5 Python interview questions for freshers, with short answers

List vs tuple
A list is mutable: you can add, remove or change items. A tuple is immutable. Tuples can be dictionary keys if their items are hashable.
```
a = [1, 2]; a[0] = 9   # works
b = (1, 2); b[0] = 9   # TypeError
```
Mutable default argument trap
Default values are created once, when the function is defined, so a list default is shared between calls. Fix it by using None and creating a new list inside the function.
```
def add(x, items=[]):
    items.append(x)
    return items
add(1)  # [1]
add(2)  # [1, 2]
```
== vs is
== checks whether values are equal. is checks whether two names point to the same object. Use is only for None.
```
a = [1, 2]
b = [1, 2]
a == b  # True
a is b  # False
```
*args and **kwargs
*args collects extra positional arguments into a tuple. **kwargs collects extra keyword arguments into a dict.
```
def f(*args, **kwargs):
    print(args, kwargs)
f(1, 2, name='Asha')
```
Practise on real roles
Open today's verified openings, read the Python skills companies actually ask for, then pick one role and practise answering these for that exact job.
```
hirastra.com/today
```

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List vs tuple

Mutable default argument trap

== vs is

*args and **kwargs

Practise on real roles