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100+ Most Asked Python Programming Interview Questions and Answers (2025 Updated)

July 29, 2025 By @mritxperts
100+ Most Asked Python Programming Interview Questions and Answers (2025 Updated)

Are you preparing for a Python developer interview in 2025? Whether you’re a fresher or an experienced programmer, understanding what interviewers expect can make all the difference. In this guide, we’ve compiled over 100 of the most commonly asked Python programming interview questions and their answers—ranging from basics to advanced topics, data structures, OOP, file handling, frameworks like Django, and even tricky coding problems. Let’s dive in and get you ready to crack your next Python interview!

Basics of Python

  1. What is Python?
    • Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language with dynamic typing and garbage collection.
  2. What are the key features of Python?
    • Interpreted, dynamically typed, easy syntax, portable, extensible, large standard library, and support for multiple paradigms.
  3. What are Python’s data types?
    • int, float, str, bool, list, tuple, set, dict, NoneType.
  4. What is PEP 8?
    • PEP 8 is a style guide for writing clean and readable Python code.
  5. How is Python interpreted?
    • Python code is compiled to bytecode (.pyc) and then interpreted by the Python Virtual Machine (PVM).
  6. What are Python literals?
    • Fixed values like 123, "hello", True, None.
  7. What is the difference between Python 2 and 3?
    • Major syntax differences like print, Unicode handling, integer division, and more; Python 3 is the future.
  8. What is the use of type() function?
    • It returns the type of an object.

Data Structures

  1. What is the difference between list and tuple?
    • Lists are mutable; tuples are immutable.
  2. How is a set different from a list?
  • Sets are unordered and don’t allow duplicates.
  1. What is a dictionary in Python?
  • A collection of key-value pairs.
  1. How do you copy a list in Python?
  • list.copy() or list[:] or copy.deepcopy() for nested.
  1. How do you merge two dictionaries in Python 3.9+?
  • Using the | operator: dict1 | dict2.
  1. How do you remove duplicates from a list?
  • list(set(mylist)) or use a loop with conditional checks.
  1. What is list comprehension?
  • A concise way to create lists: [x for x in range(10)].

Control Flow & Functions

  1. What are the conditional statements in Python?
  • if, elif, else.
  1. What is the difference between == and is?
  • == compares values; is checks identity.
  1. **What are *args and kwargs?
  • *args: variable number of positional arguments.
    **kwargs: variable number of keyword arguments.
  1. What is a lambda function?
  • Anonymous function: lambda x: x + 1.
  1. What is recursion in Python?
  • A function calling itself.
  1. What is the purpose of pass, break, continue?
  • pass: do nothing, break: exit loop, continue: skip current loop.
  1. What is the scope of variables in Python?
  • Local, enclosing, global, built-in (LEGB).
  1. How are default arguments handled in functions?
  • They are evaluated only once when defined.

OOP in Python

  1. What is a class and object in Python?
  • A class is a blueprint; an object is an instance of a class.
  1. What is inheritance?
  • A class can inherit attributes and methods from another class.
  1. What is polymorphism?
  • Same method name can have different behaviors.
  1. What is encapsulation?
  • Hiding internal state and requiring all interaction to be performed through an object’s methods.
  1. What is __init__?
  • Constructor method called when an object is created.
  1. What are class and static methods?
  • @classmethod takes class as first arg, @staticmethod doesn’t take implicit first arg.
  1. What is operator overloading?
  • Using special methods like __add__, __eq__ to change default behavior of operators.

Exception Handling

  1. What is exception handling?
  • Mechanism to handle runtime errors using try, except, finally.
  1. What is the difference between except Exception and except?
  • The former is specific, the latter is a catch-all.
  1. How to raise a custom exception?
  • Use raise with a custom class: raise MyError("message").
  1. What is the use of finally block?
  • Code that always runs after try/except, for cleanup.

File Handling

  1. How to read a file in Python?
  • open('file.txt').read() or use with open().
  1. What are file modes in Python?
  • 'r', 'w', 'a', 'rb', 'wb', 'r+'.
  1. What is the difference between read(), readline(), and readlines()?
  • read(): entire file, readline(): one line, readlines(): list of lines.

Advanced Topics

  1. What are Python modules and packages?
  • Modules are .py files; packages are folders with __init__.py.
  1. How to import modules in Python?
  • import module, from module import func.
  1. What is __name__ == '__main__'?
  • Allows code to run only when file is executed directly.
  1. What is a decorator in Python?
  • A function that modifies the behavior of another function.
  1. What is a generator?
  • Function with yield that returns an iterator.
  1. What is the difference between iterator and iterable?
  • Iterable: can be looped. Iterator: has __next__().
  1. What is a context manager?
  • Used with with statement, handles setup and teardown.
  1. What is a virtual environment in Python?
  • Isolated Python environment using venv or virtualenv.
  1. How is memory managed in Python?
  • Automatic via reference counting and garbage collector.

Libraries & Frameworks

  1. What is NumPy used for?
  • Numerical operations and array manipulation.
  1. What is Pandas used for?
  • Data analysis and manipulation using DataFrames.
  1. What is Django?
  • High-level Python web framework.
  1. What is Flask?
  • Lightweight web framework for building APIs.
  1. What is pip?
  • Python package installer.
  1. How do you install a package using pip?
  • pip install package-name

Testing & Debugging

  1. What is unit testing in Python?
  • Testing small units of code using unittest or pytest.
  1. How to debug Python code?
  • Using pdb, IDE debugger, or print().
  1. What is assert statement used for?
  • For debugging; checks if condition is True.

Interview Coding Concepts

  1. Reverse a string in Python.
  • s[::-1]
  1. Check for palindrome.
  • s == s[::-1]
  1. Find factorial using recursion.
def fact(n): return 1 if n==0 else n*fact(n-1)
  1. Check if number is prime.
  2. Fibonacci sequence generation.
  3. Sort dictionary by value.
  4. Count vowels in a string.
  5. Find duplicates in a list.
  6. Merge two sorted lists.
  7. Check anagram strings.
  8. Find second largest number.
  9. Flatten a nested list.
  10. List all permutations of a string.
  11. Implement a stack using list.
  12. LRU cache using OrderedDict.

Databases

  1. How to connect to MySQL in Python?
  • Using mysql-connector or PyMySQL.
  1. How to connect to SQLite?
  • Using sqlite3 module.
  1. What is ORM in Python?
  • Object Relational Mapper (like Django ORM).

Multithreading & Concurrency

  1. What is GIL in Python?
  • Global Interpreter Lock: prevents multiple native threads from executing Python bytecodes at once.
  1. How do you achieve multiprocessing?
  • Using multiprocessing module.
  1. What is the difference between threading and multiprocessing?
  • Threading: shared memory, Multiprocessing: separate memory.

Miscellaneous

  1. What are Python namespaces?
  2. What is duck typing?
  3. What is monkey patching?
  4. What is slicing in Python?
  5. What are Python magic methods? (__str__, __len__)
  6. What is zip() function?
  7. What is the use of enumerate()?
  8. What is the map() function?
  9. Difference between deepcopy and copy?

Data Science / AI Focused

  1. What is Scikit-learn used for?
  2. How is Python used in Machine Learning?
  3. What is a DataFrame in Pandas?
  4. Difference between .loc and .iloc in Pandas?
  5. How to handle missing values in Pandas?
  6. Basic steps to build a ML model using Python?

Web / API Focused

  1. How to create an API using Flask?
  2. Difference between GET and POST requests?
  3. How to parse JSON in Python?
  4. What is requests library?

Python Versions and Updates

  1. What are some features added in Python 3.10 / 3.11?
  • Structural pattern matching, exception groups, soft keywords.

Tricky / Theory

  1. Why is Python slow?
  2. What are metaclasses in Python?
  3. Explain memory leaks in Python.
  4. What is the difference between isinstance() and type()?
  5. What are Python Weak References?
  6. What are dunder methods?
  7. What is the walrus operator :=?

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