Anindita Nayak
Bhubaneswar, 22 October, 2025
Leading companies such as Intel, IBM, NASA, Netflix, and Facebook value Python for its simplicity and powerful libraries, making mastery of key Python interview questions essential for excelling in developer assessments and interviews.
Is Python considered an interpreted or compiled programming language?
Python is both compiled and interpreted — it’s first compiled into bytecode, then executed by the Python Virtual Machine (PVM). Implementations like PyPy use JIT compilation to improve performance.
How is Exceptional handling done in Python?
Python uses three main keywords for exception handling:
Try defines a block of code to monitor for errors,
Except-runs if an error occurs, and
Finally executes after try and except, typically for cleanup, whether or not an error happened.
Is indentation mandatory in Python?
Yes, Python requires indentation to define code blocks, making the code readable and ensuring proper execution.
What does it mean for a language to be dynamically typed?
A dynamically typed language determines variable types at runtime, so explicit type declarations aren’t needed. Python and JavaScript are examples, making coding easier, while statically typed languages like C or Java check types at compile time for faster execution.
What is the difference between a Mutable datatype and an Immutable datatype?
Mutable data types, such as lists and dictionaries, can be changed at runtime, while immutable types, like strings and tuples, cannot be modified once created.
In Python, are arguments passed by value or by reference?
Python uses pass-by-object-reference, meaning arguments are passed as object references. Immutable objects behave like pass-by-value, while mutable ones act like pass-by-reference.
What is the purpose of a lambda function in Python?
A lambda function in Python is an anonymous, single-expression function that can take multiple arguments.
What is list comprehension with an example?
List comprehension provides a concise way to create new lists by applying an expression to each element of an iterable. For example, [val**2 for val in a] generates a list of squares.
What are *args and **kwargs?
*args allows a function to accept a variable number of positional arguments, while **kwargs allows it to accept a variable number of keyword arguments.
How is a dictionary different from a list?
A list stores ordered items accessed by index, while a dictionary holds unordered key-value pairs accessed by unique keys, making lists suitable for sequences and dictionaries ideal for associative data.
