Top Python Scripting Interview Questions and Answers to Ace Tech Interviews: From Beginners to Experts

Last updated by Nahush Gowda on Dec 6, 2025 at 08:17 PM
| Reading Time: 3 minute

Article written by Nahush Gowda under the guidance of  Jacob Markus, Senior Data Scientist at Meta, AWS, and Apple leader, now coaching engineers to crack FAANG+ interviews. Reviewed by Manish Chawla, an engineering leader with nearly two decades of experience scaling systems

| Reading Time: 3 minutes

Python scripting interview questions are now a key part of technical interviews for roles across software engineering, data science, QA automation, DevOps, and IT operations. As teams increasingly rely on Python to automate workflows, manage data pipelines, and build internal tools, interviews are designed to test how well you understand real-world scripting concepts rather than just syntax. Recruiters want to see if you can write clean, efficient scripts, debug quickly, and apply logic to solve practical problems.

The Python scripting interview questions are challenging, and most FAANG+ companies have made them mandatory in their recruitment process. Preparing these top Python scripting interview questions can help you pass the most difficult interview rounds and land a job at one of the FAANG+ companies.

You can learn how to create scripts that automate tedious tasks by practicing these Python scripting interview questions. Continue reading to evaluate your Python tech interview preparation and understand some of the key concepts.

In this guide, you’ll explore the most commonly asked Python scripting questions, understand the patterns behind them, and learn how to answer with clarity, confidence, and hands-on insight.

Key Takeaways

  • Python scripting interview questions test your practical coding skills, problem-solving approach, and ability to automate tasks efficiently.
  • Top tech companies, including FAANG+, use Python scripting interview questions to evaluate your scripting depth, OOPs knowledge, and familiarity with system operations.
  • Preparing for Python scripting interview questions requires mastering fundamentals, handling files, managing memory, and understanding performance optimization.
  • Practicing Python scripting interview questions across beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels helps you tackle real-world problems with clarity and confidence.
  • A strong grasp of Python libraries, OOPs concepts, and shell scripting boosts your chances of clearing Python scripting interview questions in FAANG-level interviews.
  • Python Scripting Interview Questions for Beginners

Python scripting interviews often begin with fundamental concepts to understand how clearly you grasp the basics of the language. Here are some Python scripting questions and answers for beginners.

Q1. Differentiate between an expression and a statement.

Expressions contain only identifiers, literals, and operators. These operators consist of arithmetic and boolean operators, function call operators (), and subscription operators [], and can be reduced to some “value” that may be any Python object.

Q2. What are the positive and negative indices in Python?

In the positive indices, the search proceeds from left to right. With negative indices, the search moves from right to left. For example, in the array list of size x, the positive index, the first index is 0, then comes 1, and finally, the last index is x-1. In contrast, in the negative index, the first index is -x, followed by -(x-1) until the last index is -1.

Q3. What are the different stages of the Life Cycle of a Thread in Python?

The different stages of the life cycle of a thread are stated below:

  • Overriding the run method of the thread class by creating your own class.
  • As soon as a new thread is created, call start(), and the thread moves forward for scheduling purposes.
  • Execution occurs when the thread starts execution, and reaches the running state.
  • The thread waits until the calls to methods, including join() and sleep(), occur.
  • Following the waiting or execution of the thread, the waiting thread is scheduled.
  • A running thread terminates and reaches the dead state when it executes the terminates.

Q4. What is PEP 8 in Python, and why is it important?

Python Enhancement Proposal, also known as PEP, is an official design document that provides information to the Python community or proposes changes to features for Python or its processes. PEP 8 is especially significant since it documents the style guidelines for Python Code. Contributing to the Python open-source community requires you to follow these rules strictly.

🔥 Pro Tip: Practice writing short automation scripts every day. Even 10–15 minutes of hands-on scripting improves speed and accuracy more than passive reading.

Python Scripting Interview Questions for Intermediates

Python scripting at the intermediate level focuses more on working with built-in methods, string manipulations, collections, and performance-friendly approaches.
Here are some commonly asked questions for the intermediate level.

Q1. How can we remove spaces from a string in Python?

With the use of strip() or replace() functions, spaces can be removed from a string in Python. Strip() function in a string can be used to remove the leading and trailing white spaces, whereas all the white spaces can be removed by using replace() function.

Q2. How will you display a Text File’s Contents in a Reverse Order?

The following steps can be used to display the contents of a text file in reverse order:

Steps for displaying the contents of a text file in reverse order - python scripting interview questions

Q3. Is Python an Object-oriented or Functional Programming Language?

Python is a multi-paradigm language and follows an object-oriented paradigm. It enables the creation of objects and their manipulation with specific methods. It supports OOPS’s features such as inheritance and polymorphism. You can use its paradigm functions as a first-class object and can also execute the Lambda function in Python.

Q4.What is a Flask in Python?

Based on “Werkzeug, Jinja 2, and good intentions”, Flask is a microframework for web applications in Python. It depends on Werkzeug and Jinja.Flask is a component of the micro-framework. Thus, it will be independent of external libraries. In addition to being light, the framework is less likely to have security issues and is less dependent on updating.

Q5. What is Python’s Tuple matching?

Matching tuples in Python is a method for grouping tuples by matching the second element in each tuple. In Python programming, this is accomplished by checking the second element of every tuple in a dictionary. However, it is possible to create new tuples by combining existing ones.’

🧠 Pro Tip: Review built-in modules like os, sys, json, and subprocess. Interviewers love asking practical questions around these because they mimic real workflow tasks.

Python Scripting Interview Questions for Experienced Developers

At the experienced level, interviewers expect deeper knowledge of Python’s internals, data handling, and performance optimization techniques.
Here are some important interview questions for experienced developers.

Q1. What is the difference between Pickling and Unpickling?

There is a feature – serialization – built into the Python library. The action of serializing an object involves transforming it into a format that can be stored so that it can be deserialized later on to return the original object. It is here that the pickle module is useful.

Pickling:

  • In Python, the serialization process is known as Pickling. Python can serialize any byte stream and dump it as a file in memory. Although Pickling is a compact process, pickle objects can be compressed more. The serialization is also portable across versions, and the pickle keeps track of objects it serializes.
  • The function used for Pickling is pickle.dump().

Unpickling:

  • In Unpickling, the byte stream is deserialized to recreate the objects stored in the file and then loads them into the memory.
  • The function used for unpickling is pickle.load().

Q2. How does Python manage its memory?

Python manages its memory using a private heap space. In Python, you can store data structures and objects in a private heap. The Python interpreter is responsible for keeping this Python private heap, and if you are the programmer, you will not have any access to it.

Python memory manager allocates heap space for Python objects. You can use the tools provided by the core API. Python has an inbuilt garbage collector, which recycles all unused memory, making it available to the heap.

Practice some more Advanced Python Coding Challenges for tech interviews.

Python OOPS Scripting Interview Questions and Answers

Object-oriented programming in Python forms a core part of interviews, especially when evaluating design thinking and code structure.

Q1. What is Polymorphism?

The ability to take multiple forms is polymorphism. In other words, if the parent class has a method named XYZ, then the child class can have a method with the same name XYZ that has its parameters and variables.

Q2. What makes Python object-oriented?

Because Python is based on the Object-Oriented paradigm, it is object-oriented. It revolves around classes and objects. Features of this kind of programming include:

Features of an object-oriented programming language

 

Q3. What does inheritance look like in Python?

Inheritance allows the class to access all attributes and methods of another class. It supports code reusability and allows developers to maintain applications without redundant code.

The class inheriting from another class is a child class, also called a derived class, and the class from which a child class derives the members is called the parent class or superclass.

Q4. What role do access specifiers play in Python?

You must know that Python does not restrict access to instance variables or functions. When a variable, function, or method name is prefixed with an underscore, it emulates the behavior of protected and private access specifiers.

A single or double underscore is used to imitate the behavior of protected and private access specifiers when the name of a variable, function, or method is prefixed with an underscore.

Q5. In Python, how do you create an empty class?

Empty classes are classes with no code defined within them. You can create these classes with the pass keyword. However, you can use these classes outside the class. When you execute the PASS command in Python, it does nothing. It executes a null statement.

⚙️ Pro Tip: Get comfortable debugging. Use print() logs, test small blocks of code, and understand common errors. Quick debugging is one of the strongest signals in scripting interviews.

Python Shell Scripting Interview Questions for Practice

  1. What is a superblock in shell scripting?
  2. What is the difference between soft and hard links?
  3. How can you connect to a database server?
  4. What are the different types of commonly used shells on a typical Linux system?
  5. Why is a shell script needed?
  6. Write some limitations of shell scripting.
  7. What is the difference between $* and $@?
  8. Write the difference between Bourne Shell and C Shell.
  9. What are the different types of variables mostly used in shell scripting?
  10. What does the . (dot) indicate at the beginning of the file name? How can it be listed?

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FAQs: Python Scripting Interview Questions

Q1. What makes you stand out in a Python coding interview?

When you are ready for a Python scripting interview based on your technical skills, then you must go through the Python scripting interview questions to boost your practice and in-depth understanding of the subject.

To qualify in your interview, you must prove you can write clean production code and demonstrate knowledge of the libraries and tools required. You must represent your previous projects in your interview to get an edge over your competitors.

Q2. Are Python coding interviews hard?

It depends on the job for which you are applying, the company, its requirements, and your skills and knowledge/experience. A beginner may find the interview difficult if he is not yet confident about his coding skills. It will help you to prepare well and ace your Python interview if you know what types of questions to expect.

Q3. Which top organizations make use of Python Language?

Python is preferred by many top organizations, including Google, Amazon, Intel, and even unicorns, due to its extreme popularity and usability. NASA, IBM, Instagram, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, Netflix, JP Morgan, and many other major organizations use Python Language.

Q4. Why is Python so popular?

Python developers are in high demand in the United States. If you become a skilled Python developer, you will be paid three times the average salary for a Python developer. Many people lack a thorough understanding of Python and are skeptical of Python-related career opportunities.

To become certified in Python, you can either gain experience or take online courses. Overall, it helps with your career goals and resumes. To prepare for your interview, you can also consult the standard Python Scripting interview questions.

Q5. How can Python knowledge be improved through courses or certifications?

After developing programming skills in Python, you can move on to learning advanced concepts in Python libraries and modules, such as Pandas, SciPy, NumPy, Matplotlib, and more. The possibilities are endless after learning Python. Taking part in a certificate course can help you gain the necessary knowledge. Taking a course in Python can help you kick-start your career.

References

  1. TIOBE Index 2025 determined Python to the most widely used programming languages worldwide
  2. 70% of data and engineering teams rely on Python for automation tasks

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