PCEP-30-01/PCEP-30-02 Python Certification Practice Tests

PCEP-30-01/PCEP-30-02: Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer

There are six Practice Tests with preparation questions from all knowledge areas

to prepare for the PCEP-30-01/PCEP-30-02 exams at the Python Institute.

Every question has an explanation and a Try-It-Yourself-Code

which you can run to better understand the topic.

You can download the Try-It-Yourself-Code for all questions.

(The download link will be in your welcome message.)

Exam Syllabus

Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals

• Understand fundamental terms and definitions
  interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the compiler, lexis, syntax and semantics

• Understand Python’s logic and structure
  keywords, instructions, indenting, comments

• Introduce literals and variables into code and use different numeral systems
  Boolean, integers, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings, binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal numeral system, variables, naming conventions, implementing PEP-8 recommendations

• Choose operators and data types adequate to the problem
  numeric operators: ** * / % // + –, string operators: * +, assignments and shortcut operators, operators: unary and binary, priorities and binding, bitwise operators: ~ & ^ | << >>, Boolean operators: not and or, Boolean expressions, relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), the accuracy of floating-point numbers, type casting

• Perform Input/Output console operations
  print(), input() functions, sep= and end= keyword parameters, int() and float() functions

Conditional Blocks and Loops

• Make decisions and branch the flow with the if instruction
  conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif, if-elif-else, multiple conditional statements, nesting conditional statements

• Perform different types of iterations
  the pass instruction, building loops with while, for, range(), and in; iterating through sequences, expanding loops with while-else and for-else, nesting loops and conditional statements, controlling loop execution with break and continue

Data Collections – Tuples, Dictionaries, Lists, and Strings

• Collect and process data using lists
  constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function, basic list methods (append(), insert(), index()) and functions (len(), sorted(), etc.), the del instruction; iterating through lists with the for loop, initializing loops; in and not in operators, list comprehensions; copying and cloning, lists in lists: matrices and cubes

• Collect and process data using tuples
  tuples: indexing, slicing, building, immutability; tuples vs. lists: similarities and differences, lists inside tuples and tuples inside lists

• Collect and process data using dictionaries
  dictionaries: building, indexing, adding and removing keys; iterating through dictionaries and their keys and values, checking the existence of keys; keys(), items() and values() methods

• Operate with strings
  constructing strings, indexing, slicing, immutability; escaping using the \ character; quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multi-line strings, basic string functions and methods

Functions and Exceptions

• Decompose the code using functions
  defining and invoking user-defined functions and generators; the return keyword, returning results, the None keyword, recursion

• Organize interaction between the function and its environment
  parameters vs. arguments; positional, keyword and mixed argument passing; default parameter values, name scopes, name hiding (shadowing), the global keyword

• Python Built-In Exceptions Hierarchy
  BaseException, Exception, SystemExit, KeyboardInterrupt, abstractive exceptions, ArithmeticError, LookupError along with IndexError and KeyError; TypeError and ValueError exceptions, the AssertError exception along with the assert keyword

• Basics of Python Exception Handling
  try-except, try-except Exception, ordering the except branches, propagating exceptions through function boundaries; delegating responsibility for handling exceptions

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