Python Interview
Questions
1. How will you improve the performance of a program in Python?
Ans. There are many ways to improve the performance of a Python program. Some of
these are as follows:
i. Data Structure: We have to select the right data structure for our purpose
in a Python Program.
ii. Standard Library: Wherever possible, we should use methods from standard
library. Methods implemented in standard library have much better performance than
user implementation.
iii. Abstraction: At times, a lot of abstraction and indirection can cause
slow performance of a program. We should remove the redundant abstraction in the
code.
iv. Algorithm: Use of right algorithm can make a big difference in a program.
We have to find and select the suitable algorithm to solve our problem with high
performance.
2. What are the benefit of using Python?
Ans. Python is strong that even Google uses it. Some of the benefits of using
Python are as follows:
i. Efficient: Python is very efficient in memory management. For a large data
set like Big Data, It is much easier to program in Python.
ii. Faster: Though Python code is interpreted, still python has very fast
performance.
iii. Wide usage: Python is widely used among different organizations for
different projects. Due to this wide usage, there are thousands of add-ons
available for use in Python.
iv. Easy to learn: Python is quite easy to learn. This is the highest benefit
of using Python. Complex tasks can be very easily implemented in Python.
3. How will you specify source code encoding in a python source file?
Ans. By default, every source code file in python is in UTF-8 encoding. But we can
also specify our own coding for source files. This can be done by adding following
line after #! line in the source file.
#-*-coding: encoding-*-
In the above line we can replace encoding with the encoding that we want to use.
4. What is the PEP 8 in Python?
Ans. PEP 8 is a style guide for Python code. This document provides the coding
conventions for writing code in Python. Coding conventions are about indentation,
formatting, tabs, maximum line length, imports organization, line spacing etc. We
used PEP 8 to bring consistency in our code. It is easier for other developers to
read the code.
5. What is pickling in Python?
Ans. Pickling is a process by which a Python object hierarchy can be converted into
a byte stream. The reverse operation of Pickling is Unpickling.
Python has a module named pickle. This module has the implementation of a powerful
algorithm for serialization and de-serialization of Python object structure.
Some people also call pickling as Serialization or Marshalling.
With Serialization we can transfer python objects over the network. It is also used
in persisting the state of a Python object. We can write it to a line or a dataset.
6. How does memory management work in Python?
Ans. There is a private heap space in Python that contains all the Python objects
and data structures. In Python there is a memory manager responsible for managing
the heap space.
There are different components in Python memory manager that handle segmentation,
sharing, caching, memory pre-allocation etc.
Python memory manager also takes care of garbage collection by using Reference
counting algorithm.
7. How will you perform Static Analysis on a Python Script?
Ans. We can use static analysis tool called Pychecker for this purpose. Pychecker
can detect errors in Python code. Pychecker also gives warning for any style
issues.
Some other tools to find bugs in Python code are pylint and Pyflakes.