Top 11 Python Interview Questions and Hands‑On Code Solutions

1. Difference between single, double, and triple quotes and their usage scenarios.

2. Explanation of Python's argument passing mechanisms with examples, clarifying that Python uses a form of pass‑by‑object (value/reference) semantics.

3. Definition of lambda functions, their benefits, and typical usage examples.

4. Comparison of string formatting using the % operator versus the .format() method.

5. Overview of Python's memory management, including reference counting and garbage collection.

6. Several approaches to implement a function that reverses a given string, e.g.,

def string_reverse(s):
    return s[::-1]

and other methods.

7. Method to merge two lists in ascending order while removing duplicate elements.

list1 = [2, 3, 8, 4, 9, 5, 6] list2 = [5, 6, 10, 17, 11, 2] merged = sorted(set(list1 + list2)) print(merged) # [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17]

8. Demonstration of class variable inheritance and modification effects with sample output.

class Parent(object): x = 1 class Child1(Parent): pass class Child2(Parent): pass print(Parent.x, Child1.x, Child2.x) # 1 1 1 Child1.x = 2 print(Parent.x, Child1.x, Child2.x) # 1 2 1 Parent.x = 3 print(Parent.x, Child1.x, Child2.x) # 3 2 3

9. Explanation that accessing a list slice beyond its length does not raise an error; it returns an empty list.

10. Illustration of mutable default argument pitfalls and their outputs.

def extendList(val, lst=[]): lst.append(val) return lst list1 = extendList(10) # [10] list2 = extendList(123, []) # [123] list3 = extendList('a') # [10, 'a'] print("list1 = %s" % list1) print("list2 = %s" % list2) print("list3 = %s" % list3)

11. Description of Pythonic coding style emphasizing readability, simplicity, and idiomatic constructs.