PCEP Practice Question: Data Types, Variables, Basic I/O and Operators
Evaluate the expression: not (True or False) and (False or True). What is the result?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often forget the precedence of `not` over `and` and `or`, or misapply short-circuit evaluation, leading them to incorrectly compute the result as `True`.
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
✓
False
The expression is evaluated step by step: first, `True or False` evaluates to `True`; then `False or True` evaluates to `True`; the `not` operator negates the first `True` to `False`; finally, `False and True` evaluates to `False`. Therefore, the correct answer is C.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
SyntaxError
Why it's wrong here
The expression is syntactically valid Python: not, parentheses, or and and with boolean literals all parse correctly, so no SyntaxError is raised. It is tempting because mixing not with parentheses can look malformed, but the parser accepts it and evaluation yields False.
- ✗
True
Why it's wrong here
not (True or False) is False, and False and (False or True) is False, so the whole expression evaluates to False, not True. It is tempting because the inner or terms contain True values, but the leading not and the and operator force the result to False.
- ✓
False
Why this is correct
Evaluating the parentheses first: `(True or False)` yields True, and `(False or True)` yields True. Applying `not` to the first gives False, since `not True` is False. The final `and` combines False with True, producing False, satisfying the Boolean precedence rules tested here.
- ✗
None
Why it's wrong here
None is not a Python boolean literal; the expression evaluates to a bool. It is tempting because None represents absence of value, but the operators not, or and and always return True or False here, so the result is False, not None.
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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.