PCEP – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer Certification is a comprehensive mock exam with emphasis on using the PCEP-30-02 Syllabus as guide on the question topic. The audience should be at least a beginner Python programmer or have a good grasp on programming because this is not a tutorial. All questions are tested and have undergone quality control.

All questions are based on individual topics and all topics have been covered. 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: Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals (18%)

Objectives covered by the block (7 exam items)

• PCEP 1.1 Understand fundamental terms and definitions
  interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the compiler, lexis, syntax and semantics

• PCEP 1.2 Understand Python’s logic and structure
  keywords, instructions, indenting, comments

• PCEP 1.3 Introduce literals and variables into code and use different numeral systems
  Boolean, integers, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings, binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal numeral system, variables, naming conventions, implementing PEP-8 recommendations

• PCEP 1.4 Choose operators and data types adequate to the problem
  numeric operators: ** * / % // + –, string operators: * +, assignments and shortcut operators, operators: unary and binary, priorities and binding, bitwise operators: ~ & ^ | << >>, Boolean operators: not and or, Boolean expressions, relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), the accuracy of floating-point numbers, type casting

• PCEP 1.5 Perform Input/Output console operations
  print(), input() functions, sep= and end= keyword parameters, int() and float() functions

Exam block #2: Control Flow – Conditional Blocks and Loops (29%)

Objectives covered by the block (8 exam items)

• PCEP 2.1 Make decisions and branch the flow with the if instruction
  conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif, if-elif-else, multiple conditional statements, nesting conditional statements

• PCEP 2.2 Perform different types of iterations
  the pass instruction, building loops with while, for, range(), and in; iterating through sequences, expanding loops with while-else and for-else, nesting loops and conditional statements, controlling loop execution with break and continue

Exam block #3: Data Collections – Tuples, Dictionaries, Lists, and Strings (25%)

Objectives covered by the block (7 exam items)

• PCEP 3.1 Collect and process data using lists
  constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function, basic list methods (append(), insert(), index()) and functions (len(), sorted(), etc.), the del instruction; iterating through lists with the for loop, initializing loops; in and not in operators, list comprehensions; copying and cloning, lists in lists: matrices and cubes

• PCEP 3.2 Collect and process data using tuples
  tuples: indexing, slicing, building, immutability; tuples vs. lists: similarities and differences, lists inside tuples and tuples inside lists

• PCEP 3.3 Collect and process data using dictionaries
  dictionaries: building, indexing, adding and removing keys; iterating through dictionaries and their keys and values, checking the existence of keys; keys(), items() and values() methods

• PCEP 3.4 Operate with strings
  constructing strings, indexing, slicing, immutability; escaping using the \ character; quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multi-line strings, basic string functions and methods

Exam block #4: Functions and Exceptions (28%)

Objectives covered by the block (8 exam items)

• PCEP 4.1 Decompose the code using functions
  defining and invoking user-defined functions and generators; the return keyword, returning results, the None keyword, recursion

• PCEP 4.2 Organize interaction between the function and its environment
  parameters vs. arguments; positional, keyword and mixed argument passing; default parameter values, name scopes, name hiding (shadowing), the global keyword

• PCEP 4.3 Python Built-In Exceptions Hierarchy
  BaseException, Exception, SystemExit, KeyboardInterrupt, abstractive exceptions, ArithmeticError, LookupError along with IndexError and KeyError; TypeError and ValueError exceptions, the AssertError exception along with the assert keyword

• PCEP 4.4 Basics of Python Exception Handling
  try-except, try-except Exception, ordering the except branches, propagating exceptions through function boundaries; delegating responsibility for handling exceptions

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 self-explanatory and it will be easier to understand if the code is run on IDLE or the user's preferred Python IDE.