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Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals

Practise RAM questions covering identification, installation, speeds, dual-channel, and troubleshooting for the PCEP exam.

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What this domain covers

What to know about Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals

RAM tests your ability to identify, install, and troubleshoot memory types, speeds, and configurations for PCs.

Identifying DDR3 vs DDR4 vs DDR5 physical and electrical differences

Matching RAM speed (MHz) to motherboard and CPU support

Calculating total memory capacity from module size and slots

Troubleshooting common RAM errors like beep codes and blue screens

Why learners struggle

Why Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals questions are commonly missed

RAM questions are commonly missed because learners confuse physical form factors (DIMM vs SO-DIMM) and fail to distinguish between memory speed (MHz) and latency (CL).

  • ·DIMM vs SO-DIMM — desktop vs laptop form factor confusion
  • ·DDR3 vs DDR4 vs DDR5 — notch position and voltage differences
  • ·MHz vs CL — speed vs latency trade-offs in performance
  • ·Single-channel vs dual-channel — bandwidth impact misconception
  • ·ECC vs non-ECC — error correction support in servers vs desktops
  • ·32-bit vs 64-bit — maximum addressable RAM limit

Watch out for

Common Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals exam traps

  • Confusing DDR3 and DDR4 notch positions and voltage requirements
  • Assuming dual-channel requires identical size modules only
  • Mixing ECC and non-ECC RAM in a single system
  • Forgetting that 32-bit OS limits usable RAM to 4 GB

Question index

All Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals questions (137)

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1

Which TWO of the following are valid variable names in Python? (Choose Two)

Easy
2

You are a junior developer at a logistics company. Your team maintains a Python script that processes daily shipment data from a CSV file. The script reads the file, computes total weight per shipment, and writes results to a new CSV. Recently, the script started crashing sporadically with a 'ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'NULL''. The CSV file sometimes contains the string 'NULL' in the weight column for missing values. The current code reads the weight column as: weight = int(row['weight']). Your team lead wants a robust fix that handles missing data gracefully without crashing, and also logs the line number for any problematic rows for later review. Which of the following approaches best meets these requirements?

Hard
3

A program uses a for loop to double each element in a list: numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; for num in numbers: num = num * 2. After execution, numbers remains unchanged. Why?

Medium
4

Arrange the steps to read data from a text file in Python.

Medium
5

What does the following code print? text = 'Hello World'; print(text.replace('o', '0').upper())

Medium
6

You are a developer in a company that runs a Python script daily to generate reports. The script uses the os module to list files in a directory and process each. Recently, after a server migration, the script fails with 'PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied'. The script runs under a service account that has read/write access to most folders, but the migration changed the permissions on certain subdirectories. The error is intermittent, occurring only for some files. You need to fix the script to continue processing other files even if one fails. Which approach should you take?

Medium
7

Refer to the exhibit. What is the output when the following code is executed: print(calculate_discount(100, 0.6))

Medium
8

Refer to the exhibit. What is the most likely cause of this error?

Easy
9

Which two of the following are true about Python lists? (Choose two.)

Hard
10

What does the following code output? for i in range(3): if i == 1: continue; print(i, end=' ')

Medium
11

Consider code: def outer(): x = 1 def inner(): nonlocal x x = 2 inner() print(x) outer() What is printed?

Hard
12

A junior developer is writing a script to process a list of user IDs: ids = [101, 102, 103, 104]. The goal is to create a new list where each ID is increased by 10, without modifying the original list. The developer writes: new_ids = ids.append(10). However, the output shows None. The developer needs to correctly create the new list. Which code should the developer use to achieve this?

Medium
13

A company is developing a data processing pipeline that must handle large datasets efficiently. They notice that using a list comprehension to filter data is slower than expected. Which alternative approach would likely improve performance?

Hard
14

A developer writes code to calculate the area of a rectangle and prints it. The code is: length = 10 width = 5 area = length + width print('The area is', area) If the width is accidentally assigned a string '5', what error will occur?

Easy
15

A programmer wants to iterate over a list of strings and print each string in uppercase. Which of the following code snippets will accomplish this?

Easy
16

A beginner writes: x = 10; y = 3; print(x // y). What is the output?

Easy
17

You are a developer in a data science team using Python for analysis. A colleague wrote a script that downloads a CSV file from a URL, parses it using csv.DictReader, and prints summary statistics. The script works on his machine but fails on yours with 'UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xe9 in position 100: invalid continuation byte'. The CSV file contains text in multiple languages, including French accents. The error occurs in the csv.DictReader call. You need to fix the script to work on any machine. Which approach is best?

Hard
18

Which THREE of the following are correct ways to create a list containing the numbers 1, 2, 3? (Choose three.)

Hard
19

A developer is writing a script to process user input. The script should repeatedly ask for a number until a valid integer is entered. Which loop structure is most appropriate?

Medium
20

A junior developer is working on a script that processes user data. The script reads a CSV file into a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary represents a user with keys 'name', 'age', and 'email'. The developer needs to filter out users under 18 and store their names in a list. The current code is: users = [{'name': 'Alice', 'age': 17, 'email': 'alice@example.com'}, {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 22, 'email': 'bob@example.com'}] minors = [] for user in users: if user['age'] < 18: minors.append(user['name']) print(minors) The code works, but the senior developer says it is not idiomatic and suggests a more concise solution. Which of the following approaches is the best replacement?

Hard
21

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

Hard
22

A developer needs to iterate over the indices of a list named 'items' and print each index and its corresponding value. Which loop construct is most appropriate?

Medium
23

Which two of the following are valid Python variable names? (Choose two.)

Easy
24

A developer wrote: a, b, c = 10, 20, 30; avg = a + b + c / 3; print(avg). What is the output?

Easy
25

Which of the following is the most efficient (Pythonic) way to create a list of squares for numbers 0 through 9?

Hard
26

What is the output?

Medium
27

Consider the following code: x = input('Enter a number: ') print(x + x) A user enters 5 at the prompt. What is printed?

Easy
28

A system administrator is writing a Python script to monitor disk usage. The script uses the psutil library (not part of PCEP scope, but the scenario is generic). The administrator writes: import psutil disk = psutil.disk_usage('/') print(disk.free) But the script fails with an ImportError because psutil is not installed. The administrator decides to handle this gracefully: if the module is missing, the script should print a custom error message and exit without crashing. Which code snippet achieves this?

Medium
29

A Python script contains the following code: x = [1, 2, 3] y = x y.append(4) z = x.copy() z.append(5) After execution, which TWO of the following statements are true? (Choose two.)

Hard
30

Which TWO of the following code snippets will produce the output 'True'? (Assume all variables are defined appropriately.)

Hard
31

A Python developer is creating a function that processes a list of dictionaries and needs to ensure the original list remains unchanged. They write the following code: def process(data): for item in data: item['processed'] = True return data What is the best-practice critique of this function?

Hard
32

A Python program is designed to process user input and store results in a dictionary. The code uses the statement: my_dict[user_key] = value. Under which condition will this statement raise a TypeError?

Hard
33

You are an IT support specialist for a university. A professor uses a Python script that analyzes exam scores from a text file. The script calculates the average score and prints it. Recently, the script outputs 'NaN' instead of a number. The relevant code is: scores = [float(line.strip()) for line in open('scores.txt')]; average = sum(scores) / len(scores); print(average). You inspect the scores.txt file and find that one line contains the word 'Absent' and another line is blank. The professor wants the script to ignore non-numeric lines and blank lines, and also print a warning if any line was skipped. Which of the following modifications to the script best achieves this?

Hard
34

The above JSON is loaded into a Python dictionary named data using json.load(). A developer writes: print(data['languages'][1][:3]) What is printed?

Hard
35

A developer writes a script that prompts the user for their age and stores it in a variable. Which code snippet correctly converts the input to an integer?

Easy
36

A developer writes a function that calculates the area of a rectangle and prints the result inside the function. Later, they need to use this area in another calculation. What should they do to make the function reusable and composable?

Easy
37

Which logical expression evaluates to True given that a = 5 and b = 10?

Medium
38

Which TWO of the following are valid variable names in Python?

Easy
39

Match each Python keyword to its use.

Medium
40

Refer to the exhibit. Which of the following is true about the output?

Hard
41

A junior developer is writing a script to read a number from input and double it. They write: num = input("Enter a number: ") result = num * 2 print(result) When they test with input 5, the output is '55' instead of 10. What is wrong?

Easy
42

Which TWO of the following are valid Python variable names?

Easy
43

Which TWO of the following are valid variable names in Python?

Easy
44

A function is defined as: def add(a, b=5): return a + b What is the result of add(10)?

Medium
45

What is the output?

Hard
46

You are a junior developer at a small startup. Your team has a Python script that automates daily data processing. The script reads a CSV file, processes each row, and writes results to a new file. Recently, the script started crashing with a 'ValueError: invalid literal for int()' error. The error occurs on a line that converts a field to an integer using int() on a string value. The CSV file comes from an external source that sometimes contains non-numeric values like 'N/A' or empty strings. Which course of action is best to handle this robustly without stopping the entire process?

Easy
47

You are maintaining a Python script that calculates team bonuses based on sales data. The script reads a dictionary where keys are employee names and values are total sales (float). It then applies a 10% bonus if sales exceed 5000. The code snippet is: def calculate_bonus(sales): for name, value in sales.items(): if value > 5000: print(f"{name} gets bonus") However, the manager wants the script to return a list of employees who qualify, not just print them. They also want to avoid side effects. What is the best way to modify this function?

Easy
48

Match each Python data type to its description.

Medium
49

What is the output of the code in the exhibit?

Medium
50

Which of the following variable names is valid in Python?

Easy
51

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to create a list in Python?

Easy
52

You are working on a Python application that interacts with an external API to fetch user data. The API returns JSON responses. Occasionally, the API returns a response with a missing key that your code assumes always exists, causing a KeyError. The application is critical and must continue functioning even if some data is incomplete. The data is processed in a loop over a list of user IDs. Your team lead suggests using the dictionary's get() method with a default value. However, the nested structure may have missing keys at multiple levels. What is the most robust way to handle this?

Medium
53

According to PEP 8, which of the following is the recommended way to name a constant representing the maximum number of retries?

Hard
54

A Python script calculates the area of a circle: radius = 5; area = 3.14 * radius ** 2; print(area). What is printed?

Easy
55

A QA engineer needs to run a test 5 times. Which loop construct is most appropriate?

Easy
56

You are a developer on a team that maintains a legacy Python 2 codebase being migrated to Python 3. One function reads a file in text mode and counts word frequencies. In Python 2, the code used the dict.iteritems() method to iterate over the dictionary. After migration, the code raises AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'iteritems'. You need to update the code to work in Python 3 while minimizing changes. Which action should you take?

Hard
57

A developer needs to check if a number is positive and even. Which conditional expression is correct?

Medium
58

Match each Python list method to its effect.

Medium
59

A junior developer is tasked with writing a Python script that reads a list of integers from a file, removes any duplicate numbers, and then writes the unique numbers back to the same file in ascending order. The file 'numbers.txt' currently contains one integer per line. The developer writes the following code: with open('numbers.txt', 'r') as f: numbers = [int(line.strip()) for line in f] unique = list(set(numbers)) unique.sort() with open('numbers.txt', 'w') as f: for num in unique: f.write(str(num) + '\n') The script runs without errors, but the output file contains the numbers in descending order instead of ascending. The developer checks the sort() method and confirms it sorts in ascending order. What is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Medium
60

A dictionary: d = {1: 'a', 2: 'b', 3: 'c'}. Which code will cause a KeyError?

Hard
61

A developer writes a function that modifies a global variable inside the function: count = 0 def increment(): count += 1 When called, an error occurs. What is the correct way to fix this?

Medium
62

An application requires different messages based on temperature. Given: temp = 25 if temp > 30: print('Hot') elif temp > 20: print('Warm') else: print('Cool') What is the output?

Easy
63

What is the output of the code in the exhibit?

Hard
64

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to create a list with elements 1, 2, 3? (Choose Three)

Hard
65

While debugging a Python script, you see the following error: 'IndentationError: expected an indented block'. The code appears to be correctly indented with spaces. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
66

A programmer needs to read a file line by line and process each line. Which of the following is the most memory-efficient and Pythonic approach?

Hard
67

A function is supposed to modify a list passed as argument by appending an element. However, after calling the function, the original list remains unchanged. Which is the most likely cause?

Hard
68

A team is developing a script that processes user input. They want to ensure that if the user enters a non-numeric value when asked for age, the program does not crash. Which approach should they use?

Medium
69

A script uses 'import math' then calls 'math.sqrt(-1)'. What is the outcome?

Hard
70

Which TWO of the following statements about Python's for loop are correct? (Choose Two)

Medium
71

Which of the following code snippets will correctly assign the integer 10 to the variable 'x'?

Easy
72

A program uses a variable named 'list' that shadows the built-in list type. Later, the code tries to create a new list using list([1,2,3]) but gets a TypeError. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
73

A Python script uses the following code to open a file: f = open('data.txt', 'w'). The programmer then writes multiple lines to the file. After writing, which of the following is the BEST practice to ensure data integrity?

Hard
74

Which TWO of the following expressions evaluate to True? (Choose two.)

Easy
75

Given the code: a = [1, 2, 3]; b = a; b.append(4). What is the value of a?

Hard
76

Which TWO of the following are immutable data types in Python?

Medium
77

Which FOUR of the following are valid ways to create a list with elements 1, 2, 3? (Choose four.)

Medium
78

A developer runs the code from the exhibit and gets the error shown. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Hard
79

A developer writes: print('Hello' + 5). What is the result?

Medium
80

A programmer wants to create a function that can accept any number of keyword arguments and store them in a dictionary. Which function definition is correct?

Hard
81

Refer to the exhibit. What is printed?

Hard
82

A Python script processes a large file and runs out of memory. Which solution is most appropriate?

Hard
83

Refer to the exhibit. A developer runs this code. What is printed?

Hard
84

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

Medium
85

Which TWO of the following are valid Python variable names? (Choose two.)

Easy
86

What is the output of the following code? x = [1, 2, 3]; y = x; y.append(4); print(x)

Hard
87

The exhibit shows a JSON configuration. Which Python data structure is best suited to represent this configuration?

Easy
88

Consider the code: x = 10; def func(): x = 5; print(x); func(); print(x). What is the output?

Hard
89

A developer writes a function that returns multiple values. How should they return these values?

Medium
90

Consider the following function definition: def add(a, b): return a + b What is the value of add(3, '4')?

Medium
91

Refer to the exhibit. What is the output?

Easy
92

Which of the following is the correct way to define a function that takes no arguments and returns the value 42?

Easy
93

A programmer writes: x = 5; y = 2; result = x / y. What is the type of result?

Medium
94

What function is used to read input from the user in Python 3?

Easy
95

Which TWO of the following are valid Python variable names? (Choose two.)

Medium
96

Which of the following statements about Python indentation is true?

Easy
97

Given the code: my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. What is the output of print(my_list[-3:-1])?

Hard
98

A junior developer writes a Python script to calculate the average of three numbers: avg = a + b + c / 3. What is the problem with this code?

Easy
99

A developer wants to extract the file extension from a filename: 'report.pdf'. Which string method will return 'pdf'?

Medium
100

A programmer writes the following code: if x > 5: print('Greater') What is the most likely cause of an IndentationError?

Medium
101

Which TWO statements correctly describe Python's dynamic typing?

Hard
102

Which TWO statements about Python lists are true?

Medium
103

What is the output of the code in the exhibit?

Medium
104

A developer writes a Python script that calculates the average of a list of numbers. The script sometimes produces a ZeroDivisionError. Which of the following is the MOST appropriate way to handle this error to keep the script running?

Medium
105

Which of the following is an immutable data type in Python?

Easy
106

Which THREE of the following are built-in Python data types?

Medium
107

A system administrator is automating server configuration using Python. She has a dictionary: config = {'host': 'localhost', 'port': 8080, 'debug': True}. She needs to add a new key 'timeout' with value 30 if it does not already exist, but only if the 'debug' key is False. If 'debug' is True, she should not add 'timeout'. Additionally, she wants to ensure that the ordering of keys in the dictionary remains stable (insertion order). Which code snippet correctly implements this logic?

Hard
108

You are a developer in a financial firm. Your team is building a Python module that performs complex calculations on large datasets. To improve performance, you are using list comprehensions and built-in functions. Your code passes all unit tests, but during integration testing, the memory usage spikes unexpectedly. The problematic area is a function that constructs a large list of intermediate results using a list comprehension that references a generator. The code is: def process(data): results = [expensive_transform(x) for x in data] # further processing on results You suspect that the list comprehension stores all results in memory at once, but you need to keep the function's output as a list for subsequent operations. What is the best solution to reduce memory without changing the function's return type?

Hard
109

Which THREE of the following will correctly iterate over all keys and values of a dictionary d = {'a':1, 'b':2}?

Hard
110

A programmer wants to iterate over a list and also access the index. Which built-in function should they use?

Medium
111

What is the result of the following expression? 3 + 4 * 2 ** 3 // 5

Medium
112

Which THREE of the following code snippets will successfully print the string 'Hello, World!'? (Choose three.)

Medium
113

Which of the following is a correct way to comment multiple lines in Python?

Easy
114

A data scientist has a list: scores = [88, 92, 79, 93, 85]. They want to add 5 bonus points to each score and store the new scores. Which code accomplishes this?

Medium
115

What is the output of the following code? print('Hello'.upper())

Easy
116

Which of the following is a floating-point literal?

Easy
117

A junior developer writes the following code to swap two variables: a = 5; b = 10; a = b; b = a. When they print a and b, what is the output?

Easy
118

A developer wants to create a list of even numbers from 0 to 10 inclusive. Which code snippet will correctly produce [0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10]?

Easy
119

Which keyword is used to define a function in Python?

Easy
120

A team is writing a Python script that reads a large log file and counts occurrences of ERROR. The script works but is very slow. They profile it and find that most time is spent reading the file line by line. Which optimization technique is most appropriate?

Medium
121

A developer writes: try: x = int('hello') except ValueError: x = 0 except TypeError: x = -1 finally: x = x + 1 What is the final value of x?

Hard
122

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

Hard
123

Arrange the steps to slice a list in Python.

Medium
124

A Python function is designed to return the first element of a list. However, when passed an empty list, it raises an IndexError. Which best practice should be applied to handle this robustly?

Medium
125

A company has a Python script that imports a module from a package. The package structure is: mypackage/__init__.py, mypackage/module.py. The script uses 'from mypackage import module'. Which file must exist for this import to work?

Hard
126

A Python program prompts the user for their age and stores it in a variable. Which is the correct way to convert the input to an integer?

Easy
127

Which two of the following are correct ways to create a dictionary in Python? (Choose two.)

Medium
128

Arrange the steps to write and run a Python script from the command line in the correct order.

Medium
129

What is the output of: print(2 ** 3 ** 2)?

Hard
130

A student writes the code: x = 10; if x > 5: print("big"); else: print("small"). What is the output?

Medium
131

Which TWO of the following are valid Python variable names? (Choose two.)

Medium
132

Which TWO of the following are valid variable names in Python? (Choose two.)

Easy
133

A Python script contains the following line: x = 5. Later in the script, the programmer wants to check if x is an integer. Which of the following is the BEST way to perform this check?

Easy
134

What is the scope of a variable defined inside a function?

Hard
135

Refer to the exhibit. What type of error occurred, and which line caused it?

Medium
136

Refer to the exhibit. What is the output?

Medium
137

What is the result of the expression: (1 and 0) or (not False and True)?

Hard

Frequently asked questions

What does the Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals domain cover on the PCEP exam?
RAM tests your ability to identify, install, and troubleshoot memory types, speeds, and configurations for PCs.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 137 Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals questions in the PCEP question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
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Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
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