PCEP Control Flow, Loops, Lists and Logic Practice Question
A company stores employee data as a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary has keys 'name' and 'age'. Which code correctly counts employees older than 30?
⚠ Common exam trap
Python Institute often tests the distinction between creating a filtered list and counting elements, so the trap here is that option D looks correct but produces a list instead of a numeric count, which is a subtle but critical difference.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
count = 0 for emp in employees: if emp['age'] > 30: count += 1
It uses a simple `for` loop to iterate directly over each dictionary in the `employees` list, checks if the value of the `'age'` key is greater than 30, and increments the counter accordingly. This is the most Pythonic and readable approach for counting elements that satisfy a condition.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
count = 0 for i in range(len(employees)): if employees[i]['age'] <= 30: count += 1
Why it's wrong here
Condition uses <= 30, counting employees 30 or younger.
- ✗
count = 0 i = 0 while i < len(employees): if employees[i]['age'] > 30: count += 1
Why it's wrong here
Missing i increment causes infinite loop.
- ✓
count = 0 for emp in employees: if emp['age'] > 30: count += 1
Why this is correct
Correctly increments count for each employee over 30.
- ✗
count = [emp for emp in employees if emp['age'] > 30]
Why it's wrong here
Returns a list, not the count.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCEP practice question is part of Courseiva's free Python Institute certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PCEP exam.