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Concepts·Certified Associate Python Programmer

Python Encodings and Code Points

PCAP objective 3.1 is understand machine representation of characters, and it is the one string objective that is really about types. A `str` is a sequence of **code points**; a `bytes` is a sequence of numbers 0-255. `encode` turns the first into the second and `decode` goes back, and the two lengths do not have to match - `café` is four characters and five UTF-8 bytes. Everything else in the objective follows from that.

Strings in Depth Guide 9 of 25 Intermediate

Written against the versions above. Python 3 made `str` Unicode and `bytes` a separate type, which is the single largest Python 2 to 3 change. Anything using `unicode(...)` or `str.decode()` is Python 2. The default source encoding is UTF-8 and has been since 3.0.

One machine, and any shell with Python 3 will do - these exams test the language, not a distribution.
Server NameIP AddressOSRolesCPURAMHDD
RUNNER01192.168.0.27Ubuntu 26.04 LTSPython 3.14.4 - the only machine this path needs2 Core4 GB50 GB

Before you start

  1. A string is a sequence of code points

  2. str and bytes are different types

  3. The same text in three encodings

  4. How encoding and decoding fail

  5. The same bytes read two ways

  6. What bytes actually contain

  7. ASCII, and the default

  8. What the exam does with this objective

Official sources

← All PCAP guides