PCAP Object-Oriented Programming Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  def __get__(self, instance, owner): print(f'Access'); return self

  Why it's wrong here

  The __get__ method belongs to the descriptor protocol: it is only triggered when the class containing it is used as a class attribute and that attribute is accessed as an instance attribute, not for every attribute lookup. It also has the wrong signature for intercepting general access—it would need to receive the instance and owner class, and simply returning self would return the method object itself, not the attribute's value. Thus it would not log ordinary reads on a loggeddict instance.

• ✓

  def __getattribute__(self, name): print(f'Access {name}'); return super().__getattribute__(name)

  Why this is correct

  This correctly overrides __getattribute__, which Python invokes for every normal attribute access using dot notation on an instance. It prints the attribute name, then delegates to super().__getattribute__(name) to perform the real lookup—this call to the parent implementation is essential both to return the actual attribute value and to avoid infinite recursion. In a loggeddict subclass, this will log access to keys like obj.name, obj.method, and inherited attributes, though implicit special-method calls may bypass it.

• ✗

  def __getattr__(self, name): print(f'Access {name}'); return self.__dict__[name]

  Why it's wrong here

  __getattr__ is a fallback hook, not a general interceptor: it is invoked only after normal attribute lookup has already failed, so existing attributes—exactly the ones that should be logged—never pass through it. Moreover, if a name is truly missing, this implementation attempts self.__dict__[name] and raises KeyError instead of AttributeError, which breaks the standard behavior callers expect when checking for missing attributes. Therefore it cannot serve as a complete access log.

• ✗

  def __getitem__(self, key): print(f'Access {key}'); return dict.__getitem__(self, key)

  Why it's wrong here

  __getitem__ is the protocol for container indexing with square brackets—obj[key]—completely separate from attribute access via the dot operator. In a dict subclass, overriding __getitem__ would log dictionary key lookups such as logged_dict['foo'], but it would never fire for reads like logged_dict.foo. The dictionary key indexing and attribute access use distinct lookup mechanisms, so this method addresses a different operation than the one being requested.