Python Interview Questions for Freshers
Python Interview Questions for Freshers
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Before we understand a dynamically typed language, we should learn about what typing is.
Typing refers to type-checking in programming languages. In a strongly-typed language, such
as Python, "1" + 2 will result in a type error since these languages don't allow for "type-
coercion" (implicit conversion of data types). On the other hand, a weakly-typed language, such
as Javascript, will simply output "12" as result.
Python is an interpreted language, executes each statement line by line and thus type-checking is
done on the fly, during execution. Hence, Python is a Dynamically Typed Language.
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An Interpreted language executes its statements line by line. Languages such as Python,
Javascript, R, PHP, and Ruby are prime examples of Interpreted languages. Programs written in
an interpreted language runs directly from the source code, with no intermediary compilation
step.
PEP stands for Python Enhancement Proposal. A PEP is an official design document
providing information to the Python community, or describing a new feature for Python or its
processes. PEP 8 is especially important since it documents the style guidelines for Python
Code. Apparently contributing to the Python open-source community requires you to follow
these style guidelines sincerely and strictly.
Every object in Python functions within a scope. A scope is a block of code where an object in
Python remains relevant. Namespaces uniquely identify all the objects inside a program.
However, these namespaces also have a scope defined for them where you could use their
objects without any prefix. A few examples of scope created during code execution in Python are
as follows:
A local scope refers to the local objects available in the current function.
A global scope refers to the objects available throughout the code execution since their
inception.
A module-level scope refers to the global objects of the current module accessible in the
program.
An outermost scope refers to all the built-in names callable in the program. The objects
in this scope are searched last to find the name referenced.
Note: Local scope objects can be synced with global scope objects using keywords such as
global.
6. What are lists and tuples? What is the key difference between the two?
Lists and Tuples are both sequence data types that can store a collection of objects in Python.
The objects stored in both sequences can have different data types. Lists are represented with
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square brackets ['sara', 6, 0.19], while tuples are represented with parantheses ('ansh',
5, 0.97).
But what is the real difference between the two? The key difference between the two is that
while lists are mutable, tuples on the other hand are immutable objects. This means that lists
can be modified, appended or sliced on the go but tuples remain constant and cannot be modified
in any manner. You can run the following example on Python IDLE to confirm the difference:
There are several built-in data types in Python. Although, Python doesn't require data types to be
defined explicitly during variable declarations type errors are likely to occur if the knowledge of
data types and their compatibility with each other are neglected. Python provides type() and
isinstance() functions to check the type of these variables. These data types can be grouped
into the following categories-
None Type:
None keyword represents the null values in Python. Boolean equality operation can be
performed using these NoneType objects.
Numeric Types:
There are three distinct numeric types - integers, floating-point numbers, and complex
numbers. Additionally, booleans are a sub-type of integers.
Note: The standard library also includes fractions to store rational numbers and decimal to
store floating-point numbers with user-defined precision.
Sequence Types:
According to Python Docs, there are three basic Sequence Types - lists, tuples, and
range objects. Sequence types have the in and not in operators defined for their
traversing their elements. These operators share the same priority as the comparison
operations.
Note: The standard library also includes additional types for processing:
1. Binary data such as bytearray bytes memoryview , and
2. Text strings such as str.
Mapping Types:
A mapping object can map hashable values to random objects in Python. Mappings objects are
mutable and there is currently only one standard mapping type, the dictionary.
Set Types:
Currently, Python has two built-in set types - set and frozenset. set type is mutable and
supports methods like add() and remove(). frozenset type is immutable and can't be
modified after creation.
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Note: set is mutable and thus cannot be used as key for a dictionary. On the other hand,
frozenset is immutable and thus, hashable, and can be used as a dictionary key or as an
element of another set.
Modules:
Module is an additional built-in type supported by the Python Interpreter. It supports one
special operation, i.e., attribute access: [Link], where mymod is a module and
myobj references a name defined in m's symbol table. The module's symbol table resides
in a very special attribute of the module __dict__, but direct assignment to this module is
neither possible nor recommended.
Callable Types:
Callable types are the types to which function call can be applied. They can be user-
defined functions, instance methods, generator functions, and some other built-in
functions, methods and classes.
Refer to the documentation at [Link] for a detailed view of the callable types.
The pass keyword represents a null operation in Python. It is generally used for the purpose of
filling up empty blocks of code which may execute during runtime but has yet to be written.
Without the pass statement in the following code, we may run into some errors during code
execution.
def myEmptyFunc():
# do nothing
pass
myEmptyFunc() # nothing happens
## Without the pass keyword
# File "<stdin>", line 3
# IndentationError: expected an indented block
Python packages and Python modules are two mechanisms that allow for modular
programming in Python. Modularizing has several advantages -
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Simplicity: Working on a single module helps you focus on a relatively small portion of
the problem at hand. This makes development easier and less error-prone.
Maintainability: Modules are designed to enforce logical boundaries between different
problem domains. If they are written in a manner that reduces interdependency, it is less
likely that modifications in a module might impact other parts of the program.
Reusability: Functions defined in a module can be easily reused by other parts of the
application.
Scoping: Modules typically define a separate namespace, which helps avoid confusion
between identifiers from other parts of the program.
Modules, in general, are simply Python files with a .py extension and can have a set of
functions, classes, or variables defined and implemented. They can be imported and initialized
once using the import statement. If partial functionality is needed, import the requisite classes or
functions using from foo import bar.
Packages allow for hierarchial structuring of the module namespace using dot notation. As,
modules help avoid clashes between global variable names, in a similar manner, packages help
avoid clashes between module names.
Creating a package is easy since it makes use of the system's inherent file structure. So just stuff
the modules into a folder and there you have it, the folder name as the package name. Importing
a module or its contents from this package requires the package name as prefix to the module
name joined by a dot.
Note: You can technically import the package as well, but alas, it doesn't import the modules
within the package to the local namespace, thus, it is practically useless.
Global variables are public variables that are defined in the global scope. To use the
variable in the global scope inside a function, we use the global keyword.
Protected attributes are attributes defined with an underscore prefixed to their identifier
eg. _sara. They can still be accessed and modified from outside the class they are defined
in but a responsible developer should refrain from doing so.
Private attributes are attributes with double underscore prefixed to their identifier eg.
__ansh. They cannot be accessed or modified from the outside directly and will result in
an AttributeError if such an attempt is made.
Self is used to represent the instance of the class. With this keyword, you can access the
attributes and methods of the class in python. It binds the attributes with the given arguments.
self is used in different places and often thought to be a keyword. But unlike in C++, self is not a
keyword in Python.
__init__ is a contructor method in Python and is automatically called to allocate memory when
a new object/instance is created. All classes have a __init__ method associated with them. It
helps in distinguishing methods and attributes of a class from local variables.
# class definition
class Student:
def __init__(self, fname, lname, age, section):
[Link] = fname
[Link] = lname
[Link] = age
[Link] = section
# creating a new object
stu1 = Student("Sara", "Ansh", 22, "A2")
The break statement terminates the loop immediately and the control flows to the
Break
statement after the body of the loop.
The continue statement terminates the current iteration of the statement, skips the rest
Continue of the code in the current iteration and the control flows to the next iteration of the
loop.
As explained above, the pass keyword in Python is generally used to fill up empty
Pass blocks and is similar to an empty statement represented by a semi-colon in languages
such as Java, C++, Javascript, etc.
pat = [1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 0, 1, 3]
for p in pat:
pass
if (p == 0):
current = p
break
elif (p % 2 == 0):
continue
print(p) # output => 1 3 1 3 1
print(current) # output => 0
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17. Explain how can you make a Python Script executable on Unix?
Arrays in python can only contain elements of same data types i.e., data type of array
should be homogeneous. It is a thin wrapper around C language arrays and consumes far
less memory than lists.
Lists in python can contain elements of different data types i.e., data type of lists can be
heterogeneous. It has the disadvantage of consuming large memory.
import array
a = [Link]('i', [1, 2, 3])
for i in a:
print(i, end=' ') #OUTPUT: 1 2 3
a = [Link]('i', [1, 2, 'string']) #OUTPUT: TypeError: an integer is
required (got type str)
a = [1, 2, 'string']
for i in a:
print(i, end=' ') #OUTPUT: 1 2 string
A namespace in Python ensures that object names in a program are unique and can be used
without any conflict. Python implements these namespaces as dictionaries with 'name as key'
mapped to a corresponding 'object as value'. This allows for multiple namespaces to use the same
name and map it to a separate object. A few examples of namespaces are as follows:
Local Namespace includes local names inside a function. the namespace is temporarily
created for a function call and gets cleared when the function returns.
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Global Namespace includes names from various imported packages/ modules that are
being used in the current project. This namespace is created when the package is
imported in the script and lasts until the execution of the script.
Built-in Namespace includes built-in functions of core Python and built-in names for
various types of exceptions.
The lifecycle of a namespace depends upon the scope of objects they are mapped to. If the scope
of an object ends, the lifecycle of that namespace comes to an end. Hence, it isn't possible to
access inner namespace objects from an outer namespace.
Sometimes objects within the same scope have the same name but function differently. In such
cases, scope resolution comes into play in Python automatically. A few examples of such
behavior are:
Python modules namely 'math' and 'cmath' have a lot of functions that are common to
both of them - log10(), acos(), exp() etc. To resolve this ambiguity, it is necessary to
prefix them with their respective module, like [Link]() and [Link]().
Consider the code below, an object temp has been initialized to 10 globally and then to
20 on function call. However, the function call didn't change the value of the temp
globally. Here, we can observe that Python draws a clear line between global and local
variables, treating their namespaces as separate identities.
This behavior can be overridden using the global keyword inside the function, as shown in the
following example:
global temp
temp = 20 # local-scope variable
print(temp)
print(temp) # output => 10
func() # output => 20
print(temp) # output => 20
Decorators in Python are essentially functions that add functionality to an existing function in
Python without changing the structure of the function itself. They are represented the
@decorator_name in Python and are called in a bottom-up fashion. For example:
The beauty of the decorators lies in the fact that besides adding functionality to the output of the
method, they can even accept arguments for functions and can further modify those arguments
before passing it to the function itself. The inner nested function, i.e. 'wrapper' function, plays a
significant role here. It is implemented to enforce encapsulation and thus, keep itself hidden
from the global scope.
Python comprehensions, like decorators, are syntactic sugar constructs that help build altered
and filtered lists, dictionaries, or sets from a given list, dictionary, or set. Using comprehensions
saves a lot of time and code that might be considerably more verbose (containing more lines of
code). Let's check out some examples, where comprehensions can be truly beneficial:
Comprehensions allow for multiple iterators and hence, can be used to combine multiple lists
into one.
a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [7, 8, 9]
[(x + y) for (x,y) in zip(a,b)] # parallel iterators
# output => [8, 10, 12]
[(x,y) for x in a for y in b] # nested iterators
# output => [(1, 7), (1, 8), (1, 9), (2, 7), (2, 8), (2, 9), (3, 7), (3, 8),
(3, 9)]
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A similar approach of nested iterators (as above) can be applied to flatten a multi-dimensional
list or work upon its inner elements.
my_list = [[10,20,30],[40,50,60],[70,80,90]]
flattened = [x for temp in my_list for x in temp]
# output => [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90]
Note: List comprehensions have the same effect as the map method in other languages. They
follow the mathematical set builder notation rather than map and filter functions in Python.
Lambda is an anonymous function in Python, that can accept any number of arguments, but can
only have a single expression. It is generally used in situations requiring an anonymous function
for a short time period. Lambda functions can be used in either of the two ways:
mul = lambda a, b : a * b
print(mul(2, 5)) # output => 10
def myWrapper(n):
return lambda a : a * n
mulFive = myWrapper(5)
print(mulFive(2)) # output => 10
In Python, the assignment statement ( = operator) does not copy objects. Instead, it creates a
binding between the existing object and the target variable name. To create copies of an object in
Python, we need to use the copy module. Moreover, there are two ways of creating copies for the
given object using the copy module -
Shallow Copy is a bit-wise copy of an object. The copied object created has an exact copy of the
values in the original object. If either of the values is a reference to other objects, just the
reference addresses for the same are copied.
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Deep Copy copies all values recursively from source to target object, i.e. it even duplicates the
objects referenced by the source object.
xrange() and range() are quite similar in terms of functionality. They both generate a sequence
of integers, with the only difference that range() returns a Python list, whereas, xrange()
returns an xrange object.
So how does that make a difference? It sure does, because unlike range(), xrange() doesn't
generate a static list, it creates the value on the go. This technique is commonly used with an
object-type generator and has been termed as "yielding".
Note: xrange has been deprecated as of Python 3.x. Now range does exactly the same as what
xrange used to do in Python 2.x, since it was way better to use xrange() than the original range()
function in Python 2.x.
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Python library offers a feature - serialization out of the box. Serializing an object refers to
transforming it into a format that can be stored, so as to be able to deserialize it, later on, to
obtain the original object. Here, the pickle module comes into play.
Pickling:
Pickling is the name of the serialization process in Python. Any object in Python can be
serialized into a byte stream and dumped as a file in the memory. The process of pickling
is compact but pickle objects can be compressed further. Moreover, pickle keeps track of
the objects it has serialized and the serialization is portable across versions.
The function used for the above process is [Link]().
Unpickling:
Unpickling is the complete inverse of pickling. It deserializes the byte stream to recreate
the objects stored in the file and loads the object to memory.
The function used for the above process is [Link]().
Note: Python has another, more primitive, serialization module called marshall, which exists
primarily to support .pyc files in Python and differs significantly from the pickle.
Generators are functions that return an iterable collection of items, one at a time, in a set manner.
Generators, in general, are used to create iterators with a different approach. They employ the
use of yield keyword rather than return to return a generator object.
Let's try and build a generator for fibonacci numbers -
PYTHONPATH is an environment variable which you can set to add additional directories
where Python will look for modules and packages. This is especially useful in maintaining
Python libraries that you do not wish to install in the global default location.
help() function in Python is used to display the documentation of modules, classes, functions,
keywords, etc. If no parameter is passed to the help() function, then an interactive help utility
is launched on the console.
dir() function tries to return a valid list of attributes and methods of the object it is called upon. It
behaves differently with different objects, as it aims to produce the most relevant data, rather
than the complete information.
For Modules/Library objects, it returns a list of all attributes, contained in that module.
For Class Objects, it returns a list of all valid attributes and base attributes.
With no arguments passed, it returns a list of attributes in the current scope.
.py files contain the source code of a program. Whereas, .pyc file contains the bytecode
of your program. We get bytecode after compilation of .py file (source code). .pyc files
are not created for all the files that you run. It is only created for the files that you import.
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Before executing a python program python interpreter checks for the compiled files. If
the file is present, the virtual machine executes it. If not found, it checks for .py file. If
found, compiles it to .pyc file and then python virtual machine executes it.
Having .pyc file saves you the compilation time.
Pass by value: Copy of the actual object is passed. Changing the value of the copy of the
object will not change the value of the original object.
Pass by reference: Reference to the actual object is passed. Changing the value of the
new object will change the value of the original object.
In Python, arguments are passed by reference, i.e., reference to the actual object is passed.
def appendNumber(arr):
[Link](4)
arr = [1, 2, 3]
print(arr) #Output: => [1, 2, 3]
appendNumber(arr)
print(arr) #Output: => [1, 2, 3, 4]
An iterator is an object.
It remembers its state i.e., where it is during iteration (see code below to see how)
__iter__() method initializes an iterator.
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It has a __next__() method which returns the next item in iteration and points to the next
element. Upon reaching the end of iterable object __next__() must return StopIteration
exception.
It is also self-iterable.
Iterators are objects with which we can iterate over iterable objects like lists, strings, etc.
class ArrayList:
def __init__(self, number_list):
[Link] = number_list
def __iter__(self):
[Link] = 0
return self
def __next__(self):
if([Link] < len([Link])):
[Link] += 1
return [Link][[Link] - 1]
else:
raise StopIteration
array_obj = ArrayList([1, 2, 3])
it = iter(array_obj)
print(next(it)) #output: 2
print(next(it)) #output: 3
print(next(it))
#Throws Exception
#Traceback (most recent call last):
#...
#StopIteration
import os
[Link]("[Link]")
print("File Removed!")
You can use split() function to split a string based on a delimiter to a list of strings.
You can use join() function to join a list of strings based on a delimiter to give a single
string.
*args
*args is a special syntax used in the function definition to pass variable-length arguments.
“*” means variable length and “args” is the name used by convention. You can use any
other.
**kwargs
def tellArguments(**kwargs):
for key, value in [Link]():
print(key + ": " + value)
tellArguments(arg1 = "argument 1", arg2 = "argument 2", arg3 = "argument 3")
#output:
# arg1: argument 1
# arg2: argument 2
# arg3: argument 3
38. What are negative indexes and why are they used?
Negative indexes are the indexes from the end of the list or tuple or string.
Arr[-1] means the last element of array Arr[]
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arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
#get the last element
print(arr[-1]) #output 6
#get the second last element
print(arr[-2]) #output 5
To create a class in python, we use the keyword “class” as shown in the example below:
class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name
To instantiate or create an object from the class created above, we do the following:
emp_1=InterviewbitEmployee("Mr. Employee")
To access the name attribute, we just call the attribute using the dot operator as shown below:
print(emp_1.name)
# Prints Mr. Employee
To create methods inside the class, we include the methods under the scope of the class as shown
below:
class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name
def introduce(self):
print("Hello I am " + self.emp_name)
The self parameter in the init and introduce functions represent the reference to the current class
instance which is used for accessing attributes and methods of that class. The self parameter has
to be the first parameter of any method defined inside the class. The method of the class
InterviewbitEmployee can be accessed as shown below:
emp_1.introduce()
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class InterviewbitEmployee:
def __init__(self, emp_name):
self.emp_name = emp_name
def introduce(self):
print("Hello I am " + self.emp_name)
Inheritance gives the power to a class to access all attributes and methods of another class. It aids
in code reusability and helps the developer to maintain applications without redundant code. The
class inheriting from another class is a child class or also called a derived class. The class from
which a child class derives the members are called parent class or superclass.
# Parent class
class ParentClass:
def par_func(self):
print("I am parent class function")
# Child class
class ChildClass(ParentClass):
def child_func(self):
print("I am child class function")
# Driver code
obj1 = ChildClass()
obj1.par_func()
obj1.child_func()
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Multi-level Inheritance: The members of the parent class, A, are inherited by child class
which is then inherited by another child class, B. The features of the base class and the
derived class are further inherited into the new derived class, C. Here, A is the
grandfather class of class C.
# Parent class
class A:
def __init__(self, a_name):
self.a_name = a_name
# Intermediate class
class B(A):
def __init__(self, b_name, a_name):
self.b_name = b_name
# invoke constructor of class A
A.__init__(self, a_name)
# Child class
class C(B):
def __init__(self,c_name, b_name, a_name):
self.c_name = c_name
# invoke constructor of class B
B.__init__(self, b_name, a_name)
def display_names(self):
print("A name : ", self.a_name)
print("B name : ", self.b_name)
print("C name : ", self.c_name)
# Driver code
obj1 = C('child', 'intermediate', 'parent')
print(obj1.a_name)
obj1.display_names()
Multiple Inheritance: This is achieved when one child class derives members from
more than one parent class. All features of parent classes are inherited in the child class.
# Parent class1
class Parent1:
def parent1_func(self):
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# Parent class2
class Parent2:
def parent2_func(self):
print("Hi I am second Parent")
# Child class
class Child(Parent1, Parent2):
def child_func(self):
self.parent1_func()
self.parent2_func()
# Driver's code
obj1 = Child()
obj1.child_func()
Hierarchical Inheritance: When a parent class is derived by more than one child class,
it is called hierarchical inheritance.
# Base class
class A:
def a_func(self):
print("I am from the parent class.")
# Driver's code
obj1 = B()
obj2 = C()
obj1.a_func()
obj1.b_func() #child 1 method
obj2.a_func()
obj2.c_func() #child 2 method
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Following are the ways using which you can access parent class members within a child class:
By using Parent class name: You can use the name of the parent class to access the
attributes as shown in the example below:
class Parent(object):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name):
[Link] = name
class Child(Parent):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name, age):
[Link] = name
[Link] = age
def display(self):
print([Link], [Link])
# Driver Code
obj = Child("Interviewbit", 6)
[Link]()
By using super(): The parent class members can be accessed in child class using the
super keyword.
class Parent(object):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name):
[Link] = name
class Child(Parent):
# Constructor
def __init__(self, name, age):
'''
In Python 3.x, we can also use super().__init__(name)
'''
super(Child, self).__init__(name)
[Link] = age
def display(self):
# Note that [Link] cant be used
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# Driver Code
obj = Child("Interviewbit", 6)
[Link]()
Python does not make use of access specifiers specifically like private, public, protected, etc.
However, it does not derive this from any variables. It has the concept of imitating the behaviour
of variables by making use of a single (protected) or double underscore (private) as prefixed to
the variable names. By default, the variables without prefixed underscores are public.
Example:
# protected members
_emp_name = None
_age = None
# private members
__branch = None
# constructor
def __init__(self, emp_name, age, branch):
self._emp_name = emp_name
self._age = age
self.__branch = branch
#public member
def display():
print(self._emp_name +" "+self._age+" "+self.__branch)
Yes, it is possible if the base class is instantiated by other child classes or if the base class is a
static method.
An empty class does not have any members defined in it. It is created by using the pass keyword
(the pass command does nothing in python). We can create objects for this class outside the
class.
For example-
class EmptyClassDemo:
pass
obj=EmptyClassDemo()
[Link]="Interviewbit"
print("Name created= ",[Link])
Output:
Name created = Interviewbit
The new modifier is used to instruct the compiler to use the new implementation and not the base
class function. The Override modifier is useful for overriding a base class function inside the
child class.
Finalize method is used for freeing up the unmanaged resources and clean up before the garbage
collection method is invoked. This helps in performing memory management tasks.
The init method works similarly to the constructors in Java. The method is run as soon as an
object is instantiated. It is useful for initializing any attributes or default behaviour of the object
at the time of instantiation.
For example:
class InterviewbitEmployee:
# introduce method
def introduce(self):
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This is done by using a method called issubclass() provided by python. The method tells us if
any class is a child of another class by returning true or false accordingly.
For example:
class Parent(object):
pass
class Child(Parent):
pass
# Driver Code
print(issubclass(Child, Parent)) #True
print(issubclass(Parent, Child)) #False
obj1 = Child()
obj2 = Parent()
print(isinstance(obj2, Child)) #False
print(isinstance(obj2, Parent)) #True
A dataframe is a 2D mutable and tabular structure for representing data labelled with axes - rows
and columns.
The syntax for creating dataframe:
import pandas as pd
dataframe = [Link]( data, index, columns, dtype)
where:
data - Represents various forms like series, map, ndarray, lists, dict etc.
index - Optional argument that represents an index to row labels.
columns - Optional argument for column labels.
Dtype - the data type of each column. Again optional.
[Link](df2)
concat() method: This is used to stack dataframes vertically. This is best used when the
dataframes have the same columns and similar fields. Syntax:
[Link]([df1, df2])
join() method: This is used for extracting data from various dataframes having one or
more common columns.
[Link](df2)
52. Can you create a series from the dictionary object in pandas?
One dimensional array capable of storing different data types is called a series. We can create
pandas series from a dictionary object as shown below:
import pandas as pd
dict_info = {'key1' : 2.0, 'key2' : 3.1, 'key3' : 2.2}
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series_obj = [Link](dict_info)
print (series_obj)
Output:
x 2.0
y 3.1
z 2.2
dtype: float64
If an index is not specified in the input method, then the keys of the dictionaries are sorted in
ascending order for constructing the index. In case the index is passed, then values of the index
label will be extracted from the dictionary.
53. How will you identify and deal with missing values in a dataframe?
We can identify if a dataframe has missing values by using the isnull() and isna() methods.
missing_data_count=[Link]().sum()
We can handle missing values by either replacing the values in the column with 0 as follows:
df[‘column_name’].fillna(0)
df[‘column_name’] = df[‘column_name’].fillna((df[‘column_name’].mean()))
Reindexing is the process of conforming a dataframe to a new index with optional filling logic. If
the values are missing in the previous index, then NaN/NA is placed in the location. A new
object is returned unless a new index is produced that is equivalent to the current one. The copy
value is set to False. This is also used for changing the index of rows and columns in the
dataframe.
import pandas as pd
data_info = {'first' : [Link]([1, 2, 3], index=['a', 'b', 'c']),
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df = [Link](data_info)
#To add new column third
df['third']=[Link]([10,20,30],index=['a','b','c'])
print (df)
#To add new column fourth
df['fourth']=df['first']+info['third']
print (df)
56. How will you delete indices, rows and columns from a dataframe?
To delete an Index:
Column 1
Names
John 1
Jack 2
Judy 3
Jim 4
[Link] = None
# Or run the below:
# del [Link]
print(df)
Column 1
John 1
Jack 2
Judy 3
Jim 4
Additionally, we can try to delete the rows/columns in place by setting the value of
inplace to True. This makes sure that the job is done without the need for reassignment.
The duplicate values from the row/column can be deleted by using the
drop_duplicates() method.
57. Can you get items of series A that are not available in another series B?
This can be achieved by using the ~ (not/negation symbol) and isin() method as shown below.
import pandas as pd
df1 = [Link]([2, 4, 8, 10, 12])
df2 = [Link]([8, 12, 10, 15, 16])
df1=df1[~[Link](df2)]
print(df1)
"""
Output:
0 2
1 4
dtype: int64
"""
58. How will you get the items that are not common to both the given series A
and B?
We can achieve this by first performing the union of both series, then taking the intersection of
both series. Then we follow the approach of getting items of union that are not there in the list of
the intersection.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
df1 = [Link]([2, 4, 5, 8, 10])
df2 = [Link]([8, 10, 13, 15, 17])
p_union = [Link](np.union1d(df1, df2)) # union of series
p_intersect = [Link](np.intersect1d(df1, df2)) # intersection of series
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unique_elements = p_union[~p_union.isin(p_intersect)]
print(unique_elements)
"""
Output:
0 2
1 4
2 5
5 13
6 15
7 17
dtype: int64
"""
59. While importing data from different sources, can the pandas library
recognize dates?
Yes, they can, but with some bit of help. We need to add the parse_dates argument while we are
reading data from the sources. Consider an example where we read data from a CSV file, we
may encounter different date-time formats that are not readable by the pandas library. In this
case, pandas provide flexibility to build our custom date parser with the help of lambda functions
as shown below:
import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime
dateparser = lambda date_val: [Link](date_val, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
df = pd.read_csv("some_file.csv", parse_dates=['datetime_column'],
date_parser=dateparser)
NumPy is one of the most popular, easy-to-use, versatile, open-source, python-based, general-
purpose package that is used for processing arrays. NumPy is short for NUMerical PYthon. This
is very famous for its highly optimized tools that result in high performance and powerful N-
Dimensional array processing feature that is designed explicitly to work on complex arrays. Due
to its popularity and powerful performance and its flexibility to perform various operations like
trigonometric operations, algebraic and statistical computations, it is most commonly used in
performing scientific computations and various broadcasting functions. The following image
shows the applications of NumPy:
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The list data structure of python is very highly efficient and is capable of performing
various functions. But, they have severe limitations when it comes to the computation of
vectorized operations which deals with element-wise multiplication and addition. The
python lists also require the information regarding the type of every element which
results in overhead as type dispatching code gets executes every time any operation is
performed on any element. This is where the NumPy arrays come into the picture as all
the limitations of python lists are handled in NumPy arrays.
Additionally, as the size of the NumPy arrays increases, NumPy becomes around 30x
times faster than the Python List. This is because the Numpy arrays are densely packed in
the memory due to their homogenous nature. This ensures the memory free up is also
faster.
1D array creation:
import numpy as np
one_dimensional_list = [1,2,4]
one_dimensional_arr = [Link](one_dimensional_list)
print("1D array is : ",one_dimensional_arr)
2D array creation:
import numpy as np
two_dimensional_list=[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]]
two_dimensional_arr = [Link](two_dimensional_list)
print("2D array is : ",two_dimensional_arr)
3D array creation:
import numpy as np
three_dimensional_list=[[[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]]
three_dimensional_arr = [Link](three_dimensional_list)
print("3D array is : ",three_dimensional_arr)
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ND array creation: This can be achieved by giving the ndmin attribute. The below
example demonstrates the creation of a 6D array:
import numpy as np
ndArray = [Link]([1, 2, 3, 4], ndmin=6)
print(ndArray)
print('Dimensions of array:', [Link])
63. You are given a numpy array and a new column as inputs. How will you
delete the second column and replace the column with a new column value?
Example:
Given array:
[[35 53 63]
[72 12 22]
[43 84 56]]
[
20
30
40
]
Solution:
import NumPy as np
#inputs
inputArray = [Link]([[35,53,63],[72,12,22],[43,84,56]])
new_col = [Link]([[20,30,40]])
# delete 2nd column
arr = [Link](sampleArray , 1, axis = 1)
#insert new_col to array
arr = [Link](arr , 1, new_col, axis = 1)
print (arr)
64. How will you efficiently load data from a text file?
We can use the method [Link]() which can automatically read the file’s header and
footer lines and the comments if any.
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This method is highly efficient and even if this method feels less efficient, then the data should
be represented in a more efficient format such as CSV etc. Various alternatives can be
considered depending on the version of NumPy used.
Text files: These files are generally very slow, huge but portable and are human-readable.
Raw binary: This file does not have any metadata and is not portable. But they are fast.
Pickle: These are borderline slow and portable but depends on the NumPy versions.
HDF5: This is known as the High-Powered Kitchen Sink format which supports both
PyTables and h5py format.
.npy: This is NumPy's native binary data format which is extremely simple, efficient and
portable.
65. How will you read CSV data into an array in NumPy?
This can be achieved by using the genfromtxt() method by setting the delimiter as a comma.
66. How will you sort the array based on the Nth column?
Let us try to sort the rows by the 2nd column so that we get:
[[6, 1, 4],
[8, 3, 2],
[3, 6, 5]]
import numpy as np
arr = [Link]([[8, 3, 2],
[3, 6, 5],
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[6, 1, 4]])
#sort the array using [Link]
arr = [Link]([Link]('i8,i8,i8'),
order=['f1'],
axis=0).view([Link])
We can also perform sorting and that too inplace sorting by doing:
[Link]('i8,i8,i8').sort(order=['f1'], axis=0)
67. How will you find the nearest value in a given numpy array?
import numpy as np
def find_nearest_value(arr, value):
arr = [Link](arr)
idx = ([Link](arr - value)).argmin()
return arr[idx]
#Driver code
arr = [Link]([ 0.21169, 0.61391, 0.6341, 0.0131, 0.16541, 0.5645,
0.5742])
value = 0.52
print(find_nearest_value(arr, value)) # Prints 0.5645
68. How will you reverse the numpy array using one line of code?
reversed_array = arr[::-1]
where arr = original given array, reverse_array is the resultant after reversing all elements in the
input.
69. How will you find the shape of any given NumPy array?
We can use the shape attribute of the numpy array to find the shape. It returns the shape of the
array in terms of row count and column count of the array.
import numpy as np
arr_two_dim = [Link]([("x1","x2", "x3","x4"),
("x5","x6", "x7","x8" )])
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arr_one_dim = [Link]([3,2,4,5,6])
# find and print shape
print("2-D Array Shape: ", arr_two_dim.shape)
print("1-D Array Shape: ", arr_one_dim.shape)
"""
Output:
2-D Array Shape: (2, 4)
1-D Array Shape: (5,)
"""
The module is a single python file. A module can import other modules (other python files) as
objects. Whereas, a package is the folder/directory where different sub-packages and the
modules reside.
A python module is created by saving a file with the extension of .py. This file will have classes
and functions that are reusable in the code as well as across modules.
Create a directory and give a valid name that represents its operation.
Place modules of one kind in this directory.
Create __init__.py file in this directory. This lets python know the directory we created
is a package. The contents of this package can be imported across different modules in
other packages to reuse the functionality.
71. What are some of the most commonly used built-in modules in Python?
Python modules are the files having python code which can be functions, variables or classes.
These go by .py extension. The most commonly available built-in modules are:
os
math
sys
random
re
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datetime
JSON
Lambda functions are generally inline, anonymous functions represented by a single expression.
They are used for creating function objects during runtime. They can accept any number of
parameters. They are usually used where functions are required only for a short period. They can
be used as:
Python provides a module called random using which we can generate random numbers.
We have to import a random module and call the random() method as shown below:
o The random() method generates float values lying between 0 and 1 randomly.
import random
print([Link]())
To generate customised random numbers between specified ranges, we can use the
randrange() method
Syntax: randrange(beginning, end, step)
For example:
import random
print([Link](5,100,2))
74. Can you easily check if all characters in the given string is alphanumeric?
This can be easily done by making use of the isalnum() method that returns true in case the string
has only alphanumeric characters.
For Example -
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Another way is to use match() method from the re (regex) module as shown:
import re
print(bool([Link]('[A-Za-z0-9]+$','abdc1321'))) # Output: True
print(bool([Link]('[A-Za-z0-9]+$','xyz@123$'))) # Output: False
Pickling is the conversion of python objects to binary form. Whereas, unpickling is the
conversion of binary form data to python objects. The pickled objects are used for storing in
disks or external memory locations. Unpickled objects are used for getting the data back as
python objects upon which processing can be done in python.
Python provides a pickle module for achieving this. Pickling uses the [Link]() method
to dump python objects into disks. Unpickling uses the [Link]() method to get back the
data as python objects.
GIL stands for Global Interpreter Lock. This is a mutex used for limiting access to python
objects and aids in effective thread synchronization by avoiding deadlocks. GIL helps in
achieving multitasking (and not parallel computing). The following diagram represents how GIL
works.
Based on the above diagram, there are three threads. First Thread acquires the GIL first and starts
the I/O execution. When the I/O operations are done, thread 1 releases the acquired GIL which is
then taken up by the second thread. The process repeats and the GIL are used by different threads
alternatively until the threads have completed their execution. The threads not having the GIL
lock goes into the waiting state and resumes execution only when it acquires the lock.
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It is an environment variable used for incorporating additional directories during the import of a
module or a package. PYTHONPATH is used for checking if the imported packages or modules
are available in the existing directories. Not just that, the interpreter uses this environment
variable to identify which module needs to be loaded.
PIP stands for Python Installer Package. As the name indicates, it is used for installing different
python modules. It is a command-line tool providing a seamless interface for installing different
python modules. It searches over the internet for the package and installs them into the working
directory without the need for any interaction with the user. The syntax for this is:
79. Are there any tools for identifying bugs and performing static analysis in
python?
Yes, there are tools like PyChecker and Pylint which are used as static analysis and linting tools
respectively. PyChecker helps find bugs in python source code files and raises alerts for code
issues and their complexity. Pylint checks for the module’s coding standards and supports
different plugins to enable custom features to meet this requirement.
Shallow copy does the task of creating new objects storing references of original
elements. This does not undergo recursion to create copies of nested objects. It just copies
the reference details of nested objects.
Deep copy creates an independent and new copy of an object and even copies all the
nested objects of the original element recursively.
In the world of programming languages, the main is considered as an entry point of execution for
a program. But in python, it is known that the interpreter serially interprets the file line-by-line.
This means that python does not provide main() function explicitly. But this doesn't mean that
we cannot simulate the execution of main. This can be done by defining user-defined main()
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function and by using the __name__ property of python file. This __name__ variable is a special
built-in variable that points to the name of the current module. This can be done as shown below:
def main():
print("Hi Interviewbit!")
if __name__=="__main__":
main()
def function_name(*arg_list)
For example:
def func(*var):
for i in var:
print(i)
func(1)
func(20,1,6)
83. WAP (Write a program) which takes a sequence of numbers and check if all
numbers are unique.
You can do this by converting the list to set by using set() method and comparing the length of
this set with the length of the original list. If found equal, return True.
def check_distinct(data_list):
if len(data_list) == len(set(data_list)):
return True
else:
return False;
print(check_distinct([1,6,5,8])) #Prints True
print(check_distinct([2,2,5,5,7,8])) #Prints False
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84. Write a program for counting the number of every character of a given text
file.
import collections
import pprint
with open("sample_file.txt", 'r') as data:
count_data = [Link]([Link]().upper())
count_value = [Link](count_data)
print(count_value)
85. Write a program to check and return the pairs of a given array A whose sum
value is equal to a target value N.
This can be done easily by using the phenomenon of hashing. We can use a hash map to check
for the current value of the array, x. If the map has the value of (N-x), then there is our pair.
# driver code
arr = [1, 2, 40, 3, 9, 4]
N = 3
print_pairs(arr, N)
86. Write a Program to add two integers >0 without using the plus operator.
return num1
print(add_nums(2, 10))
87. Write a Program to solve the given equation assuming that a,b,c,m,n,o are
constants:
ax + by = c
mx + ny = o
a, b, c, m, n, o = 5, 9, 4, 7, 9, 4
temp = a*n - b*m
if n != 0:
x = (c*n - b*o) / temp
y = (a*o - m*c) / temp
print(str(x), str(y))
88. Write a Program to match a string that has the letter ‘a’ followed by 4 to 8
'b’s.
We can use the re module of python to perform regex pattern comparison here.
import re
def match_text(txt_data):
pattern = 'ab{4,8}'
if [Link](pattern, txt_data): #search for pattern in txt_data
return 'Match found'
else:
return('Match not found')
print(match_text("abc")) #prints Match not found
print(match_text("aabbbbbc")) #prints Match found
We can again use the re module to convert the date string as shown below:
import re
def transform_date_format(date):
return [Link](r'(\d{4})-(\d{1,2})-(\d{1,2})', '\\3-\\2-\\1', date)
date_input = "2021-08-01"
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print(transform_date_format(date_input))
91. How will you access the dataset of a publicly shared spreadsheet in CSV
format stored in Google Drive?
We can use the StringIO module from the io module to read from the Google Drive link and then
we can use the pandas library using the obtained data source.