Exercises
Hello World
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Hello World! | Exercise | Solution](solutions/hello_world/hello_world.md | |
Python Characteristics | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 2 | Exercise |
Objects & Data Types
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Objects 101 | Exercise | Solution | |
Data Types? I know a few | Exercise | Solution | |
Choose a Data Type - level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
Choose a Data Type - level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Mutability | Exercise | Solution | |
Strongly Typed | Exercise | Solution | |
Object Creation | Exercise | Solution |
Variables
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Valid Names | Exercise | Solution | |
Locations or Names | Exercise | Solution | |
Types | Exercise | Solution | |
Multiple Value Assignment | Exercise | Solution | |
Copying Variables | Exercise | Solution | |
Mutable Objects | Exercise | Solution |
Booleans
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
True or False? | Exercise | Solution | |
Conversion | Exercise | Solution |
Strings
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
22 times | Exercise | ||
Variables | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Starts with a letter | Exercise | Solution | |
Change Strings | Exercise | Solution | |
All Digits | Exercise | Solution | |
Removing Characters | Exercise | Solution | |
Reverse a String | Exercise | Solution | |
Compress Strings | Exercise | ||
Slicing - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
Slicing - Level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Swap Case | Exercise | Solution | HackerRank |
Count Substring | Exercise | Solution | HackerRank |
Capitalize! | Exercise | Solution | HackerRank |
Numbers
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
What is the result? | Exercise | Solution | |
Operations - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
Operations - Level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Bases | Exercise | Solution | |
Palindrome | Exercise | Solution |
Lists & Tuples
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Access List Items | Exercise | Solution | |
Equal Lists | Exercise | Solution | |
Length | Exercise | ||
Append & Insert | Exercise | Solution | |
Min Max | Exercise | Solution | |
Three Biggest Items | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
What is the result? - Level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Running Sum | Exercise | Solution | |
Remove Duplicates from Sorted List | Exercise | Solution | LeetCode |
Find the Runner-Up Score! | Exercise | Solution | HackerRank |
Nested Lists | Exercise | Solution | HackerRank |
Dictionaries
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Facts Only | Exercise | Solution |
Loops
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Break Out | Exercise | Solution | |
Break Out 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Every character | Exercise | Solution | |
Stream of Numbers | Exercise | Solution | |
Refactor-1 | Exercise | Solution |
Functions
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
My First Function | Exercise | Solution | |
Calculator | Exercise | Solution | |
First Class Objects | Exercise | Solution |
Classes
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Classes 101 | Exercise | Solution | |
Attributes | Exercise | Solution | |
Print Order | Exercise | Solution |
OOP
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Inheritance | Exercise | Solution |
Magic Methods
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Length Magic Method | Exercise |
Unit Testing
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Calculator Unit Tests | Exercise | Solution | |
Fix Calculator Unit Tests | Exercise |
Exceptions
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
What exception is raised? - Level 1 | Exercise | Solution | |
What exception is raised? - Level 2 | Exercise | Solution | |
Bound To It | Exercise | Solution |
Regex
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Substitute Strings | Exercise | Solution |
Files
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Read a File | Exercise | ||
Reverse a file | Exercise | ||
Print specific line | Exercise |
Operating Systems
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
File exists | Exercise | ||
Print all the files in a directory | Exercise |
Improve the Code
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
If True | Exercise | Solution | |
Walrus | Exercise | Solution | |
Vowel Letters | Exercise | Solution |
Type Hinting
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Type Hinting Facts Only | Exercise | Solution | |
Pros & Cons | Exercise | Solution | |
Type Hinting 101 | Exercise | Solution | |
Type Hinting 102 | Exercise | Solution |
Misc
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Random Number | Exercise | ||
Random Item | Exercise |
Lambda
Name | Objective & Instructions | Solution | |
---|---|---|---|
Multiply the arguments and return the result | Exercise | Solution | |
Write a python program to generate a function to double a specified number. | Exercise | Solution |
Questions
Hello World
How to print "Hello World"?
print("Hello World")
How to print "Hello Amazing" and then print "World" on the same line? (to clarify, you should use two print statements)
print("Hello Amazing", end=" ")
print("World")
The following program reads two numbers from the user
x = int(input())
y = int(input())
print the sum and the difference between the numbers
x = int(input())
y = int(input())
print(x + y)
print(x - y)
Conditionals
Read a number from the user and check whether it's even. If it's even, print "yay". If it's not, print "nay"
x = int(input())
if x % 2 == 0:
print("yay")
else:
print("nay")
Loops
given an integer (n) print all the numbers between 0 and n (including n)
for i in range(n + 1):
print(i)
given an integer (n) print all the numbers between 0 and n (including n) that are even
for i in range(n + 1):
if i % 2 == 0:
print(i)
Classes
Define a class that does nothing
class SomeClass:
pass
True or False? If c
is an instance of a class, then in c.x = 1
, x
is a variable of the value 1
False. x
is an attribute in the case c.x = 1
True or False? Every object in Python has attributes
True. You can think on attributes as private dictionaries but instead of accessing them with []
or .get
, they are accessed by using a dot.
True or False? As opposed to variables, attributes can't contain any Python object, only several selected types
False. Like variables, attributes can contain any Python object.
Strings
How to convert "2 0 1 7"
to the list [2, 0, 1, 7]
?
[int(i) for in in "2 0 1 7".split()]
Lists
How to remove duplicates from a given sorted list?
Python - OOP
Explain inheritance and how to use it in Python
Explain and demonstrate class attributes & instance attributes
In the following block of code x
is a class attribute while self.y
is a instance attribute
class MyClass(object):
x = 1
def __init__(self, y):
self.y = y
Python - Exceptions
What is an error? What is an exception? What types of exceptions are you familiar with?
# Note that you generally don't need to know the compiling process but knowing where everything comes from
# and giving complete answers shows that you truly know what you are talking about.
Generally, every compiling process have a two steps.
- Analysis
- Code Generation.
Analysis can be broken into:
1. Lexical analysis (Tokenizes source code)
2. Syntactic analysis (Check whether the tokens are legal or not, tldr, if syntax is correct)
for i in 'foo'
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
We missed ':'
3. Semantic analysis (Contextual analysis, legal syntax can still trigger errors, did you try to divide by 0,
hash a mutable object or use an undeclared function?)
1/0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
These three analysis steps are the responsible for error handlings.
The second step would be responsible for errors, mostly syntax errors, the most common error.
The third step would be responsible for Exceptions.
As we have seen, Exceptions are semantic errors, there are many builtin Exceptions:
ImportError
ValueError
KeyError
FileNotFoundError
IndentationError
IndexError
...
You can also have user defined Exceptions that have to inherit from the `Exception` class, directly or indirectly.
Basic example:
class DividedBy2Error(Exception):
def __init__(self, message):
self.message = message
def division(dividend,divisor):
if divisor == 2:
raise DividedBy2Error('I dont want you to divide by 2!')
return dividend / divisor
division(100, 2)
>>> __main__.DividedBy2Error: I dont want you to divide by 2!
Explain Exception Handling and how to use it in Python
Exceptions: Errors detected during execution are called Exceptions.
Handling Exception: When an error occurs, or exception as we call it, Python will normally stop and generate an error message.
Exceptions can be handled using try
and except
statement in python.
Example: Following example asks the user for input until a valid integer has been entered.
If user enter a non-integer value it will raise exception and using except it will catch that exception and ask the user to enter valid integer again.
while True:
try:
a = int(input("please enter an integer value: "))
break
except ValueError:
print("Ops! Please enter a valid integer value.")
For more details about errors and exceptions follow this https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/errors.html
What is the result of running the following function?
def true_or_false():
try:
return True
finally:
return False
def true_or_false():
try:
return True
finally:
return False
False
Python Built-in functions
Explain the following built-in functions (their purpose + use case example):
- repr
- any
- all
What is the difference between repr function and str?
What is the __call__ method?
It is used to emulate callable objects. It allows a class instance to be called as a function.
- Example code:
class Foo:
def __init__(self: object) -> None:
pass
def __call__(self: object) -> None:
print("Called!")
f = Foo()
f()
- Result:
Called!
Do classes has the __call__ method as well? What for?
What _ is used for in Python?
- Translation lookup in i18n
- Hold the result of the last executed expression or statement in the interactive interpreter.
- As a general purpose "throwaway" variable name. For example: x, y, _ = get_data() (x and y are used but since we don't care about third variable, we "threw it away").
Explain what is GIL
Python Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) is a type of process lock which is used by python whenever it deals with processes. Generally, Python only uses only one thread to execute the set of written statements. This means that in python only one thread will be executed at a time
What is Lambda? How is it used?
A lambda
expression is an 'anonymous' function, the difference from a normal defined function using the keyword `def`` is the syntax and usage.
The syntax is:
lambda[parameters]: [expresion]
Examples:
- A lambda function add 10 with any argument passed.
x = lambda a: a + 10
print(x(10))
- An addition function
addition = lambda x, y: x + y
print(addition(10, 20))
- Squaring function
square = lambda x : x ** 2
print(square(5))
Generally it is considered a bad practice under PEP 8 to assign a lambda expresion, they are meant to be used as parameters and inside of other defined functions.
Properties
Are there private variables in Python? How would you make an attribute of a class, private?
Explain the following:
- getter
- setter
- deleter
Explain what is @property
How do you swap values between two variables?
x, y = y, x
Explain the following object's magic variables:
- dict
Write a function to return the sum of one or more numbers. The user will decide how many numbers to use
First you ask the user for the amount of numbers that will be use. Use a while loop that runs until amount_of_numbers becomes 0 through subtracting amount_of_numbers by one each loop. In the while loop you want ask the user for a number which will be added a variable each time the loop runs.
def return_sum():
amount_of_numbers = int(input("How many numbers? "))
total_sum = 0
while amount_of_numbers != 0:
num = int(input("Input a number. "))
total_sum += num
amount_of_numbers -= 1
return total_sum
Print the average of [2, 5, 6]. It should be rounded to 3 decimal places
li = [2, 5, 6]
print("{0:.3f}".format(sum(li)/len(li)))
Python - Lists
What is a tuple in Python? What is it used for?
A tuple is a built-in data type in Python. It's used for storing multiple items in a single variable.
List, like a tuple, is also used for storing multiple items. What is then, the difference between a tuple and a list?
List, as opposed to a tuple, is a mutable data type. It means we can modify it and at items to it.
How to add the number 2 to the list x = [1, 2, 3]
x.append(2)
How to get the last element of a list?
some_list[-1]
How to add the items of [1, 2, 3] to the list [4, 5, 6]?
x = [4, 5, 6] x.extend([1, 2, 3])
Don't use append
unless you would like the list as one item.
How to remove the first 3 items from a list?
my_list[0:3] = []
How to insert an item to the beginning of a list? What about two items?
- One item:
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
numbers.insert(0, 0)
print(numbers)
- Multiple items or list:
numbers_1 = [2, 3, 4, 5]
numbers_2 = [0, 1]
numbers_1 = numbers_2 + numbers_1
print(numbers_1)
How to sort list by the length of items?
sorted_li = sorted(li, key=len)
Or without creating a new list:
li.sort(key=len)
Do you know what is the difference between list.sort() and sorted(list)?
-
sorted(list) will return a new list (original list doesn't change)
-
list.sort() will return None but the list is change in-place
-
sorted() works on any iterable (Dictionaries, Strings, ...)
-
list.sort() is faster than sorted(list) in case of Lists
Convert every string to an integer: [['1', '2', '3'], ['4', '5', '6']]
nested_li = [['1', '2', '3'], ['4', '5', '6']]
[[int(x) for x in li] for li in nested_li]
How to merge two sorted lists into one sorted list?
sorted(li1 + li2)
Another way:
i, j = 0
merged_li = []
while i < len(li1) and j < len(li2):
if li1[i] < li2[j]:
merged_li.append(li1[i])
i += 1
else:
merged_li.append(li2[j])
j += 1
merged_li = merged_li + merged_li[i:] + merged_li[j:]
How to check if all the elements in a given lists are unique? so [1, 2, 3] is unique but [1, 1, 2, 3] is not unique because 1 exists twice
There are many ways of solving this problem:
# Note: :list and -> bool are just python typings, they are not needed for the correct execution of the algorithm.
Taking advantage of sets and len:
def is_unique(l:list) -> bool:
return len(set(l)) == len(l)
This one is can be seen used in other programming languages.
def is_unique2(l:list) -> bool:
seen = []
for i in l:
if i in seen:
return False
seen.append(i)
return True
Here we just count and make sure every element is just repeated once.
def is_unique3(l:list) -> bool:
for i in l:
if l.count(i) > 1:
return False
return True
This one might look more convulated but hey, one liners.
def is_unique4(l:list) -> bool:
return all(map(lambda x: l.count(x) < 2, l))
You have the following function
def my_func(li = []):
li.append("hmm")
print(li)
If we call it 3 times, what would be the result each call?
def my_func(li = []):
li.append("hmm")
print(li)
['hmm']
['hmm', 'hmm']
['hmm', 'hmm', 'hmm']
How to iterate over a list?
for item in some_list:
print(item)
How to iterate over a list with indexes?
for i, item in enumerate(some_list):
print(i)
How to start list iteration from 2nd index?
Using range like this
for i in range(1, len(some_list)):
some_list[i]
Another way is using slicing
for i in some_list[1:]:
How to iterate over a list in reverse order?
Method 1
for i in reversed(li):
...
Method 2
n = len(li) - 1
while n > 0:
...
n -= 1
Sort a list of lists by the second item of each nested list
li = [[1, 4], [2, 1], [3, 9], [4, 2], [4, 5]]
sorted(li, key=lambda l: l[1])
or
li.sort(key=lambda l: l[1)
Combine [1, 2, 3] and ['x', 'y', 'z'] so the result is [(1, 'x'), (2, 'y'), (3, 'z')]
nums = [1, 2, 3]
letters = ['x', 'y', 'z']
list(zip(nums, letters))
What is List Comprehension? Is it better than a typical loop? Why? Can you demonstrate how to use it?
From Docs: "List comprehensions provide a concise way to create lists. Common applications are to make new lists where each element is the result of some operations applied to each member of another sequence or iterable, or to create a subsequence of those elements that satisfy a certain condition.".
It's better because they're compact, faster and have better readability.
- For loop:
number_lists = [[1, 7, 3, 1], [13, 93, 23, 12], [123, 423, 456, 653, 124]]
odd_numbers = []
for number_list in number_lists:
for number in number_list:
if number % 2 == 0:
odd_numbers.append(number)
print(odd_numbers)
- List comprehesion:
number_lists = [[1, 7, 3, 1], [13, 93, 23, 12], [123, 423, 456, 653, 124]]
odd_numbers = [number for number_list in number_lists for number in number_list if number % 2 == 0]
print(odd_numbers)
You have the following list: [{'name': 'Mario', 'food': ['mushrooms', 'goombas']}, {'name': 'Luigi', 'food': ['mushrooms', 'turtles']}]
Extract all type of foods. Final output should be: {'mushrooms', 'goombas', 'turtles'}
brothers_menu = \
[{'name': 'Mario', 'food': ['mushrooms', 'goombas']}, {'name': 'Luigi', 'food': ['mushrooms', 'turtles']}]
# "Classic" Way
def get_food(brothers_menu) -> set:
temp = []
for brother in brothers_menu:
for food in brother['food']:
temp.append(food)
return set(temp)
# One liner way (Using list comprehension)
set([food for bro in x for food in bro['food']])
Python - Dictionaries
How to create a dictionary?
my_dict = dict(x=1, y=2) OR my_dict = {'x': 1, 'y': 2} OR my_dict = dict([('x', 1), ('y', 2)])
How to remove a key from a dictionary?
del my_dict['some_key']
you can also use my_dict.pop('some_key')
which returns the value of the key.
How to sort a dictionary by values?
{k: v for k, v in sorted(x.items(), key=lambda item: item[1])}
How to sort a dictionary by keys?
dict(sorted(some_dictionary.items()))
How to merge two dictionaries?
some_dict1.update(some_dict2)
Convert the string "a.b.c" to the dictionary {'a': {'b': {'c': 1}}}
output = {}
string = "a.b.c"
path = string.split('.')
target = reduce(lambda d, k: d.setdefault(k, {}), path[:-1], output)
target[path[-1]] = 1
print(output)
Common Algorithms Implementation
Python Files
How to write to a file?
with open('file.txt', 'w') as file:
file.write("My insightful comment")
Sum all the integers in a given file
Print a random line of a given file
Print every 3rd line of a given file
Print the number of lines in a given file
Print the number of of words in a given file
Can you write a function which will print all the file in a given directory? including sub-directories
Write a dictionary (variable) to a file
import json
with open('file.json', 'w') as f:
f.write(json.dumps(dict_var))
Python OS
How to print current working directory?
import os
print(os.getcwd())
Given the path /dir1/dir2/file1
print the file name (file1)
import os
print(os.path.basename('/dir1/dir2/file1'))
# Another way
print(os.path.split('/dir1/dir2/file1')[1])
Given the path /dir1/dir2/file1
- Print the path without the file name (/dir1/dir2)
- Print the name of the directory where the file resides (dir2)
import os
## Part 1.
# os.path.dirname gives path removing the end component
dirpath = os.path.dirname('/dir1/dir2/file1')
print(dirpath)
## Part 2.
print(os.path.basename(dirpath))
How do you execute shell commands using Python?
How do you join path components? for example /home
and luig
will result in /home/luigi
How do you remove non-empty directory?
Python Regex
How do you perform regular expressions related operations in Python? (match patterns, substitute strings, etc.)
Using the re module
How to find all the IP addresses in a variable? How to find them in a file?
Python Strings
Find the first repeated character in a string
While you iterate through the characters, store them in a dictionary and check for every character whether it's already in the dictionary.
def firstRepeatedCharacter(str):
chars = {}
for ch in str:
if ch in chars:
return ch
else:
chars[ch] = 0
How to extract the unique characters from a string? for example given the input "itssssssameeeemarioooooo" the output will be "mrtisaoe"
x = "itssssssameeeemarioooooo"
y = ''.join(set(x))
Find all the permutations of a given string
def permute_string(string):
if len(string) == 1:
return [string]
permutations = []
for i in range(len(string)):
swaps = permute_string(string[:i] + string[(i+1):])
for swap in swaps:
permutations.append(string[i] + swap)
return permutations
print(permute_string("abc"))
Short way (but probably not acceptable in interviews):
from itertools import permutations
[''.join(p) for p in permutations("abc")]
Detailed answer can be found here: http://codingshell.com/python-all-string-permutations
How to check if a string contains a sub string?
Find the frequency of each character in string
Count the number of spaces in a string
You can use the "count" method like this:
ImAString.count(" ")
Given a string, find the N most repeated words
Given the string (which represents a matrix) "1 2 3\n4 5 6\n7 8 9" create rows and colums variables (should contain integers, not strings)
What is the result of each of the following?
>> ', '.join(["One", "Two", "Three"])
>> " ".join("welladsadgadoneadsadga".split("adsadga")[:2])
>> "".join(["c", "t", "o", "a", "o", "q", "l"])[0::2]
>> ', '.join(["One", "Two", "Three"])
>> " ".join("welladsadgadoneadsadga".split("adsadga")[:2])
>> "".join(["c", "t", "o", "a", "o", "q", "l"])[0::2]
>>> 'One, Two, Three'
>>> 'well done'
>>> 'cool'
If x = "pizza"
, what would be the result of x[::-1]
?
It will reverse the string, so x would be equal to azzip
.
Reverse each word in a string (while keeping the order)
What is the output of the following code: "".join(["a", "h", "m", "a", "h", "a", "n", "q", "r", "l", "o", "i", "f", "o", "o"])[2::3]
mario
Python Iterators
What is an iterator?
Python Misc
Explain data serialization and how do you perform it with Python
How do you handle argument parsing in Python?
What is a generator? Why using generators?
What would be the output of the following block?
for i in range(3, 3):
print(i)
for i in range(3, 3):
print(i)
No output :)
What is yeild
? When would you use it?
Explain the following types of methods and how to use them:
- Static method
- Class method
- instance method
How to reverse a list?
How to combine list of strings into one string with spaces between the strings
You have the following list of nested lists: [['Mario', 90], ['Geralt', 82], ['Gordon', 88]]
How to sort the list by the numbers in the nested lists?
One way is:
the_list.sort(key=lambda x: x[1])
Explain the following:
- zip()
- map()
- filter()
Python - Slicing
For the following slicing exercises, assume you have the following list: my_list = [8, 2, 1, 10, 5, 4, 3, 9]
What is the result of `my_list[0:4]`?
What is the result of `my_list[5:6]`?
What is the result of `my_list[5:5]`?
What is the result of `my_list[::-1]`?
What is the result of `my_list[::3]`?
What is the result of `my_list[2:]`?
What is the result of `my_list[:3]`?
Python Debugging
How do you debug Python code?
pdb :D
How to check how much time it took to execute a certain script or block of code?
What empty return
returns?
Short answer is: It returns a None object.
We could go a bit deeper and explain the difference between
def a ():
return
>>> None
And
def a ():
pass
>>> None
Or we could be asked this as a following question, since they both give the same result.
We could use the dis module to see what's going on:
2 0 LOAD_CONST 0 (<code object a at 0x0000029C4D3C2DB0, file "<dis>", line 2>)
2 LOAD_CONST 1 ('a')
4 MAKE_FUNCTION 0
6 STORE_NAME 0 (a)
5 8 LOAD_CONST 2 (<code object b at 0x0000029C4D3C2ED0, file "<dis>", line 5>)
10 LOAD_CONST 3 ('b')
12 MAKE_FUNCTION 0
14 STORE_NAME 1 (b)
16 LOAD_CONST 4 (None)
18 RETURN_VALUE
Disassembly of <code object a at 0x0000029C4D3C2DB0, file "<dis>", line 2>:
3 0 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
2 RETURN_VALUE
Disassembly of <code object b at 0x0000029C4D3C2ED0, file "<dis>", line 5>:
6 0 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
2 RETURN_VALUE
An empty return
is exactly the same as return None
and functions without any explicit return
will always return None regardless of the operations, therefore
def sum(a, b):
global c
c = a + b
>>> None
How to improve the following block of code?
li = []
for i in range(1, 10):
li.append(i)
li = []
for i in range(1, 10):
li.append(i)
[i for i in range(1, 10)]
Given the following function
def is_int(num):
if isinstance(num, int):
print('Yes')
else:
print('No')
What would be the result of is_int(2) and is_int(False)?
def is_int(num):
if isinstance(num, int):
print('Yes')
else:
print('No')
Python - Linked List
Can you implement a linked list in Python?
The reason we need to implement in the first place, it's because a linked list isn't part of Python standard library.
To implement a linked list, we have to implement two structures: The linked list itself and a node which is used by the linked list.
Let's start with a node. A node has some value (the data it holds) and a pointer to the next node
class Node(object):
def __init__(self, data):
self.data = data
self.next = None
Now the linked list. An empty linked list has nothing but an empty head.
class LinkedList(object):
def __init__(self):
self.head = None
Now we can start using the linked list
ll = Linkedlist()
ll.head = Node(1)
ll.head.next = Node(2)
ll.head.next.next = Node(3)
What we have is:
| 1 | -> | 2 | -> | 3 |
Usually, more methods are implemented, like a push_head() method where you insert a node at the beginning of the linked list
def push_head(self, value):
new_node = Node(value)
new_node.next = self.head
self.head = new_node
Add a method to the Linked List class to traverse (print every node's data) the linked list
def print_list(self): node = self.head while(node): print(node.data) node = node.next
Write a method to that will return a boolean based on whether there is a loop in a linked list or not
Let's use the Floyd's Cycle-Finding algorithm:
def loop_exists(self):
one_step_p = self.head
two_steps_p = self.head
while(one_step_p and two_steps_p and two_steps_p.next):
one_step_p = self.head.next
two_step_p = self.head.next.next
if (one_step_p == two_steps_p):
return True
return False
Python - Stack
Implement Stack in Python
Python Testing
What is your experience with writing tests in Python?
What is PEP8? Give an example of 3 style guidelines
PEP8 is a list of coding conventions and style guidelines for Python
5 style guidelines:
1. Limit all lines to a maximum of 79 characters.
2. Surround top-level function and class definitions with two blank lines.
3. Use commas when making a tuple of one element
4. Use spaces (and not tabs) for indentation
5. Use 4 spaces per indentation level
How to test if an exception was raised?
What assert
does in Python?
Explain mocks
How do you measure execution time of small code snippets?
Why one shouldn't use assert
in non-test/production code?
Flask
Can you describe what is Django/Flask and how you have used it? Why Flask and not Django? (or vice versa)
What is a route?
As every web framework, Flask provides a route functionality that lets you serve a content of a given URL.
There are multiple ways to map a URL with a function in Python.
- Decorator: you can use python decorators. In this case we're using
app
. Thisapp
decorator is the instance of theFlask
class. And route it's a method of this class.
@app.route('/')
def home():
return 'main website'
add_url_rule
method: This is a method of the Flask class. We can also use it for map the URL with a function.
def home():
return 'main website'
app.add_url_rule('/', view_func=home)
What is a blueprint in Flask?
What is a template?
zip
Given x = [1, 2, 3]
, what is the result of list(zip(x))?
[(1,), (2,), (3,)]
What is the result of each of the following:
list(zip(range(5), range(50), range(50)))
list(zip(range(5), range(50), range(-2)))
list(zip(range(5), range(50), range(50)))
list(zip(range(5), range(50), range(-2)))
[(0, 0, 0), (1, 1, 1), (2, 2, 2), (3, 3, 3), (4, 4, 4)]
[]
Python Descriptors
What would be the result of running a.num2
assuming the following code
class B:
def __get__(self, obj, objtype=None):
reuturn 10
class A:
num1 = 2
num2 = Five()
class B:
def __get__(self, obj, objtype=None):
reuturn 10
class A:
num1 = 2
num2 = Five()
10
What would be the result of running some_car = Car("Red", 4)
assuming the following code
class Print:
def __get__(self, obj, objtype=None):
value = obj._color
print("Color was set to {}".format(valie))
return value
def __set__(self, obj, value):
print("The color of the car is {}".format(value))
obj._color = value
class Car:
color = Print()
def __ini__(self, color, age):
self.color = color
self.age = age
class Print:
def __get__(self, obj, objtype=None):
value = obj._color
print("Color was set to {}".format(valie))
return value
def __set__(self, obj, value):
print("The color of the car is {}".format(value))
obj._color = value
class Car:
color = Print()
def __ini__(self, color, age):
self.color = color
self.age = age
An instance of Car class will be created and the following will be printed: "The color of the car is Red"
Python Misc
How can you spawn multiple processes with Python?
Implement simple calculator for two numbers
def add(num1, num2):
return num1 + num2
def sub(num1, num2):
return num1 - num2
def mul(num1, num2):
return num1*num2
def div(num1, num2):
return num1 / num2
operators = {
'+': add,
'-': sub,
'*': mul,
'/': div
}
if __name__ == '__main__':
operator = str(input("Operator: "))
num1 = int(input("1st number: "))
num2 = int(input("2nd number: "))
print(operators[operator](num1, num2))
What data types are you familiar with that are not Python built-in types but still provided by modules which are part of the standard library?
This is a good reference https://docs.python.org/3/library/datatypes.html
Explain what is a decorator
In python, everything is an object, even functions themselves. Therefore you could pass functions as arguments for another function eg;
def wee(word):
return word
def oh(f):
return f + "Ohh"
>>> oh(wee("Wee"))
<<< Wee Ohh
This allows us to control the before execution of any given function and if we added another function as wrapper, (a function receiving another function that receives a function as parameter) we could also control the after execution.
Sometimes we want to control the before-after execution of many functions and it would get tedious to write
f = function(function_1())
f = function(function_1(function_2(*args)))
every time, that's what decorators do, they introduce syntax to write all of this on the go, using the keyword '@'.
Can you show how to write and use decorators?
These two decorators (ntimes and timer) are usually used to display decorators functionalities, you can find them in lots of
tutorials/reviews. I first saw these examples two years ago in pyData 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lmCu8wz8ro&t=3731s
Simple decorator:
def deco(f):
print(f"Hi I am the {f.__name__}() function!")
return f
@deco
def hello_world():
return "Hi, I'm in!"
a = hello_world()
print(a)
>>> Hi I am the hello_world() function!
Hi, I'm in!
This is the simplest decorator version, it basically saves us from writting a = deco(hello_world())
.
But at this point we can only control the before execution, let's take on the after:
def deco(f):
def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
print("Rick Sanchez!")
func = f(*args, **kwargs)
print("I'm in!")
return func
return wrapper
@deco
def f(word):
print(word)
a = f("************")
>>> Rick Sanchez!
************
I'm in!
deco receives a function -> f wrapper receives the arguments -> *args, **kwargs
wrapper returns the function plus the arguments -> f(*args, **kwargs) deco returns wrapper.
As you can see we conveniently do things before and after the execution of a given function.
For example, we could write a decorator that calculates the execution time of a function.
import time
def deco(f):
def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
before = time.time()
func = f(*args, **kwargs)
after = time.time()
print(after-before)
return func
return wrapper
@deco
def f():
time.sleep(2)
print("************")
a = f()
>>> 2.0008859634399414
Or create a decorator that executes a function n times.
def n_times(n):
def wrapper(f):
def inner(*args, **kwargs):
for _ in range(n):
func = f(*args, **kwargs)
return func
return inner
return wrapper
@n_times(4)
def f():
print("************")
a = f()
>>>************
************
************
************
Write a decorator that calculates the execution time of a function
Write a script which will determine if a given host is accessible on a given port
Are you familiar with Dataclasses? Can you explain what are they used for?
You wrote a class to represent a car. How would you compare two cars instances if two cars are equal if they have the same model and color?
class Car:
def __init__(self, model, color):
self.model = model
self.color = color
def __eq__(self, other):
if not isinstance(other, Car):
return NotImplemented
return self.model == other.model and self.color == other.color
>> a = Car('model_1', 'red')
>> b = Car('model_2', 'green')
>> c = Car('model_1', 'red')
>> a == b
False
>> a == c
True