PCPP1 Networking And Restful Apis Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

How do you properly handle a non-200 status code when using 'requests' if you want to avoid manual status code checking?

Accepted Answer

Use response.raise_for_status(). Calling response.raise_for_status() will raise an HTTPError exception if the status code indicates an error (4xx or 5xx).

Answer

Use a decorator on the request function

Answer

Check response.error

Answer

The library raises an exception by default

Question 2

When implementing a timeout in 'requests.get()', what is the consequence of setting it as a single float (e.g., timeout=5)?

Accepted Answer

It limits both the connection and read time to 5 seconds. Providing a single value sets both the connect and read timeouts to that value.

Answer

It only limits the read phase

Answer

It causes an error because a tuple is expected

Answer

It only limits the connection phase

Question 3

In Python socket programming, what does the 'SO_REUSEADDR' socket option achieve?

Accepted Answer

It allows the address to be reused immediately after the server stops. It allows the socket to bind to a port that is in a TIME_WAIT state, commonly used to restart servers quickly.

Answer

It speeds up data transmission

Answer

It enables broadcasting on the socket

Answer

It prevents the socket from closing

Question 4

When sending a JSON payload with 'requests.post()', which argument should you use to automatically set the 'Content-Type' to 'application/json'?

Accepted Answer

json=payload. The 'json' argument automatically serializes the data and sets the correct headers.

Answer

data=json.dumps(payload)

Answer

params=payload

Answer

body=payload

Question 5

Which standard Python library module is used for lower-level networking and creating server/client sockets?

Accepted Answer

socket. The socket module is Python's standard library interface to the BSD sockets API, providing low-level networking primitives for creating TCP/UDP clients and servers. It exposes functions like socket(), bind(), listen(), accept(), connect(), send(), and recv(), making it the correct answer for lower-level networking. Higher-level modules like http.server and third-party libraries like requests are built on top of it.

Answer

http.server

Answer

requests

Answer

networking

Question 6

You are building a custom HTTP client and need to handle persistent connections (keep-alive). What is the primary role of the 'Connection' header?

Accepted Answer

To request the reuse of the TCP connection. The 'Connection: keep-alive' header tells the server that the client wants to reuse the same TCP connection for multiple requests.

Answer

To signal that the server is alive

Answer

To encrypt the connection

Answer

To set the timeout for the connection

Question 7

Which THREE of the following are valid HTTP request methods commonly used in RESTful API design?

Accepted Answer

DELETE. GET (C), POST (D), and DELETE (B) are all standard HTTP request methods defined in RFC 7231 and are core to RESTful API design: GET retrieves a representation of a resource, POST creates a new resource or submits data to be processed, and DELETE removes the specified resource. These methods map directly to REST's CRUD semantics (Read, Create, Delete) and are idempotent or non-idempotent as appropriate (GET and DELETE are idempotent, POST is not). SEND (A) and FETCH (E) are not valid HTTP request methods; FETCH is a JavaScript browser API for making network requests, and SEND is not part of the HTTP method registry, so neither belongs in a RESTful API design discussion.

Answer

SEND

Answer

FETCH

Question 8

Which THREE of the following are attributes of the 'requests.Response' object?

Accepted Answer

text. Option B (text) is correct because requests.Response.text returns the response body decoded into a Unicode string using the encoding inferred from the HTTP headers or apparent encoding. Option C (status_code) is correct because requests.Response.status_code holds the integer HTTP status code (e.g., 200, 404) returned by the server. Option E (json()) is correct because requests.Response.json() is a method that deserializes the response body from JSON into Python objects (dict/list), raising a JSONDecodeError if parsing fails. Option A (socket) is not a documented attribute of Response; the underlying socket is managed by urllib3 and accessed via raw/connection internals, not as a direct Response attribute. Option D (connect()) is not a Response method; connect() belongs to HTTPAdapter/urllib3 connection handling, not to the Response object.

Answer

socket

Answer

connect()

Question 9

You need to perform a HEAD request to check if a file exists on a server without downloading the body. How is this done with 'requests'?

Accepted Answer

requests.head(url). The requests.head() method sends a HEAD request, which only retrieves headers.

Answer

requests.post(url, data={'type': 'head'})

Answer

requests.options(url)

Answer

requests.get(url, headers={'Method': 'HEAD'})

Question 10

Which TWO of the following are potential pitfalls when using multithreading for network operations in Python?

Accepted Answer

Race conditions when accessing shared state. Option A is correct because when multiple threads access and modify shared state (such as a shared socket buffer, connection pool, or counter) without proper synchronization primitives like locks, race conditions can occur, leading to corrupted data or unpredictable behavior. Option B is correct because Python's Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) allows only one thread to execute Python bytecode at a time, so multithreading does not achieve true parallelism for CPU-bound tasks—though it can still help with I/O-bound network operations where threads block on socket calls. Option C is incorrect because threads do not always execute slower than single-threaded code; for I/O-bound network operations, multithreading often improves throughput by overlapping waiting periods. Option D is incorrect because threads within a process share the same memory space and typically consume less memory overhead than separate processes, not more. Option E is incorrect because socket objects in Python are not automatically thread-safe; concurrent access to the same socket from multiple threads can cause data corruption or errors unless explicitly synchronized.

Answer

Threads always execute slower than single-threaded code

Answer

Threads consume more memory than processes

Answer

Socket objects are automatically thread-safe

Question 11

Which THREE of the following steps are required to initialize a TCP server socket?

Accepted Answer

Create a socket with socket.AF_INET and socket.SOCK_STREAM. Option A is correct because a TCP server must first create a stream socket using socket.AF_INET for IPv4 addressing and socket.SOCK_STREAM for TCP, which establishes the endpoint that will later be bound and listened on. Option C is correct because after binding, the server must call listen() to put the socket into passive mode so it can accept incoming connection requests, which is what makes it a listening server socket. Option E is correct because bind() associates the socket with a specific local IP address and port, which is required before the socket can listen for connections on that address. Option B is incorrect because connect() is used by a client to initiate a connection to a server, not by a server to start listening. Option D is incorrect because recv() is used to receive data on an already-connected socket and cannot be called before bind() during server initialization.

Answer

Call connect() to start the server

Answer

Call recv() before bind()

Question 12

Which TWO of the following represent common data formats used for REST API request/response payloads?

Accepted Answer

XML. XML (A) is correct because REST APIs commonly use it as a structured, self-describing payload format, typically with the Content-Type application/xml or text/xml, and many frameworks support XML serialization/deserialization. JSON (D) is correct because it is the most widely used REST payload format, with Content-Type application/json, offering lightweight key-value and array structures that map easily to objects in most languages. The unmarked options do not belong: plain text only (B) is not a structured data format for typical REST payloads, SQL queries (C) are database commands rather than a payload serialization format, and binary-encoded images (E) are media content, not a common structured data format for REST request/response bodies.

Answer

Plain text only

Answer

SQL queries

Answer

Binary-encoded images

Question 13

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to pass data to a REST API using 'requests'?

Accepted Answer

json. Option A, json, is correct because passing a Python object to the json= parameter serializes it to JSON and sends it in the request body with Content-Type: application/json, which is the standard way to submit JSON payloads to a REST API. Option D, params, is correct because params= appends a dictionary of key/value pairs as a URL query string (e.g., ?key=value), which REST APIs commonly use for filtering, pagination, or search arguments. Option E, data, is correct because data= sends a dictionary or bytes as the request body, typically form-encoded (application/x-www-form-urlencoded) for POST/PUT/PATCH requests to REST endpoints. Option B, socket, is not a requests parameter at all — it refers to low-level network programming, not the requests library's API. Option C, url, is not a data-passing mechanism; the url argument specifies the endpoint address, not the payload or query data itself.

Answer

socket

Answer

url

Question 14

Which TWO of the following statements about the Python 'requests' library are correct?

Accepted Answer

It uses 'urllib3' internally for connection pooling. Option A is correct because the requests library is built on top of urllib3, which provides the underlying connection pooling and HTTP transport capabilities. Option E is correct because when you call requests.get() or similar top-level functions without using a Session object, requests creates a temporary Session internally, performs the request, and then closes the connection rather than reusing it. Option B is incorrect because requests fully supports HTTPS and TLS/SSL verification. Option C is incorrect because requests is a third-party package that must be installed via pip, not part of the Python standard library. Option D is incorrect because requests is not guaranteed thread-safe for all operations; while Session objects can be used across threads with care, the library does not provide blanket thread-safety guarantees.

Answer

It does not support HTTPS

Answer

It is part of the standard library

Answer

It is thread-safe by default for all operations

Question 15

Which TWO of the following are commonly used for debugging REST API integrations?

Accepted Answer

Using a proxy tool to inspect traffic. Option D is correct because a proxy tool (e.g., Charles Proxy, Fiddler, or mitmproxy) acts as an intercepting man-in-the-middle that captures and displays the actual HTTP/HTTPS requests and responses, letting you inspect methods, URLs, status codes, and payloads for REST debugging. Option E is correct because logging request and response headers (e.g., Content-Type, Authorization, Accept, and custom headers) reveals exactly what the client sent and what the server returned, which is essential for diagnosing issues like missing auth tokens, wrong content negotiation, or unexpected status codes. The remaining options do not belong: hardcoding all credentials (A) is a security anti-pattern that exposes secrets and does nothing to aid debugging, deleting the socket library (B) would break networking entirely, and increasing the CPU clock speed (C) is a hardware performance tweak unrelated to inspecting or troubleshooting API traffic.

Answer

Hardcoding all credentials

Answer

Deleting the socket library

Answer

Increasing the CPU clock speed