PCEP – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer Certification is a comprehensive mock exam with emphasis on using the PCEP 30-01 Syllabus as guide on the question topic. The audience should have basic knowledge in Python or have a good grasp on other programming language because this is not a tutorial.

All questions are based on individual topics in the syllabus. Some of the topics may not be thoroughly covered but each and every topic in the syllabus have a corresponding question with sufficient representation.

Exam block #1: Basic Concepts

• fundamental concepts: interpreter, compiler, language elements, lexis, syntax and semantics, Python keywords, instructions, indenting
• literals: Boolean, integer, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings
• comments
• the print() function
• the input() function
• numeral systems (binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal)
• numeric operators: ** * / % // + –
• string operators: * +
• assignments and shortcut operators

Exam block #2: Data Types, Evaluations, and Basic I/O Operations

• operators: unary and binary, priorities, binding
• bitwise operators
• Boolean operators: not and or
• Boolean expressions
• relational operators, complex Boolean expressions
• accuracy of floating-point numbers
• basic input and output using the input(), print(), int(), float(), str(), len() functions
• formatting print() output with end= and sep= arguments
• type casting
• basic calculations
• simple strings: constructing, assigning, indexing, immutability

Exam block #3: Control Flow – loops and conditional blocks

• conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif, if-elif-else
• multiple conditional statements
• the pass instruction
• building loops: while, for, range(), in
• iterating through sequences
• expanding loops: while-else, for-else
• nesting loops and conditional statements
• controlling loop execution: break, continue

Exam block #4: Data Collections – Lists, Tuples, and Dictionaries

• simple lists: constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function
• lists in detail: indexing, slicing, append(), insert(), index()) and functions (len(), sorted(), etc., del instruction, iterating with the for loop, initializing, in and not in operators, list comprehension, copying and cloning
• lists in lists: matrices and cubes
• tuples: indexing, slicing, building, immutability
• tuples vs. lists: comparison, lists inside tuples and tuples inside lists
• dictionaries: building, indexing, adding and removing keys, iterating dictionaries, key existence, keys(), items() and values() methods
• strings in detail: the \ character, quotes, apostrophes, multi-line strings, basic string functions.

Exam block #5: Functions

• defining and invoking functions and generators
• return and yield keywords, returning results,
• the None keyword,
• recursion
• parameters vs. arguments,
• positional keyword and mixed argument passing,
• default parameter values
• convert generator objects into lists with the list() function
• name scopes, name hiding, the global keyword

Questions in the Practice tests are much more difficult than what is included in the Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer Certification. I recommend doing hands-on to test the validity of the answers and emphasize on the importance of coding different permutations and combinations on the examples given.

All questions are already self-explanatory and most of them are without an explanation. It will be easier to understand if the code is run on IDLE or your favorite Python IDE if you have another preference.