))

What is printed?

Accepted Answer

21.59. Multiplication has higher precedence than addition, so price * tax_rate is evaluated first, producing the tax amount. That tax is then added to the base price, and the round function limits the result to two decimal places. The combined total is approximately 21.5892 before rounding, which becomes 21.59 when rounded to two decimal places.

Answer

1.6

Answer

21.5892

Answer

21.6

Question 8

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

Accepted Answer

float. Option A (float) is correct because float is a built-in Python numeric type used to represent floating-point (decimal) numbers such as 3.14. Option B (list) is correct because list is a built-in Python sequence type that holds an ordered, mutable collection of items, e.g., [1, 2, 3]. Option D (dict) is correct because dict is a built-in Python mapping type that stores key-value pairs, e.g., {"a": 1}. Option C (char) is not a Python data type; Python has no distinct char type and represents single characters as strings of length one. Option E (record) is not a built-in Python data type; record-like structures are typically emulated with dicts, tuples, or classes such as namedtuple or dataclass.

Answer

char

Answer

record

Question 9

A weather station records temperature as a string '23.5'. The technician writes code to convert to Fahrenheit for a report. Which code will produce the correct Fahrenheit value without errors?

Accepted Answer

fahrenheit = float(celsius) * 9/5 + 32. It explicitly converts the string '23.5' to a float using the `float()` function, preserving the decimal part. The expression `float(celsius) * 9/5 + 32` then correctly applies the Fahrenheit conversion formula (F = C * 9/5 + 32) using floating-point arithmetic, which yields the precise result 74.3 without any type errors.

Answer

fahrenheit = celsius * 9/5 + 32

Answer

fahrenheit = int(celsius) * 9/5 + 32

Answer

fahrenheit = (celsius + 32) * 9/5

Question 10

A developer needs to read an integer from user input and store it. Which code snippet accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

x = int(input()). `int(input())` first calls `input()` to read a string from the user, then passes that string to `int()` to convert it to an integer. This is the standard Python pattern for reading an integer from standard input.

Answer

x = read_int()

Answer

x = input(int())

Answer

x = int(input)

Question 11

A script calculates total cost: price = 49.95, quantity = 3, tax_rate = 0.08. The developer writes: total = price * quantity * (1 + tax_rate). The result is printed as 161.838. Which best practice is being violated?

Accepted Answer

Not rounding the result to two decimal places for currency.. When dealing with currency values, best practice dictates rounding to two decimal places to represent cents. The raw result 161.838 is not a valid monetary amount; it should be rounded to 161.84 using `round(total, 2)` or formatted with `:.2f`. This ensures accuracy and avoids confusion in financial calculations.

Answer

Using parentheses unnecessarily.

Answer

Not using an f-string to format the output.

Answer

Using multiplication instead of addition for tax.

Question 12

Which of the following expressions evaluates to False?

Accepted Answer

3 >= 4. (3 >= 4) evaluates to False because the 'greater than or equal to' operator (>=) returns True only if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand. Since 3 is neither greater than nor equal to 4, the expression is False.

Answer

2 != 1

Answer

10 == 10

Answer

5 < 10

Question 13

Consider the code: try: try: raise TypeError except ValueError: print('A') except TypeError: print('B') finally: print('C'). What is printed?

Accepted Answer

B and C. The inner `try` raises a `TypeError`. The inner `except ValueError` does not catch it, so the exception propagates to the outer `except TypeError`, which catches it and prints 'B'. The `finally` block always executes, printing 'C'. Thus, the output is 'B' and 'C'.

Answer

A, B, and C

Answer

C only

Answer

A and C

Question 14

What is the output of the following code?
print('Hello', 'World', sep='-', end='!
')

Accepted Answer

Hello-World!
. The `print()` function with `sep='-'` replaces the default space separator with a hyphen between the two arguments 'Hello' and 'World', producing 'Hello-World'. The `end='!
'` parameter overrides the default newline-only end with an exclamation mark followed by a newline, so the output ends with '!' before the newline. Therefore, the correct output is 'Hello-World!
'.

Answer

Hello-World

Answer

Hello World!

Answer

Hello World!

Question 15

Which two of the following list methods modify the original list in place? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

sort(). Option A, sort(), is correct because it is a list method that reorders the list's elements directly in the existing list object and returns None, so the original list is modified in place. Option D, append(), is correct because it adds a single element to the end of the existing list object and also returns None, mutating the original list. Option B, count(), is not correct because it only returns the number of occurrences of a value and does not change the list. Option C, sorted(), is not correct because it is a built-in function that returns a new sorted list, leaving the original list unchanged. Option E, copy(), is not correct because it returns a shallow copy of the list without modifying the original list.

Answer

count()

Answer

sorted()

Answer

copy()