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Tomer Raitz
Tomer Raitz

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Tricky Python Questions

In the last two years, I've used Python extensively as my main programming language. Dive into these tricky Python questions, inspired by real-world issues and online challenges, to test and enhance your coding skills.

So are you ready to get your mind blow away (from Python question)?

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Questions

Notice 1!: To each question, there is an answer with an explanation (link below each item).
Notice 2!: For each question think what will be the output.

Question 1
exapmle_dict = dict()
exapmle_dict.a = "string"
print(exapmle_dict)
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Go to answer 1

Question 2
class Json:
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        import json

    def print_dict_as_json(self, obj):
        print(json.dumps(obj))

example_json = Json()
example_json.print_dict_as_json({"a": "string"})
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Go to answer 2

Question 3
def myFun(arg1, arg3, **kwargs):
    for key, value in kwargs.items():
        print("%s == %s" % (key, value))


my_dict = {'arg1':1, 'arg2': 2}
myFun(**my_dict, arg3=3)
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Go to answer 3

Question 4
def add_to_all_1(arr):
    for i in range(len(arr)):
        arr[i] +=1

def my_func():
    arr = [1,2,3]
    add_to_all_1(arr)
    arr2 = arr
    print(arr2)

my_func()
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Go to answer 4

Answers

Answer To Question 1

If you said:

{"a": "string"}
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unfortunately, you are wrong, the answer is:

AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'a'
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If you like me and came from javascript first, the access dictionary (object in Javascript) is not by dot like in Javascript, you can access only by [], and inside the key you want to set "a".

Back to question 1

Answer To Question 2

If you said:

{"a": "string"}
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You are wrong again, the answer is:

...
NameError: name 'json' is not define
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You may know the differences between local and global scope in Python (if not you should read this: Python Scope). The __init__ is a function, the import is inside a local scope so it doesn't know what is json. You can fix it by import it globally like this:

import json

class Json:
    def print_dict_as_json(self, obj):
        print(json.dumps(obj))

example_json = Json()
example_json.print_dict_as_json({"a": "string"})
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Or in a more advanced way:

class Json:
    import json as json
    def print_dict_as_json(self, obj):
        print(self.json.dumps(obj))

example_json = Json()
example_json.print_dict_as_json({"a": "string"})
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You can see using import inside class for more details.

Back to question 2

Answer To Question 3

If you said:

arg2 == 2
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You are right! In Python, we have 3 ways to pass an argument:

  • By the argument itself:
def myFun(arg1):
   print(arg1)

myFun('arg1')
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  • By *args - list or tuples of arguments ( allows us to pass a variable number of non-keyword arguments to a Python function):
def myFun(*arg1):
   print(*arg1)

my_tuple = ('arg1', 'arg2')
myFun(my_tuple)
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Back to question 3

Answer To Question 4

The answer is:

[2, 3, 4]
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For some people who know scopes and assignments, it can seem a pretty easy question. For those who don't know, python saves variable memory as a reference, so in this case, the arr will point to a reference in a memory -> the function will change the values (but still the same reference) -> arr2 will get the reference address of arr but after values were modified.

Back to question 4

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed and learned new things. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment.

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