Python Q&A
Python Q&A
Python is an interpreted language. That means that, unlike languages like C and its
variants, Python does not need to be compiled before it is run. Other interpreted
languages include PHP and Ruby.
Python is dynamically typed, this means that you don�t need to state the types of
variables when you declare them or anything like that. You can do things like x=111
and then x="I'm a string" without error
Python is well suited to object orientated programming in that it allows the
definition of classes along with composition and inheritance. Python does not have
access specifiers (like C++�s public, private), the justification for this point is
given as �we are all adults here�
In Python, functions are first-class objects. This means that they can be assigned
to variables, returned from other functions and passed into functions. Classes are
also first class objects
Writing Python code is quick but running it is often slower than compiled
languages. Fortunately,Python allows the inclusion of C based extensions so
bottlenecks can be optimized away and often are. The numpy package is a good
example of this, it�s really quite quick because a lot of the number crunching it
does isn�t actually done by Python
Python finds use in many spheres � web applications, automation, scientific
modelling, big data applications and many more. It�s also often used as �glue� code
to get other languages and components to play nice.
Q2. What is the difference between deep and shallow copy?
Ans: Shallow copy is used when a new instance type gets created and it keeps the
values that are copied in the new instance. Shallow copy is used to copy the
reference pointers just like it copies the values. These references point to the
original objects and the changes made in any member of the class will also affect
the original copy of it. Shallow copy allows faster execution of the program and it
depends on the size of the data that is used.
Deep copy is used to store the values that are already copied. Deep copy doesn�t
copy the reference pointers to the objects. It makes the reference to an object and
the new object that is pointed by some other object gets stored. The changes made
in the original copy won�t affect any other copy that uses the object. Deep copy
makes execution of the program slower due to making certain copies for each object
that is been called.
Tuples are immutable (tuples are lists which can�t be edited). Syntax: tup_1 = (10,
�Chelsea� , 20)
Python has a multi-threading package but if you want to multi-thread to speed your
code up.
Python has a construct called the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL). The GIL makes sure
that only one of your �threads� can execute at any one time. A thread acquires the
GIL, does a little work, then passes the GIL onto the next thread.
This happens very quickly so to the human eye it may seem like your threads are
executing in parallel, but they are really just taking turns using the same CPU
core.
All this GIL passing adds overhead to execution. This means that if you want to
make your code run faster then using the threading package often isn�t a good idea.
Q5. How can the ternary operators be used in python?
Ans: The Ternary operator is the operator that is used to show the conditional
statements. This consists of the true or false values with a statement that has to
be evaluated for it.
Syntax:
Example:
The expression gets evaluated like if x<y else y, in this case if x<y is true then
the value is returned as big=x and if it is incorrect then big=y will be sent as a
result.
Python memory is managed by Python private heap space. All Python objects and data
structures are located in a private heap. The programmer does not have an access to
this private heap and interpreter takes care of this Python private heap.
The allocation of Python heap space for Python objects is done by Python memory
manager. The core API gives access to some tools for the programmer to code.
Python also have an inbuilt garbage collector, which recycle all the unused memory
and frees the memory and makes it available to the heap space.
Q7. Explain Inheritance in Python with an example.
Ans: Inheritance allows One class to gain all the members(say attributes and
methods) of another class. Inheritance provides code reusability, makes it easier
to create and maintain an application. The class from which we are inheriting is
called super-class and the class that is inherited is called a derived / child
class.
Single Inheritance � where a derived class acquires the members of a single super
class.
Multi-level inheritance � a derived class d1 in inherited from base class base1,
and d2 is inherited from base2.
Hierarchical inheritance � from one base class you can inherit any number of child
classes
Multiple inheritance � a derived class is inherited from more than one base class.
Q8. Explain what Flask is and its benefits?
Ans: Flask is a web micro framework for Python based on �Werkzeug, Jinja2 and good
intentions� BSD license. Werkzeug and Jinja2 are two of its dependencies. This
means it will have little to no dependencies on external libraries. It makes the
framework light while there is little dependency to update and less security bugs.
A session basically allows you to remember information from one request to another.
In a flask, a session uses a signed cookie so the user can look at the session
contents and modify. The user can modify the session if only it has the secret key
Flask.secret_key.
Help() function: The help() function is used to display the documentation string
and also facilitates you to see the help related to modules, keywords, attributes,
etc.
Dir() function: The dir() function is used to display the defined symbols.
Q10. Whenever Python exits, why isn�t all the memory de-allocated?
Ans:
Whenever Python exits, especially those Python modules which are having circular
references to other objects or the objects that are referenced from the global
namespaces are not always de-allocated or freed.
It is impossible to de-allocate those portions of memory that are reserved by the C
library.
On exit, because of having its own efficient clean up mechanism, Python would try
to de-allocate/destroy every other object.
Q11. What is dictionary in Python?
Ans: The built-in datatypes in Python is called dictionary. It defines one-to-one
relationship between keys and values. Dictionaries contain pair of keys and their
corresponding values. Dictionaries are indexed by keys.
The following example contains some keys. Country, Capital & PM. Their
corresponding values are India, Delhi and Modi respectively.
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dict={'Country':'India','Capital':'Delhi','PM':'Modi'}
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print dict[Country]
India
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print dict[Capital]
Delhi
1
print dict[PM]
Modi
Q12. What is monkey patching in Python?
Ans: In Python, the term monkey patch only refers to dynamic modifications of a
class or module at run-time.
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# m.py
class MyClass:
def f(self):
print "f()"
We can then run the monkey-patch testing like this:
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import m
def monkey_f(self):
print "monkey_f()"
m.MyClass.f = monkey_f
obj = m.MyClass()
obj.f()
The output will be as below:
monkey_f()
As we can see, we did make some changes in the behavior of f() in MyClass using the
function we defined, monkey_f(), outside of the module m.
Q13. What does this mean: *args, **kwargs? And why would we use it?
Ans: We use *args when we aren�t sure how many arguments are going to be passed to
a function, or if we want to pass a stored list or tuple of arguments to a
function. **kwargsis used when we don�t know how many keyword arguments will be
passed to a function, or it can be used to pass the values of a dictionary as
keyword arguments. The identifiers args and kwargs are a convention, you could also
use *bob and **billy but that would not be wise.
Q14. Write a one-liner that will count the number of capital letters in a file.
Your code should work even if the file is too big to fit in memory.
Ans: Let us first write a multiple line solution and then convert it to one liner
code.
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with open(SOME_LARGE_FILE) as fh:
count = 0
text = fh.read()
for character in text:
if character.isupper():
count += 1
We will now try to transform this into a single line.
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count sum(1 for line in fh for character in line if character.isupper())
Q15. What are negative indexes and why are they used?
Ans: The sequences in Python are indexed and it consists of the positive as well as
negative numbers. The numbers that are positive uses �0� that is uses as first
index and �1� as the second index and the process goes on like that.
The index for the negative number starts from �-1� that represents the last index
in the sequence and �-2� as the penultimate index and the sequence carries forward
like the positive number.
The negative index is used to remove any new-line spaces from the string and allow
the string to except the last character that is given as S[:-1]. The negative index
is also used to show the index to represent the string in correct order.
Q16. How can you randomize the items of a list in place in Python?
Ans: Consider the example shown below:
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from random import shuffle
x = ['Keep', 'The', 'Blue', 'Flag', 'Flying', 'High']
shuffle(x)
print(x)
The output of the following code is as below.
Create a file with any name and in any language that is supported by the compiler
of your system. For example file.c or file.cpp
Place this file in the Modules/ directory of the distribution which is getting
used.
Add a line in the file Setup.local that is present in the Modules/ directory.
Run the file using spam file.o
After successful run of this rebuild the interpreter by using the make command on
the top-level directory.
If the file is changed then run rebuildMakefile by using the command as �make
Makefile�.
Q18. Write a sorting algorithm for a numerical dataset in Python.
Ans: The following code can be used to sort a list in Python:
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list = ["1", "4", "0", "6", "9"]
list = [int(i) for i in list]
list.sort()
print (list)
Q19. Looking at the below code, write down the final values of A0, A1, �An.
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A0 = dict(zip(('a','b','c','d','e'),(1,2,3,4,5)))
A1 = range(10)A2 = sorted([i for i in A1 if i in A0])
A3 = sorted([A0[s] for s in A0])
A4 = [i for i in A1 if i in A3]
A5 = {i:i*i for i in A1}
A6 = [[i,i*i] for i in A1]
print(A0,A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6)
Ans: The following will be the final outputs of A0, A1, � A6
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import random
random.random
The statement random.random() method return the floating point number that is in
the range of [0, 1). The function generates the random float numbers. The methods
that are used with the random class are the bound methods of the hidden instances.
The instances of the Random can be done to show the multi-threading programs that
creates different instance of individual threads. The other random generators that
are used in this are:
randrange(a, b): it chooses an integer and define the range in-between [a, b). It
returns the elements by selecting it randomly from the range that is specified. It
doesn�t build a range object.
uniform(a, b): it chooses a floating point number that is defined in the range of
[a,b).Iyt returns the floating point number
normalvariate(mean, sdev): it is used for the normal distribution where the mu is a
mean and the sdev is a sigma that is used for standard deviation.
The Random class that is used and instantiated creates an independent multiple
random number generators.
Q22. What is the difference between range & xrange?
Ans: For the most part, xrange and range are the exact same in terms of
functionality. They both provide a way to generate a list of integers for you to
use, however you please. The only difference is that range returns a Python list
object and x range returns an xrange object.
This means that xrange doesn�t actually generate a static list at run-time like
range does. It creates the values as you need them with a special technique called
yielding. This technique is used with a type of object known as generators. That
means that if you have a really gigantic range you�d like to generate a list for,
say one billion, xrange is the function to use.
This is especially true if you have a really memory sensitive system such as a cell
phone that you are working with, as range will use as much memory as it can to
create your array of integers, which can result in a Memory Error and crash your
program. It�s a memory hungry beast.
The developer provides the Model, the view and the template then just maps it to a
URL and Django does the magic to serve it to the user.
Django uses SQLite by default; it is easy for Django users as such it won�t require
any other type of installation. In the case your database choice is different that
you have to the following keys in the DATABASE �default� item to match your
database connection settings.
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DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE' : 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME' : os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
}
}
GET PYTHON CERTIFIED TODAY
Q27. Give an example how you can write a VIEW in Django?
Ans: This is how we can use write a view in Django:
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from django.http import HttpResponse
import datetime
def Current_datetime(request):
now = datetime.datetime.now()
html = "<html><body>It is now %s</body></html>" % now
return HttpResponse(html)
Returns the current date and time, as an HTML document
So the data itself is not stored client side. This is nice from a security
perspective.
Abstract Base Classes: This style is used when you only wants parent�s class to
hold information that you don�t want to type out for each child model.
Multi-table Inheritance: This style is used If you are sub-classing an existing
model and need each model to have its own database table.
Proxy models: You can use this model, If you only want to modify the Python level
behavior of the model, without changing the model�s fields.
Web Scraping � Python Interview Questions
Q31. How To Save An Image Locally Using Python Whose URL Address I Already Know?
Ans: We will use the following code to save an image locally from an URL address
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import urllib.request
urllib.request.urlretrieve("URL", "local-filename.jpg")
Q32. How can you Get the Google cache age of any URL or web page?
Ans: Use the following URL format:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:URLGOESHERE
Be sure to replace �URLGOESHERE� with the proper web address of the page or site
whose cache you want to retrieve and see the time for. For example, to check the
Google Webcache age of edureka.co you�d use the following URL:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:edureka.co
Q33. You are required to scrap data from IMDb top 250 movies page. It should only
have fields movie name, year, and rating.
Ans: We will use the following lines of code:
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from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
import sys
url = 'http://www.imdb.com/chart/top'
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text)
tr = soup.findChildren("tr")
tr = iter(tr)
next(tr)
print(row)
The above code will help scrap data from IMDb�s top 250 list
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import numpy as np
arr = np.array([1, 3, 2, 4, 5])
print(arr.argsort()[-3:][::-1])
Output
[ 4 3 1 ]
Q36. How do you calculate percentiles with Python/ NumPy?
Ans: We can calculate percentiles with the following code
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import numpy as np
a = np.array([1,2,3,4,5])
p = np.percentile(a, 50) #Returns 50th percentile, e.g. median
print(p)
Output
3
Q37. What advantages do NumPy arrays offer over (nested) Python lists?
Ans:
In an ideal world, NumPy would contain nothing but the array data type and the most
basic operations: indexing, sorting, reshaping, basic elementwise functions, et
cetera.
All numerical code would reside in SciPy. However, one of NumPy�s important goals
is compatibility, so NumPy tries to retain all features supported by either of its
predecessors.
Thus NumPy contains some linear algebra functions, even though these more properly
belong in SciPy. In any case, SciPy contains more fully-featured versions of the
linear algebra modules, as well as many other numerical algorithms.
If you are doing scientific computing with python, you should probably install both
NumPy and SciPy. Most new features belong in SciPy rather than NumPy.
Q40. How do you make 3D plots/visualizations using NumPy/SciPy?
Ans: Like 2D plotting, 3D graphics is beyond the scope of NumPy and SciPy, but just
as in the 2D case, packages exist that integrate with NumPy. Matplotlib provides
basic 3D plotting in the mplot3d subpackage, whereas Mayavi provides a wide range
of high-quality 3D visualization features, utilizing the powerful VTK engine.
When both of the operands are integer then python chops out the fraction part and
gives you the round off value, to get the accurate answer use floor division. For
ex, 5/2 = 2.5 but both of the operands are integer so answer of this expression in
python is 2. To get the 2.5 as the answer, use floor division using //. So, 5//2 =
2.5
Q44. Why are local variable names beginning with an underscore discouraged?
a) they are used to indicate a private variables of a class
b) they confuse the interpreter
c) they are used to indicate global variables
d) they slow down execution
Answer: a) they are used to indicate a private variables of a class
Q47. Suppose list1 is [2, 33, 222, 14, 25], What is list1[-1] ?
a) Error
b) None
c) 25
d) 2
Answer: c) 25
print f.closed
a) True
b) False
c) None
d) Error
Answer: a) True
The WITH statement when used with open file guarantees that the file object is
closed when the with block exits.