A developer has a dictionary 'user_roles' mapping usernames to role strings. The developer needs to update the role for 'alice' to 'admin', but only if 'alice' already exists in the dictionary. Which code snippet correctly performs this conditional update?

user_roles.setdefault('alice', 'admin')

user_roles.update(alice='admin')

if 'alice' in user_roles: user_roles['alice'] = 'admin'

GIAC Python Coder

Domain 1Objective 2

Data Structures GPYC Practice Questions (Page 2)

Part of the Python Fundamentals domain, which makes up ~43% of our current practice bank. GIAC (SANS) does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~22–34 in this domain), expect 4–7 from this objective — we provide 37 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

37questions here

8free pages

12concepts

Questions 6–10

6application · medium
A DevOps engineer has a list of server names in mixed case, such as ['WEB-01', 'db-02', 'App-03']. The engineer needs to produce a new list sorted alphabetically, case-insensitively, without modifying the original list. Which expression accomplishes this?
Select an answer first
7application · medium
A data engineer has a list of user IDs that may contain duplicates: user_ids = [101, 102, 101, 103]. The engineer needs to determine how many unique user IDs are present. Which expression returns the count of unique IDs?
Select an answer first
8expert · hard
A data scientist has a nested list representing a matrix: matrix = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]. The scientist needs to create an independent copy so that modifying the copy does not affect the original. Which approach guarantees full independence?
Select an answer first
9foundation · easy
What is the output of the following code? ```python a = [1, 2] b = [1, 2] print(a == b) print(a is b) ```
Select an answer first
10application · medium
A developer has a dictionary 'user_roles' mapping usernames to role strings. The developer needs to update the role for 'alice' to 'admin', but only if 'alice' already exists in the dictionary. Which code snippet correctly performs this conditional update?
Select an answer first

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Data Structures GPYC Practice Questions (Page 2)

Questions 6–10

A DevOps engineer has a list of server names in mixed case, such as ['WEB-01', 'db-02', 'App-03']. The engineer needs to produce a new list sorted alphabetically, case-insensitively, without modifying the original list. Which expression accomplishes this?

A data engineer has a list of user IDs that may contain duplicates: user_ids = [101, 102, 101, 103]. The engineer needs to determine how many unique user IDs are present. Which expression returns the count of unique IDs?

A data scientist has a nested list representing a matrix: matrix = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]. The scientist needs to create an independent copy so that modifying the copy does not affect the original. Which approach guarantees full independence?

What is the output of the following code? ```python a = [1, 2] b = [1, 2] print(a == b) print(a is b) ```

A developer has a dictionary 'user_roles' mapping usernames to role strings. The developer needs to update the role for 'alice' to 'admin', but only if 'alice' already exists in the dictionary. Which code snippet correctly performs this conditional update?

Keep studying — Python Fundamentals