PCEP study guide
PCEP · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
PCEP™ – Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer (exam code PCEP-30-03) is the entry-level credential in the Python Institute's General-Purpose Programming certification pathway, which continues with PCAP™, PCPP1™ and PCPP2™. It is intended for students, beginners, career changers and working professionals who want independent evidence that they can read, trace, complete and write short Python programs. There are no prerequisites, and the exam deliberately emphasizes practical code understanding rather than advanced software engineering. The 35-question, 50-minute exam is delivered through the OpenEDG testing service (TestNow™) and is scored across five weighted sections: Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals (17%), Control Flow: Conditional Blocks and Loops (23%), Data Collections: Lists, Tuples, Sets, Dictionaries, and Strings (26%), Functions and Exceptions (20%), and File Handling and Module Imports (14%). The PCEP study guide has 5 sections and about 1,635 words.
01Computer Programming and Python Fundamentals
PCEP's first domain checks whether you can read and write short Python snippets built from literals, variables, operators and built-in I/O. Questions are usually single-line expressions where precedence, type or a subtle naming rule decides the answer.
335 words, about 2 min02Control Flow: Conditional Blocks and Loops
Control flow is the largest PCEP domain. You must trace if / elif / else , while , for over range() , and break / continue , including nested and loop- else constructs.
332 words, about 2 min03Data Collections: Lists, Tuples, Sets, Dictionaries, and Strings
This domain tests the four built-in collections and strings: indexing, slicing, mutability, core methods, and which operations raise errors. Expect "what is the output" questions involving aliasing and in-place methods.
362 words, about 2 min04Functions and Exceptions
PCEP checks function definition and calls, argument passing, variable scope, return values, and basic exception handling with try / except / else / finally . Define with def name(params): ; call with positional or keyword arguments.
306 words, about 2 min05File Handling and Module Imports
The smallest PCEP domain covers opening, reading and writing text files, and importing modules from the standard library. open(path, mode) returns a file object.
300 words, about 2 min