PCEP Practice Question: Functions, Tuples, Dictionaries and Exceptions
A developer wants to use a tuple to store the names of the months. They attempt to change an element: months = ("Jan","Feb","Mar"); months[1] = "Februar". What is the result?
⚠ Common exam trap
The PCEP exam often tests the distinction between mutable (list) and immutable (tuple) types, and the trap here is that candidates confuse the immutability error with a ValueError or AttributeError, or assume tuples can be modified like lists.
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
✓
A TypeError is raised
Tuples in Python are immutable, meaning their elements cannot be changed after creation. Attempting to assign a new value to an index of a tuple (e.g., months[1] = "Februar") raises a TypeError, not a ValueError or AttributeError. This is because the assignment operation is not supported for tuple objects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The tuple is updated to ("Jan","Februar","Mar")
Why it's wrong here
Tuples are immutable, so assignment fails.
- ✗
A ValueError is raised
Why it's wrong here
ValueError is raised when a function gets an argument of correct type but inappropriate value, not for assignment to immutable.
- ✗
An AttributeError is raised
Why it's wrong here
AttributeError is raised when an attribute reference or assignment fails, not for item assignment.
- ✓
A TypeError is raised
Why this is correct
Correct: Tuples do not support item assignment, so TypeError is raised.
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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.