Python Interview Questions (Fresher)

Top 30+ Python Interview Questions for Freshers with Detailed Answers

Are you looking for the most relevant Python interview questions for freshers? This comprehensive list of Python questions and answers is tailored to help beginners and entry-level candidates prepare effectively for coding interviews. These Python interview questions for freshers cover essential topics from basic to advanced, ensuring you get familiar with commonly asked questions in recent technical rounds. Mastering these questions will boost your confidence and readiness for real-world interviews.

Easy Python Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is Python? What are the key features of Python?

Python is a high-level, interpreted, general-purpose programming language known for its simplicity and readability. Moreover, its key features include dynamic typing, automatic memory management, support for multiple programming paradigms (procedural, object-oriented, functional), an extensive standard library, and cross-platform compatibility.

2. Why is Python called an interpreted language?

Python is called an interpreted language because its code is executed line-by-line by the Python interpreter at runtime, without the need for prior compilation into machine code. Therefore, it allows faster testing and debugging.

3. What are Python’s basic data types?

Python supports several basic data types including integers (int), floating-point numbers (float), complex numbers (complex), booleans (bool), strings (str), lists (list), tuples (tuple), sets (set), and dictionaries (dict). In addition, each type serves different purposes and is essential for handling data effectively.

4. Explain the difference between lists and tuples in Python.

Lists are mutable, meaning you can modify their contents (add, remove, change elements), whereas tuples are immutable and cannot be changed once created. Lists use square brackets [], and tuples use parentheses (). Consequently, tuples are generally faster and used when a fixed collection of items is needed.

5. How do you comment in Python?

Single-line comments start with the hash symbol #. Additionally, multi-line comments can be written using triple quotes ''' ... ''' or """ ... """, which is useful for documenting code blocks.

6. What is indentation and why is it important in Python?

Indentation refers to the whitespace at the beginning of a line to define the structure of code blocks such as loops and functions. It is crucial in Python because it replaces braces used in other languages to delimit code blocks and directly affects program flow. As a result, incorrect indentation leads to syntax errors.

7. How do you take user input in Python?

Using the built-in input() function, which reads a line from input and returns it as a string. For example, name = input("Enter your name: ") will prompt the user to enter their name.

8. What are functions in Python?

Functions are reusable blocks of code designed to perform a specific task. Defined using the def keyword, functions can accept parameters and return values. Moreover, they help in modularizing and organizing code efficiently.

9. What is the difference between ‘==’ and ‘is’ operators in Python?

== checks if two objects have the same value, whereas is checks if two references point to the same object in memory. Therefore, is is used to check identity, not equality.

10. What are Python dictionaries?

Dictionaries are mutable, unordered collections of key-value pairs. Keys must be immutable types, and values can be any data type. In addition, dictionaries are highly efficient for lookups.

11. What does the type() function do?

The type() function returns the data type of the object passed to it, such as int, str, or list. Consequently, it is useful for debugging and type checking.

12. How do you handle errors in Python?

Using try-except blocks to catch exceptions and handle errors gracefully without stopping the program. Additionally, you can use finally blocks to execute cleanup code.

Medium Python Interview Questions for Freshers

13. What are Python modules and packages?

A module is a file containing Python code (functions, classes, variables), whereas a package is a directory of modules with an __init__.py file, allowing hierarchical structuring of modules. Therefore, packages help organize complex projects.

14. What are *args and **kwargs in Python functions?

*args allows a function to accept any number of positional arguments as a tuple, while **kwargs accepts any number of keyword arguments as a dictionary. In practice, these enable flexible function calls.

15. Explain list comprehensions with an example.

List comprehensions provide a concise way to create lists. For example, [x**2 for x in range(5)] creates a list of squares from 0 to 4. Moreover, they are often faster and more readable than traditional loops.

16. What is a lambda function?

A lambda function is an anonymous, inline function defined with the lambda keyword, often used for short, throwaway functions. For example, lambda x: x + 10 creates a function that adds 10 to its argument.

17. What is the difference between shallow copy and deep copy?

Shallow copy copies the reference of nested objects, so changes affect both copies. On the other hand, deep copy creates a fully independent copy, including nested objects, using the copy.deepcopy() method.

18. What is the purpose of the with statement in file handling?

The with statement ensures proper acquisition and release of resources like file handles, automatically closing the file after its block finishes execution. Therefore, it prevents resource leaks.

19. How is memory managed in Python?

Python uses private heap space for memory management, automatic garbage collection, and reference counting to free unused objects. As a result, developers rarely need to manage memory manually.

20. What are Python decorators?

Decorators are functions that modify the behavior of other functions without changing their code, typically using the @decorator syntax. Consequently, they are useful for logging, access control, and memoization.

21. How do you manage packages in Python?

Using package managers like pip to install, upgrade, and remove packages, often within virtual environments (venv) to avoid conflicts. In addition, virtual environments help maintain project dependencies.

22. What are Python generators?

Generators are iterators defined with functions using yield, producing items lazily one at a time, which saves memory for large datasets. Moreover, they allow efficient looping over data streams.

23. Explain the difference between iterators and iterables.

An iterable is an object capable of returning its elements one at a time (like lists), while an iterator is an object that represents a stream of data and implements __next__() to get the next element.

Advanced Questions for Freshers

24. What is the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in Python?

The GIL is a mutex in CPython that prevents multiple native threads from executing Python bytecodes at once, limiting multi-threaded CPU-bound program performance. Therefore, it affects concurrency in Python.

25. How does Python handle multithreading and multiprocessing?

Due to the GIL, Python threads are better suited for I/O-bound tasks, whereas multiprocessing allows true parallelism by running separate Python processes.

26. What is a metaclass in Python?

A metaclass is a class of a class that defines how a class behaves. It allows customization of class creation and is used in advanced OOP. In essence, it controls class instantiation.

27. Explain Python’s memory management and garbage collection mechanism.

Python uses reference counting and a cyclic garbage collector to detect and free unused objects, especially those involved in reference cycles. Consequently, memory leaks are minimized.

28. What is monkey patching in Python?

Monkey patching refers to dynamic modifications of classes or modules at runtime, such as changing or extending behavior without altering the original source code. However, it should be used carefully to avoid maintenance issues.

29. How does Python implement method overloading?

Python does not support traditional method overloading but uses default arguments, variable-length arguments, or single method handling different parameter types. Therefore, flexibility is achieved differently than in other languages.

30. What are coroutines in Python?

Coroutines are special functions used for cooperative multitasking, defined with async def and used with await to handle asynchronous programming. Moreover, they improve efficiency in I/O-bound programs.

31. What is the difference between deep learning libraries TensorFlow and PyTorch?

Though not Python core, freshers often face this question: TensorFlow uses static computational graphs and is widely used in production, whereas PyTorch is dynamic and favored for research.

32. What are Python’s built-in functions to manipulate sequences?

Functions like map(), filter(), reduce() (from functools), and sorted() help manipulate and process sequence data efficiently.

These Python interview questions for freshers cover a broad spectrum of important topics and will prepare you to answer confidently in your upcoming interviews. In summary, practicing these questions will sharpen your skills and enhance your interview performance.