Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer (PCEP)

Course description

Python is a multi-paradigm programming language. Object-oriented programming and structured programming are fully supported, and many of its features support functional programming and aspect-oriented programming (including by metaprogramming[58] and metaobjects (magic methods)) PCEP – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer Certification: Exam Syllabus

Exam block #1: Basic Concepts (17%)

Objectives covered by the block (5 exam items)

• fundamental concepts: interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the 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 (20%)

Objectives covered by the block (6 exam items)

• operators: unary and binary, priorities and binding

• bitwise operators: ~ & ^ | << >>

• Boolean operators: not and or

• Boolean expressions

• relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), building complex Boolean expressions

• accuracy of floating-point numbers

• basic input and output operations 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 (20%)

Objectives covered by the block (6 exam items)

• 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 (23%)

Objectives covered by the block (7 exam items)

• simple lists: constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function

• lists in detail: indexing, slicing, basic methods (append(), insert(), index()) and functions (len(), sorted(), etc.), del instruction, iterating lists 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: similarities and differences, lists inside tuples and tuples inside lists

• dictionaries: building, indexing, adding and removing keys, iterating through dictionaries as well as their keys and values, checking key existence, keys(), items() and values() methods

• strings in detail: escaping using the \ character, quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multi-line strings, basic string functions.
  

Exam block #5: Functions (20%)

Objectives covered by the block (6 exam items)

• defining and invoking your own 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

• converting generator objects into lists using the list() function

• name scopes, name hiding (shadowing), the global keyword