The IIT Madras BS Programming in Python (Python) End Term paper sat on 21 Dec 2025, in the September 2025 term: 20 questions for 52 marks in 180 minutes. Every question is below with its answer. Take it as a timed mock test to be marked, or read it through first.
Consider the following functions: def p(n): if n < 10: return 1 return 1 + p(n // 10) def q(n): if n < 10: return n return n % 10 + q(n // 10) def r(n): if n <= 1: return 1 return n * r(n - 1) Which of the following function calls returns the number of digits in 50!, where n! is the factorial of n?
p(q(50))
q(r(50))
p(r(50))
r(q(50))
r(p(50))
Correct answer
p(r(50))
Consider the following code snippet that writes student details to a CSV file named "employees.csv": def save_data(data): f = open('employees.csv', 'w') f.write('Name,Salary\n') for i in range(len(data)): emp, sal = data[i] row = f'{emp},{sal}' if i != len(data) - 1: row = row + '\n' f.write(row) f.close() data = [ ('Alice', 75000), ('Bob', 64000), ('Charlie', 82000), ('Diana', 71000), ('Eve', 69000) ] If the save_data(data) function is called with the list data as shown above, what will be the contents of the file "employees.csv"?
Name,Salary Alice,75000 Bob,64000 Charlie,82000 Diana,71000 Eve,69000
Alice,75000 Bob,64000 Charlie,82000 Diana,71000 Eve,69000
Salary,Name Alice,75000 Bob,64000 Charlie,82000 Diana,71000 Eve,69000
Name Salary Alice,75000 Bob,64000 Charlie,82000 Diana,71000 Eve,69000
Salary,Name 75000,Alice 64000,Bob 82000,Charlie 71000,Diana 69000,Eve
Correct answer
Name,Salary Alice,75000 Bob,64000 Charlie,82000 Diana,71000 Eve,69000
What will be the output of the following Python code? string1 = 'database' string2 = 'baseball' L = [] for i in range(len(string1)): for j in range(len(string2)): if string1[i] == string2[j]: L.append(string1[i]) break else: continue print(L)
['a', 'a', 'b', 'a', 's', 'e']
['a', 't', 'a', 'b', 'a', 's', 'e']
['a', 'b', 'a', 's', 'e']
['a', 'a', 'b', 's', 'e']
Correct answer
['a', 'a', 'b', 'a', 's', 'e']
What is the output of the following snippet of code? sentence = 'python,is,fun,and,learning,python,is,great' D = dict() for word in sentence.split(','): for char in word: if char not in D: D[char] = 0 D[char] += 1 mchar, mval = '', 0 alpha = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' for char in alpha: if char not in D: continue if D[char] >= mval: mval = D[char] mchar = char print(mchar)
n
o
i
p
Correct answer
n
If n is a positive integer, what does the following snippet compute? Q = [x for x in range(1, 3 * n + 1) if x % 3 == 0] print(sum(Q))
1+2+3+…+n
3+6+9+…+3n
1+2+3+…+3n
1+3+5+…+(2n+1)
1+3+5+…+(3n+1)
Correct answer
3+6+9+…+3n
Consider the following snippets of code: Code-1 T = (4, 5, 6) T[0] = 10 Code-2 S = set() S.insert(2) Code-3 L = [] L.append(3) Select the most appropriate statement.
Only code-1 will throw an error in line-2
Only code-2 will throw an error in line-2
Only code-3 will throw an error in line-2
Code-1 and Code-2 will throw an error line-2
Code-2 and Code-3 will throw an error in line-2
All three code snippets will throw an error in line-2
Correct answer
Code-1 and Code-2 will throw an error line-2
employees is a list of tuples. Each tuple is of the form (name, salary) . Select all snippets of code that create a list high_earners that contains the names of employees whose salary is above 70,000. A sample list employees and the expected output is given below. You can assume that employees is already available to you. Sample Input employees = [ ('Alice', 75000), ('Bob', 64000), ('Charlie', 82000), ('Diana', 71000), ('Eve', 69000) ] Sample Output ['Alice', 'Charlie', 'Diana']
high_earners = [name for (name, salary) in employees if salary > 70000] print(high_earners)
high_earners = [] for (name, salary) in employees: if salary > 70000: high_earners.append(name) print(high_earners)
high_earners = [name if salary > 70000 for (name, salary) in employees] print(high_earners)
high_earners = [name for (name, salary) in employees] print(high_earners)
Correct answers
high_earners = [name for (name, salary) in employees if salary > 70000] print(high_earners)
high_earners = [] for (name, salary) in employees: if salary > 70000: high_earners.append(name) print(high_earners)
Consider the following snippet: f = open('employees.csv', 'r') D = dict() for line in f: name, department, salary = line.strip().split(',') salary = int(salary) if name not in D: D[name] = dict() D[name][department] = salary print(D) This code produces the given output: {'Alice': {'HR': 70000, 'IT': 80000}, 'Bob': {'Finance': 65000, 'IT': 72000}} Which of the following could be the contents of the file employees.csv ? Select all possible answers. Note that dictionaries store keys from left to right in the order in which they are inserted. Once a key has been inserted into a dictionary, its order with respect to other keys doesn't change, unless it is deleted and reinserted.
Alice,HR,70000 Bob,Finance,65000 Alice,IT,80000 Bob,IT,72000
Alice,HR,70000 Bob,Finance,66000 Alice,IT,80000 Bob,IT,72000 Bob,Finance,65000
Bob,Finance,65000 Bob,IT,72000 Alice,HR,70000 Alice,IT,80000
Alice,IT,80000 Alice,HR,70000 Bob,Finance,65000 Bob,IT,72000
Correct answers
Alice,HR,70000 Bob,Finance,65000 Alice,IT,80000 Bob,IT,72000
Alice,HR,70000 Bob,Finance,66000 Alice,IT,80000 Bob,IT,72000 Bob,Finance,65000
Consider the following snippet of code: def analyze_string(t, k): freq = {} for ch in t: freq[ch] = freq.get(ch, 0) + 1 is_unique = all(c < k for c in freq.values()) if is_unique: print(True) else: print(False) if input_str.isdigit(): print(True) else: print(False) analyze_string(input_str, 2) input_str is a string variable that has already been defined. The above code runs without any errors. The output when the code given above is executed is as follows: True True Which of the following statements are True? Note that your answer should hold for any value of the string input_str that results in the above output.
input_str contains only numeric characters
input_str could contain alphabets
The first character of input_str occurs exactly two times
All elements of input_str occur exactly one time
All elements in input_str occur at least two times.
Correct answers
input_str contains only numeric characters
All elements of input_str occur exactly one time
What is the output of the following snippet of code? def g(x, y): if x == 1: return 0 return 1 + g(x // y, y) print(g(1024, 2))
A written answer, not marked automatically.
What is the output of the following snippet of code? total = 0 errors = 0 for s in ['5', '2.5', '7', '8']: try: n = int(s) total += n except: errors += 1 total += 5 print(total + errors)
A written answer, not marked automatically.
What is the output of the following snippet of code? total = 0 num = 10 while num <= 20: count = 0 for i in range(1, num + 1): if num % i == 0: count += 1 if count == 2: total += num num += 1 print(total)
A written answer, not marked automatically.
Consider the following snippet of code: L = [2, 3, 4] S = [] T = 0 i = 0 while i < len(L): S += L[:i] + L[i:] for j in S: T += j i += 1 What will be the value of T at the end of execution of the above code?
A written answer, not marked automatically.
What is the output of the following snippet of code? def doSomething(x, y): if x < y: return 0 return 1 + doSomething(x // y, y) log1 = doSomething(81, 3) log2 = doSomething(64, 2) log3 = doSomething(125, 5) print(log1 + log2 + log3)
A written answer, not marked automatically.
You are inside the lift of a building. There are 8 levels in the building: [−3,−2,−1,0,1,2,3,4] The number 0 is the ground floor. Positive numbers correspond to floors above the ground floor, negative numbers correspond to basement levels below the ground floor. The lift has only two buttons. The button U will take you one level up and the button D will take you one level down. You make a sequence of presses. # presses contains the sequence of button presses made by you presses = 'UDDUUUDDUDU' floor = 0 index = 0 while index < len(presses): char = presses[index] if char == 'U': floor += 1 elif char == 'D': floor -= 1 if floor == 2: print(index + 1) break index += 1 Based on the above data answer the subsequent questions.
What is the given code snippet printing?
It prints the number of button presses after which you reach the floor 2 for the first time.
It prints the number of times you cross the floor 2.
It prints the final floor level after all the button presses.
None of these.
Correct answer
It prints the number of button presses after which you reach the floor 2 for the first time.
You are inside the lift of a building. There are 8 levels in the building: [−3,−2,−1,0,1,2,3,4] The number 0 is the ground floor. Positive numbers correspond to floors above the ground floor, negative numbers correspond to basement levels below the ground floor. The lift has only two buttons. The button U will take you one level up and the button D will take you one level down. You make a sequence of presses. # presses contains the sequence of button presses made by you presses = 'UDDUUUDDUDU' floor = 0 index = 0 while index < len(presses): char = presses[index] if char == 'U': floor += 1 elif char == 'D': floor -= 1 if floor == 2: print(index + 1) break index += 1 Based on the above data answer the subsequent questions.
What is the output of this snippet of code?
A written answer, not marked automatically.
Consider the following snippet: def ProcedureOne(M): n = len(M) for i in range(n): temp = M[i][i] M[i][i] = M[i][-i - 1] M[i][-i - 1] = temp return M def ProcedureTwo(M): p = 1 n = len(M) for i in range(n): p *= M[i][i] return p M = [[2, 4, 6], [8, 10, 12], [14, 16, 18]] P = ProcedureOne(M) print(P) print(ProcedureTwo(P)) Based on the above code answer the subsequent questions.
What is the first line of output?
[[6, 4, 2], [8, 10, 12], [18, 16, 14]]
[[2, 4, 6], [8, 10, 12], [14, 16, 18]]
[[14, 16, 18], [8, 10, 12], [2, 4, 6]]
[[2, 6, 4], [8, 12, 10], [14, 18, 16]]
Correct answer
[[6, 4, 2], [8, 10, 12], [18, 16, 14]]
Consider the following snippet: def ProcedureOne(M): n = len(M) for i in range(n): temp = M[i][i] M[i][i] = M[i][-i - 1] M[i][-i - 1] = temp return M def ProcedureTwo(M): p = 1 n = len(M) for i in range(n): p *= M[i][i] return p M = [[2, 4, 6], [8, 10, 12], [14, 16, 18]] P = ProcedureOne(M) print(P) print(ProcedureTwo(P)) Based on the above code answer the subsequent questions.
What is the second line of output?
A written answer, not marked automatically.
You are inside the lift of a building. There are 8 levels in the building: [−3,−2,−1,0,1,2,3,4] The number 0 is the ground floor. Positive numbers correspond to floors above the ground floor, negative numbers correspond to basement levels below the ground floor. The lift has only two buttons. The button U will take you one level up and the button D will take you one level down. You make a sequence of presses. # presses contains the sequence of button presses made by you presses = 'UDDUUUDDUDU' floor = 0 index = 0 while index < len(presses): char = presses[index] if char == 'U': floor += 1 elif char == 'D': floor -= 1 if floor == 2: print(index + 1) break index += 1 Based on the above data answer the subsequent questions.
A written answer, not marked automatically.
Consider the following snippet: def ProcedureOne(M): n = len(M) for i in range(n): temp = M[i][i] M[i][i] = M[i][-i - 1] M[i][-i - 1] = temp return M def ProcedureTwo(M): p = 1 n = len(M) for i in range(n): p *= M[i][i] return p M = [[2, 4, 6], [8, 10, 12], [14, 16, 18]] P = ProcedureOne(M) print(P) print(ProcedureTwo(P)) Based on the above code answer the subsequent questions.
A written answer, not marked automatically.
