You’re Decent At Python If You Can Answer These 7 Questions Correctly

# No cheating pls!!

Try to answer these questions without googling or using Python to test.

If you can answer all of them correctly without cheating, I can safely say that you’re probably pretty decent at Python!

1) @print???

@print
def testing():
  print('hello!!')
  return 1000

What does this do?

• A) Syntax error. There is no such thing as @ in Python
• B) this causes testing() to automatically print 1000 when we call it
• C) this prints <function testing at 0x1023e2340>
• D) this prints 1000 automatically without us calling testing()
• E) testing()'s metadata will automatically print whenever it is called

2) *_ ???

a, b, *_ = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(_)

What does this print?

• A) Syntax error
• B) [3, 4, 5]
• C) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• D) <generator object <genexpr> at 0x1003847c0>
• E) NameError: ‘_’ is not a valid variable name

3) more than 1 *_ ???

*__, a, b, *_ = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
print(__, _)

What does this print?

• A) Syntax error
• B) [1] [4, 5, 6]
• C) [1, 2] [5, 6]
• D) [1, 2, 3] [6]
• E) <generator object <genexpr> at 0x1003847c0>

4) class shenanigans

class Dog:
  def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    args, kwargs = kwargs, args
    self.name = args['name']
    self.age = kwargs[0]

dog = Dog('rocky', 5)

What error does this cause?

• A) No error
• B) ZeroDivisionError
• C) IndexError
• D) KeyError
• E) All of the above

5) GIL

What is the Python Global Interpreter Lock (GIL)?

• A) a physical lock that secures Python servers from intruders
• B) a thing that prevents the Python interpreter from leaking data to other processes on your computer
• C) a programming paradigm that allows us to run multiple Python processes concurrently
• D) a thing that allows one thread to run per interpreter at one time
• E) a thing that enables our Python interpreter to run code faster

6) True = False

True = False
False = True

print(not True, not False)

what does this print?

• A) SyntaxError
• B) False True
• C) True False
• D) True True
• E) False False

7) Context manager

What is a context manager used for?

• A) to manage contexts
• B) to properly handle resources eg file operations or databases
• C) to ensure that type hints in Python are enforced
• D) to make sure that any exceptions do not affect other contexts
• E) to ensure that the Python interpreter does not taking up an excessive amount of RAM

Answers Below!!

Answers!!

1) @print???

@print
def testing():
  print('hello!!')
  return 1000

What does this do?

• A) Syntax error. There is no such thing as @ in Python
• B) this causes testing() to automatically print 1000 when we call it
• C) this prints <function testing at 0x1023e2340>
• D) this prints 1000 automatically without us calling testing()
• E) testing()'s metadata will automatically print whenever it is called

Answer: C

^ here, we are decorating testing() with print(). This is the same as:

def testing():
  print('hello!!')
  return 1000

testing = print(testing)

since print(testing) is called, <function testing at 0x1023e2340> will be printed (the gibberish numbers at the end might differ tho)

2) *_ ???

a, b, *_ = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(_)

What does this print?

• A) Syntax error
• B) [3, 4, 5]
• C) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• D) <generator object <genexpr> at 0x1003847c0>
• E) NameError: ‘_’ is not a valid variable name

Answer: B

• _ is a valid variable name
• a is assigned to 1 and b is assigned to 2 (tuple unpacking)
• * in front of _ allows _ to “catch” multiple values (0 to infinite)
• _ will thus “catch” all unassigned numbers — 3, 4, 5
• _ will thus be [3, 4, 5]

3) more than 1 *_ ???

*__, a, b, *_ = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
print(__, _)

What does this print?

• A) Syntax error
• B) [1] [4, 5, 6]
• C) [1, 2] [5, 6]
• D) [1, 2, 3] [6]
• E) <generator object <genexpr> at 0x1003847c0>

Answer: A

Only ONE * is allowed per expression. Having 2 causes a SyntaxError

4) class shenanigans

class Dog:
  def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    args, kwargs = kwargs, args
    self.name = args['name']
    self.age = kwargs[0]

dog = Dog('rocky', 5)

What error does this cause?

• A) No error
• B) ZeroDivisionError
• C) IndexError
• D) KeyError
• E) All of the above

Answer: D

*args allows our function to take in any number of positional arguments, while **kwargs allow our function to take in any number of keyword arguments.

Dog('rocky', 5) passes 2 positional arguments to __init__, and thus args=('rocky', 5) while kwargs={} (no keyword arguments here)

args, kwargs = kwargs, args switches args and kwargs. So now, args={} and kwargs=('rocky', 5)

When we attempt to call args['name'], we get a KeyError as at this point, args is an empty dictionary.

5) GIL

What is the Python Global Interpreter Lock (GIL)?

• A) a physical lock that secures Python servers from intruders
• B) a thing that prevents the Python interpreter from leaking data to other processes on your computer
• C) a programming paradigm that allows us to run multiple Python processes concurrently
• D) a thing that allows one thread to run per interpreter at one time
• E) a thing that enables our Python interpreter to run code faster

Answer: D

The Python GIL makes is such that only 1 thread is able to run in the Python interpreter at one time. (tho we can use multiprocessing to circumvent this)

6) True = False

True = False
False = True

print(not True, not False)

what does this print?

• A) SyntaxError
• B) False True
• C) True False
• D) True True
• E) False False

Answer: A

We cannot assign anything to True as True is a reserved Python keyword. I hope you answered this correctly.

7) Context manager

What is a context manager used for?

• A) to manage contexts
• B) to properly handle resources eg file operations or databases
• C) to ensure that type hints in Python are enforced
• D) to make sure that any exceptions do not affect other contexts
• E) to ensure that the Python interpreter does not taking up an excessive amount of RAM

Answer: B

# let's say we need to read a file

file = open('hi.txt')

print(file.read())

file.close()

^ if we do this, there’s a chance that file.close() might not executed due to some error. Not closing the file might lead to the following problems:

• the file might take up RAM and slow down your program
• changes made to the file might not stick, as many files only save properly when they are closed
• in Windows, a file is treated as locked when it is open, so other scanners or programs might not be able to read it
• and other weird issues

# reading file using context manager

with open('hi.txt') as file:
  print(file.read())

The with keyword allows us to use open('hi.txt') as a context manager. This means that at the start of the context __enter__ will run, and when the context closes, __exit__ will run.

What you need to know: this will definitely close the file properly.

Conclusion

How many did you answer correctly without cheating?

If you didn’t answer all of them correctly, it doesn’t mean that you’re a loser. It could mean 1) you were careless somewhere 2) you’re not decent at Python YET

Cheers!

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