Python Exam Practice Questions 2026

Python exam practice questions covering data types, loops, functions, OOP, and the standard library — with answers and explanations.

Examifyr·Sep 2026·8 min read

These Python exam practice questions cover the topics that appear most often on university exams, coding bootcamp assessments, and technical interviews. Each section gives you the concept, a practice question, and a worked answer — so you can check your understanding as you go.

1. Data Types & Mutability

Python's built-in types split into mutable (lists, dicts, sets) and immutable (strings, tuples, integers, frozensets). This distinction affects how variables behave when passed to functions or assigned to new names.

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = a          # b points at the same list object
b.append(4)
print(a)       # [1, 2, 3, 4] — both names see the change

c = (1, 2, 3)
d = c
# d += (4,) creates a NEW tuple; c is unchanged

Practice question: What does a = "hello"; b = a; b += " world"; print(a) print?

Answer: hello — strings are immutable, so b += " world" creates a new string object and rebinds b; a still points at the original.

2. List & Dictionary Comprehensions

Comprehensions are a concise, idiomatic way to build collections. Exams test whether you can read them and predict output correctly.

# List comprehension with filter
evens = [x for x in range(10) if x % 2 == 0]
# [0, 2, 4, 6, 8]

# Dict comprehension
squares = {x: x**2 for x in range(1, 6)}
# {1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9, 4: 16, 5: 25}

# Nested comprehension — flatten a 2D list
matrix = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]
flat = [n for row in matrix for n in row]
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Practice question: What does [x*y for x in range(1,3) for y in range(1,3)] produce?

Answer: [1, 2, 2, 4] — x=1,y=1 → 1; x=1,y=2 → 2; x=2,y=1 → 2; x=2,y=2 → 4.

3. Functions: Default Arguments & *args / **kwargs

Default argument traps and variadic parameters are exam favourites because the behaviour surprises most beginners.

def greet(*names, greeting="Hello"):
    for name in names:
        print(f"{greeting}, {name}!")

greet("Alice", "Bob")           # Hello, Alice! / Hello, Bob!
greet("Carol", greeting="Hi")  # Hi, Carol!

def merge(**kwargs):
    return kwargs

print(merge(x=1, y=2))  # {'x': 1, 'y': 2}

Practice question: Which call is invalid: greet("Alice", "Bob"), greet(greeting="Hi", "Carol"), or greet()?

Answer: greet(greeting="Hi", "Carol") — a positional argument cannot follow a keyword argument. This raises a SyntaxError.

4. Object-Oriented Programming: Inheritance & super()

Exams test class hierarchies, method overriding, and how super() delegates to the parent class.

class Animal:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def speak(self):
        return f"{self.name} makes a sound"

class Dog(Animal):
    def speak(self):
        return f"{self.name} barks"

class Poodle(Dog):
    def speak(self):
        base = super().speak()  # calls Dog.speak
        return f"{base} (quietly)"

p = Poodle("Fifi")
print(p.speak())  # Fifi barks (quietly)

Practice question: If Poodle did not define speak(), what would p.speak() return?

Answer: Fifi barks — Python's MRO (Method Resolution Order) looks up the class hierarchy and finds Dog.speak() next.

5. Iterators & the for Loop Protocol

Understanding how Python's for loop works under the hood is tested in advanced exams and interviews.

# for x in obj is equivalent to:
it = iter(obj)        # calls obj.__iter__()
while True:
    try:
        x = next(it) # calls it.__next__()
    except StopIteration:
        break

# enumerate gives (index, value) pairs
for i, ch in enumerate("abc"):
    print(i, ch)  # 0 a / 1 b / 2 c

# zip stops at the shorter iterable
for a, b in zip([1,2,3], [10,20]):
    print(a, b)   # 1 10 / 2 20

Practice question: What does list(zip([1,2,3], [4,5])) return?

Answer: [(1, 4), (2, 5)] — zip stops as soon as the shortest iterable is exhausted, so the third element of the first list is dropped.

6. Standard Library: collections, itertools, functools

Python exams increasingly test standard library knowledge, especially collections and functools.

from collections import Counter, defaultdict
from functools import reduce

words = ["cat", "dog", "cat", "fish", "dog", "cat"]
counts = Counter(words)
print(counts.most_common(2))  # [('cat', 3), ('dog', 2)]

dd = defaultdict(list)
dd["fruits"].append("apple")  # no KeyError on missing key

total = reduce(lambda acc, x: acc + x, [1, 2, 3, 4], 0)
print(total)  # 10

Practice question: What does Counter("banana")["a"] return?

Answer: 3 — Counter on a string counts each character; 'a' appears three times in "banana".

7. Exception Handling: raise, re-raise, and custom exceptions

Exam questions go beyond basic try/except — they test chained exceptions, re-raising, and custom exception classes.

class InsufficientFundsError(ValueError):
    def __init__(self, amount, balance):
        super().__init__(f"Need {amount}, have {balance}")
        self.amount = amount
        self.balance = balance

def withdraw(balance, amount):
    if amount > balance:
        raise InsufficientFundsError(amount, balance)
    return balance - amount

try:
    withdraw(50, 100)
except InsufficientFundsError as e:
    print(e)              # Need 100, have 50
    print(e.amount)       # 100
    raise                 # re-raises the same exception

Practice question: What is the difference between raise (bare) and raise e?

Answer: Bare raise re-raises the current exception preserving the original traceback. raise e raises the same exception but resets the traceback to the current line, losing the original call stack.

Test yourself under exam conditions

Working through practice questions here is a good start, but you need timed pressure to know how you'll perform on the day. The Examifyr Python readiness test gives you 30 exam-style questions with an instant score and a topic-by-topic breakdown — free, no sign-up required.

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