Common Python Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

Python is one of the most popular programming languages on the planet, according to Stack Overflow’s 2021 Developer Survey. You can use it to write code for many different types of projects. This language is one of the best object oriented programming languages in 2021.

As you enter the tech industry, you’ll have to sit for many job interviews. We’ve compiled the most common Python interview questions and advice on how to answer them. This popular programming language is a great skill to learn if you want to start a career in tech, so you should be prepared to encounter it in any tech job interview.

What Is a Python Programmer?

Python programmers are coders who fulfill a range of roles in data science, machine learning, web development, and more. Python is a flexible, high-level object oriented programming language with several libraries and frameworks that programmers use to complete tasks.

You can learn Python in many bootcamps, online courses, and even online degree programs. If you want to enter this career, you should learn how to apply documentation strings, use an anonymous function, and create a NumPy array. You should also be familiar with function definitions, recursive functions, and object hierarchy.

Answers to the Most Common Python Interview Questions

Many common interview questions focus on highly technical coding topics. Along with the technical coding interview or assessment, you’ll also have a more general job interview where a prospective employer looks at how well you match the company’s culture. Make sure you brush up on your hard and soft skills before applying for jobs.

Top 5 Technical Python Interview Questions and Answers

The most common questions in a technical interview will test your knowledge and problem-solving skills. Technical interviews will often require you to describe some function of Python or, in some cases, write a quick Python program to show your skills. You don’t have to know everything because the interviewer just wants to ensure you can think like a coder.

What Is a Function?

A function is a block of code that can perform a specific task whenever it’s called by the rest of your code. User-defined functions are complex code blocks that can include several other objects, such as conditional statements. Several objects in Python are affected by built-in functions as well, which provide a standardized action like changing the color of an object. 

You should answer this question with different types of functions to demonstrate your knowledge. For example, a NumPy random normal function creates an array of defined shapes and fills in randomized values for you. You could also describe how you create a split function or function prototype.

Can You Use a String as an Operator?

Yes, a string can be used as an operator if you use a lookup table, also known as a dictionary. Dictionaries are one of a few different built-in data types available in Python for collections, along with lists, tuples, and sets. 

Dictionaries allow you to set a key and a value that can be called later in your code. So, for example, if you set the string: ‘+’ to mean “add” with a lambda function within a variable, you can then call in arguments later that will treat it as an operator.

What’s the Difference Between NumPy and SciPy?

NumPy (Numerical Python) is a library that gives Python support for mathematical functions, arrays, and more. SciPy (Scientific Python) is used for more complex operations, including machine learning. Both of these libraries are key for just about any project you want to tackle in the language. They have similar functionality to the standard library. 

How Do You Fix a Memory Leak in Python?

Memory leaks are rare in Python, but they can happen if you don’t release unused memory. Memory management is key if you don’t want your code to crash a machine every time it runs. This interview question is important because it helps the interview gauge your capacity for problem-solving.

The Python memory manager often handles this task on its own, but it’s good to debug using the inbuilt garbage collector module to spot where your storage memory is going among known objects. Besides that, you can also use tracemalloc to link objects with their first allocation, which can help you spot unreferenced or unused objects.

What’s the Difference Between List and Tuple Data Types?

We mentioned lists and tuples earlier, but it’s good to get an idea of the difference between these different collections. Both represent a collection of items, but a tuple is less flexible than a list, and it uses parentheses to store data as opposed to square brackets like lists. 

Tuples can’t be modified after they’ve been created, and a built-in function that you’d use in a list often won’t work on them. There are times when it’s preferable to use tuples over lists. However, specifically in simpler operations where an entire list would be overkill.

Top 5 Behavioral Python Interview Questions and Answers

The behavioral portion of your interview is just as important as the technical portion. The STAR interview technique is key, and it stands for situation, task, action, and result. You mention a moment in your life that suits the question, describe the actions you took to resolve it, and then relay the result of your actions.

Can You Tell Me About the Last Team Project You Worked On?

This question is designed to gauge whether you’ll fit in with your employer’s team. If you worked tirelessly to make sure your team’s code was spotless, then answer truthfully. Otherwise, you can mention how you want to work on your leadership and facilitation skills. Start with a description of the project, then move on to any issues and how you got past them.

How Do You Handle Conflict During a Project?

This question is designed to ensure you’ll accept constructive criticism or follow the chain of command if there are interpersonal issues. It’s easy to ignore conflict, but fortitude and patience show leadership potential. Focus on how you communicate with others, and then mention situations where you’ve come to a mutual understanding to help things run smoothly.

Can You Tell Me About a Time When You Failed?

Failure is a natural part of progress. This question is designed to test your attitude when things aren’t going right and your commitment to finding a way to make it to the other side. You don’t have to run down your list of professional failures. It’s best to pick one situation where failure was a speed bump towards eventual success.

Can You Tell Me About a Suggestion You’ve Made to a Previous Supervisor?

This question is important for identifying your ability to give valuable feedback and to mention things you think can be improved. There’s a major difference between suggestions that supervisors give and suggestions that subordinates give, and the interviewer wants to know if you’ll speak up when you see something that could be better handled. 

Describe a Situation Where You Had to Break Down an Idea.

At most companies, you’ll have to interact with external stakeholders with little to no technical knowledge. In these instances, you wouldn’t go in and explain an instance of monkey patching with deep technical jargon on dynamic binding. Instead, you’d relay the situation in basic components that explain the idea of monkey patching without confusing the listener.

For example, in the context of monkey patching, you could mention downloading an extra file to improve functionality on certain devices instead of explaining dynamic modifications. This question usually isn’t just limited to tech. If you have other hobbies, this is a great opportunity to show your communication skills.

Top 5 General Python Interview Questions and Answers

These general job interview questions are designed to learn more about your qualifications for the role and about you as a person. You’ve likely encountered questions like this before if you’ve ever had a job interview, so just be calm and answer them truthfully. You can show off your personality and social skills in this portion of the interview.

Tell Me About Yourself.

This question tends to make a lot of people nervous, but there’s a simple formula you can follow to get through it. Just describe yourself with job titles you’ve held in the past and ways that your experience has prepared you for the job opening you’re interviewing for. Be sure to highlight specific technical skills and personal traits when they ask you to tell them about yourself.

Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?

Be sure not to relay any long stories or detailed lists of the reasons why you felt like your previous job was no longer the right fit. If you’re leaving because of office politics, don’t go into detail because it can seem unprofessional. Instead, be honest and concise so you demonstrate that you will give the potential employer the same courtesy if you ever have to leave.

Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?

Hiring managers want to make sure you aren’t just going to leave after a few months. This question is designed to see how a company fits into your long-term plans. Be sure to mention that you’ll want to stay and potentially advance in the company. You should say something like, “I hope to be still here, using my skills and taking advantage of growth opportunities.”

Why Should I Hire You?

This is your chance to sell yourself as the perfect fit for the position. Explain your interest in programming with Python and how your current programming skillset aligns with the needs of the company. This is also a chance to show why your personal experience aligns with other responsibilities you may have.

What Questions Haven’t I Asked You?

Hiring managers want to know that you’ve researched the company, so this is your chance to show your knowledge. You could bring the conversation back to your specific technical skills or leadership experience. This question is also a good chance to ask about the salary and schedule for the role or where the company sees your department heading in the future.

Tips to Prepare for a Python Interview

1. Practice Python Fundamentals

Before your interview, tackle some fun Python projects to keep yourself in coding shape. You may have to create modules for a project to serve as samples, and companies might ask you to build a pickle module, random module, or current module on the spot. This object oriented language has a lot of potential uses that you can explore.

You can look up technical interview specifics, but it’s good to have direction coming into the interview. If you misplace your curly braces or affect the parent class when you meant to work on the child class, it’s not the end of the world, but some preparation and practice will help.

2. Research the Company

As we mentioned above, there are many reasons why you should research the company you’re interviewing for. It not only helps you set expectations for the types of code you’ll be creating while working there, but it also prepares you for your potential pay and working environment. You should also be familiar with the history of Python and its creator, Guido van Rossum.

You don’t want to be caught off guard by an easy question, so it’s good to have an idea of the prominent faces at the company, its industry, and some of its notable recent achievements. You can check Glassdoor or other job review sites to learn more about the company from actual employees.

3. Relax

The worst thing you can do for your interview performance is stress out beforehand. If you show up to your interview tired from a lack of sleep and anxious to perform well, you might not make a good impression on the hiring manager. 

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to practice your lines of code, get a good night’s sleep before the day of your interview, and show up five minutes early, ready to do your best. You should also dress professionally and put your best foot forward.

What Skills Should I Put on My Python Programmer Resume?

Certain skills are in high demand for Python developers at the moment, including frameworks, SQL, and machine learning. Though there are many great technical skills that you could list here, these three are the most in-demand and relevant for Python jobs. Read below to learn more about these top skills.

Frameworks

Frameworks give you a starting point when building your projects. Unlike the process of writing code in machine language, you can use many different frameworks that automatically define the modules and packages you need. Many of these frameworks are great for building web applications, but there are other frameworks, albeit rare, that can have more specialized uses. 

You’ll most likely encounter job listings that ask for you to know Django, TurboGears, or web2py, three popular frameworks. Django is known for its fast workflow and easy design process. TurboGears is famous for its ability to build database-driven applications fast. Finally, web2py is a lightweight all-in-one solution for building and maintaining applications.

SQL

SQL is a programming language used for adding, editing, and removing data in databases. Python is renowned for its ability to handle data, and it’s hard to beat SQL if you’re going to be doing lots of data manipulation. You can learn this tool at one of the best SQL bootcamps.

You can use SQL to build data-heavy web applications to store a string with little extra work or to store sorted data for data analysts and scientists. Some versions of SQL, like SQLite, even come with default modules to help you quickly connect a database to your Python Project.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is the process by which a machine looks at a dataset and uses its current information to predict its future. You can supervise the process, or build an unsupervised process in Python. The pandas library is a must-have skill if you want to work in data analysis, and its functionality also extends to this field.

How to Find Python Jobs

The demand for Python programmers is growing. It’s one of the top five skills for programmers at the moment, according to the most recent 2021 Dice Tech Jobs Report. Dice is one of many job boards that usually post tech jobs for Python programmers, but there are more, including Python’s own site.

Python Job Board

The Python community has come together to build its job board on the official Python website. On this site, you’ll find job listings from all over the world, both in person and remote. This site is good if you want to find a position with a company that respects the programming language, but even though new listings are regularly submitted, it doesn’t get as many postings as other sites.

Dice

As noted above, the Dice job board focuses almost exclusively on open positions in tech. As of the time of this article’s writing, there are over 13,000 openings for Python programmers on Dice. While the variety is more appealing, many jobs on this site get flooded with applications quickly. It’s best to keep an eye out or set up Google alerts to have the best chances.

Remote Python

Remote Python, much like the official Python Job Board, posts opportunities from all over the world. The key difference is that Remote Python focuses solely on remote positions. This job board sees regular job postings, but at a lower volume than the Python Job Board. This could be a good way to find a position that may not be receiving much attention.

Python Programmer Interview Questions FAQ