Python Certs

The topics for learning the Python language thoroughly, for professional status

Overview

LinkedIn Certifications
Python Institute
Hackerank
Retired Python certs
Video courses
References
More about Python

NOTE: Content here are my personal opinions, and not intended to represent any employer (past or present). “PROTIP:” here highlight information I haven’t seen elsewhere on the internet because it is hard-won, little-know but significant facts based on my personal research and experience.

LinkedIn Certifications

LinkedIn offer several free certifications based on 30-minute 20-question multiple-choice questions. Retest every 6 months if you don’t pass. Good forever. Wikiwand

The unique thing about LinkedIn certifications is that they are form the basis for more legitimate way to tag individuals with skills employers and their recruiters search for. So it’s worth the time to take them if you want to be found based on your demonstrated skills.

LinkedIn offers Python certificate exam. A sample: https://github.com/Ebazhanov/linkedin-skill-assessments-quizzes/blob/main/python/python-quiz.md PROTIP: The questions are not the same each time you take the test, so you can take it multiple times to get a higher score.

VIDEO: Review one set of questions

Python Institute

PythonInstitute.org has several certification exams taken online at ums.edube.org/store or in-person at a Pearson VUE center.

Each requires 70% correct of 40 questions over 40 minutes on-line.

Entry-level cert

“Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer Certification” covers these exam blocks for $59. Version PCAP-31-02 is the version after PCAP-31-01 is retired.

The official practice test is at pythoninstitute.org/download/566

The exam “blocks” for Fundamentals:

1: Basic Concepts (17% - 5 exam items)

fundamental concepts: interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the compiler, language elements, lexis, syntax analysis (parsing), semantics (applying language rules such as type mismatch)
Python keywords, instructions
indenting
REPL (Read Evaluate Print Loop interactive), control-D to exit()
comments. PROTIP: Text between triple-doublespace are actually string objects in the byte code
literals: Boolean, integer, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings. b’data’ literals can be split().
the print() function
the input() function
numeral systems (W: binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal) W, *
numeric operators: ** * / % // + –
// is floor division. Py3: Division always returns a float. Num (mod) % 2 is 0 for odd, 1 for even
string operators: * +
assignments and shortcut operators

2: Data Types, Evaluations, and Basic I/O Operations (20% - 6 exam items)

operators: unary and binary, priorities, and binding
bitwise operators VIDEO: ~ & ^ | << >> (Mandelbrot)
Boolean operators: not and or
Boolean expressions (True/False)
relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), building complex Boolean expressions
accuracy of floating-point numbers 4.5e9 == 4.5 * (10 ** 9) == 4.5E9 == 4.5E+9
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, slicing comparing, immutability

3: Flow Control – loops and conditional blocks (20% - 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

4: Data Collections – Lists, Tuples, and Dictionaries (23% - 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: ASCII, UNICODE, UTF-8 (rendered/transmitted as pairs of bytes in norsk.encode(“utf-8”)
immutability, escaping using the \ character, quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multiline strings, copying vs. cloning, advanced slicing, string vs. string, string vs. non-string, basic string methods (upper(), lowe

5: Functions (20% - 6 exam items)

defining and invoking your own functions and generators
return and yield keywords, returning results,
the None keyword (instead of return 0)
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

Intermediate cert

The (PCAP-31-02) Associate level exam for $295 covers these exam blocks:

1: Control and Evaluations (25%)

~~basic concepts: interpreting and the interpreter, compilation and the compiler, language elements,~~
compilation Lexical analysis (into tokens),
Syntactic analysis (parsing), Semantic analysis (type & parameter mismatch)
Python keywords
bytecode instructions
indenting</strike>
~~literals: Boolean, integer, floating-point numbers, scientific notation, strings~~
operators: unary and binary, priorities and binding
numeric operators: ** * / % // + –
bitwise operators: ~ & ^ « »
string operators: * +
~~Boolean operators: not and or~~
~~relational operators ( == != > >= < <= ), building complex Boolean expressions~~
assignments and shortcut operators
~~accuracy of floating-point numbers~~
basic input and output: input(), print(), int(), float(), str() functions
~~formatting print() output with end= and sep= arguments~~
conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif, if-elif-else
the pass instruction
simple lists: constructing vectors, indexing and slicing, the len() function
~~simple strings: constructing, assigning, indexing, slicing comparing, immutability~~
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~~

2: Data Aggregates (25%)

strings in detail: ASCII, UNICODE, UTF-8, immutability, escaping using the \ character, quotes and apostrophes inside strings, multiline strings, copying vs. cloning, advanced slicing, string vs. string, string vs. non-string, basic string methods (upper(), lower(), isxxx(), capitalize(), split(), join(), etc.) and functions (len(), chr(), ord()), escape characters
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

3: Functions and Modules (25%)

~~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</strike>
lambda functions
defining and using map(), filter(), reduce(), reversed(), sorted() functions and the sort() method
the if operator
import directives, qualifying entities with module names
initializing modules
writing and using modules,
the name variable
pyc file creation and usage
constructing and distributing packages, packages vs. directories
the role of the init.py file
hiding module entities
Python hashbangs
using multiline strings as module documentation

4: Classes, Objects, and Exceptions (25%)

defining your own classes, superclasses, subclasses, inheritance, searching for missing class components, creating objects
class attributes: class variables and instance variables, defining, adding and removing attributes, explicit constructor invocation
class methods: defining and using, the self parameter meaning and usage
inheritance and overriding, finding class/object components
single inheritance vs. multiple inheritance
name mangling
invoking methods, passing and using the self argument/parameter
the init method
the role of the str method
introspection: dict, name, module, bases properties, examining class/object structure
writing and using constructors
hasattr(), type(), issubclass(), isinstance(), super() functions
using predefined exceptions and defining your own ones
the try-except-else-finally block, the raise statement, the except-as variant
exceptions hierarchy, assigning more than one exception to one except branch
adding your own exceptions to an existing hierarchy
assertions
the anatomy of an exception object
input/output basics: opening files with the open() function, stream objects, writing binary (bmp file) vs. text files, newline character translation, reading and writing files,
bytearray objects
read(), readinto(), readline(), write(),
close() methods (vs. with)

Professional 1

The first of two Professional-level exams (PCPP-32-101)

1: File Processing and Communicating with a Program’s Environment (20%)

Processing different kinds of files
- sqlite3 – interacting with SQLite databases
- xml – creating and processing XML files
- csv – CSV file reading and writing
- logging – basics logging facility for Python
- configparser – configuration file parser
Communicating with a program’s environment:
- os – interacting with the operating system,
- datetime – manipulating with dates and time
- io – working with streams,
- time – time access and conversions

2: Math, Science, and Engineering Tools (20%)

math – a basic tool for elementary evaluations
NumPy – fundamental package for scientific computing
SciPy – an ecosystem for mathematics, science, and engineering
Matplotlib – 2D plotting library producing publication quality figures
Pandas – a library providing high-performance and data analysis tools
SciKit-image – a collection of algorithms for image processing

3: GUI Programming (20%)

What is GUI and where it comes from
Constructing a GUI – basic blocks and conventions
Event-driven programming
Currently used GUI environments and toolkits
tkinter — Python interface to Tcl/Tk
- tkinter’s application life cycle
- Widgets, windows and events
- Sample applications
pygame – a simple way of developing multimedia applications

4: Python Enhancement Proposals (15%)

What is PEP?
Coding conventions – not only style and naming
PEP 20 – The Zen of Python: a collection of principles that influences the design of Python code
PEP 8 – Style Guide for Python Code: coding conventions for code comprising the standard library in the main Python distribution
PEP 257 – Docstring Conventions: what is docstring and some semantics as well as conventions associated with them
A tour of important PEPs

5: Advanced Perspective of Classes and Object-Oriented Programming in Python (25%)

Classes, Instances, Attributes, Methods
Working with class and instance data
Copying object data using shallow and deep operations
Inheritance and Polymorphism
Different faces of Python methods: static and class methods
Abstract classes vs. method overloading
Composition vs. Inheritance – two ways to the same destination
Implementing Core Syntax
Subclassing built-ins
Attribute Encapsulation
Advanced techniques of creating and serving exceptions
Serialization of Python objects using the pickle module
Making Python object persistent using the shelve module
Metaprograming
- Function decorators
- Class decorators
- Metaclasses

Professional 2

The second of two Professional-level exams (PCPP-32-102)

1: Creating and Distributing Packages (20%)

Using pip
Basic directory structure
The setup.py file
Sharing, storing, and installing packages
Documentation
License
Testing principles and techniques
- unittest – Unit testing framework
- Pytest – framework to write tests

2: Design Patterns (20%)

Object-oriented design principles and the concept of design patterns
The Singleton Design Pattern
The Factory Pattern
The Façade Pattern
The Proxy Pattern
The Observer Pattern
The Command Pattern
The Template Method Pattern
Model-View-Controller
The State Design Pattern

3: Interprocess Communication (20%)

multiprocessing — Process-based parallelism
threading — Thread-based parallelism
subprocess — Subprocess management
Multiprocess synchronisation
- queue — A synchronized queue class
- socket — Low-level networking interface
- mmap — Memory-mapped file support

4: Python Network Programming (20%)

Python Socket Module:

Introduction to sockets
Server Socket Methods
Client socket methods
General socket methods
Client-Server vs. Peer-to-peer
Other Internet nodules

5: Python-MySQL Database Access (20%)

Relational databases – fundamental principles and how to work with them
MySQL vs. rest of the world
CRUD Application
- db connection
- db create
- db insert
- db read
- db update
- db delete

Hackerank

https://www.hackerrank.com/dashboard

Retired Python certs

Microsoft’s exam 98-381 “Introduction to Programming Using Python” was retired June 30, 2022

Skills measured

Perform Operations using Data Types and Operators
Control Flow with Decisions and Loops
Perform Input and Output Operations
Document and Structure Code
Perform Troubleshooting and Error Handling
Perform Operations Using Modules and Tools

Video courses

The most friendly and enthusiastically delivered “PCAP – Python Certification Course” I think is by 20-something Lydia Hallie living in Scandanavia (https://www.lydiahallie.io). The content is delivered in enthusiastic, perfect English by the 20-something developer whiz, who presents “visualized” diagrams. As with other KodeKloud (subscription) video courses, this clas includes labs, Quizzes, Mock Exams, and Q&A participants to cover Module, Packages and PIP, String and List Methods, Exceptions, Object Oriented Programming, etc.

The video course at LinuxAcademy by Keith Thompson references includes a practice exam.

https://www.udemy.com/topic/certified-associate-in-python-programming-pcap/ Udemy.com’s mock PCAP tests

References

https://www.dataquest.io/blog/python-certification/

More about Python

This is one of a series about Python:

Wilson Mar