This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Here is what that means in practice, and why it is the reason to take this one rather than another. Every question in these tests is built around a real snippet of Python. When the test was assembled, each snippet was executed by CPython, and the answer marked correct is the output the interpreter actually produced. A question whose stated answer disagreed with the interpreter could not be published, the build refuses it. That check is the whole point of the product.

If you have taken practice tests for a Python exam before, you already know the usual complaint. The explanation says one thing and the interpreter does another, and you end up trusting nothing. That cannot happen here. Each explanation ends with the exact text the interpreter printed.

What is inside

Four full practice tests, 120 questions, sixty-five minutes and a pass mark of 70 percent each, which are the conditions of the real exam.

Questions weighted the way the real PCAP-31-03 exam is weighted, following the syllabus published by the Python Institute. Modules and packages are 12 percent of the exam, exceptions 14, strings 18, object oriented programming 34, and the last section on comprehensions, lambdas, closures and input output 22. Each test follows those proportions rather than spreading questions evenly, so a score here means something about your score there.

Every question is tagged with its syllabus section. When you finish a test, the result screen shows which section cost you the marks, so you know what to revise instead of guessing.

Each answer, right or wrong, carries its own explanation. Not one comment for the question, one for every option, saying why that particular option is wrong and what confusion usually produces it.

One thing you will not find here

No question depends on the machine you run it on. Nothing about the platform module, nothing about the current time, and no default object representation, because those print differently on your machine and on mine. A question whose answer is right for the author and wrong for the student would destroy the only promise this course makes.

How to use it

Sit a test under exam conditions first, sixty-five minutes, no interpreter open. Read every explanation afterwards, including the ones you got right, because guessing correctly and knowing are not the same thing. Then run the snippets yourself. They are short on purpose and they all run on a plain Python 3 install with no libraries to fetch.

Who this is for

Candidates sitting the PCAP-31-03 exam who want to know whether they are ready, and Python programmers past the beginner stage who want to find out what they only think they understand about classes, closures and exceptions. Holding the PCEP certificate first helps but is not required.