How would you deploy a Django application to a production environment, considering scalability and security?

  • Deploy the Django application without a reverse proxy. Implement security measures within Django views and models. Use a basic firewall.
  • Host the application on a shared hosting platform. Use self-signed certificates for SSL/TLS. Deploy only a single server instance. Enable root access for easier management.
  • Use a single server with Docker containers for isolation. Disable SSL/TLS for faster performance.
  • Use a web server like Nginx or Apache as a reverse proxy in front of Gunicorn or uWSGI. Implement SSL/TLS for secure communication. Utilize a load balancer to distribute traffic across multiple server instances. Harden the server by following security best practices.
Deploying a Django application for production involves multiple steps, including setting up a reverse proxy, securing communications with SSL/TLS, load balancing for scalability, and following security best practices.

How would you design a class that shouldn’t be instantiated?

  • By declaring the class as abstract.
  • By defining a private constructor.
  • By making the class private.
  • By using the final keyword.
To prevent a class from being instantiated, you can define a private constructor. When the constructor is private, it cannot be called from outside the class, effectively preventing object creation.

How would you enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) in a Flask application?

  • CORS is enabled by default in Flask
  • Modify the browser's settings
  • Use the "@cross_origin" decorator
  • Use the Flask-CORS extension
You can enable CORS in Flask by using the Flask-CORS extension. The other options are not the recommended way to enable CORS in Flask.

How would you enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) in a Flask application?

  • Add Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to each route manually.
  • CORS is not applicable to Flask applications.
  • Set CORS_ENABLED = True in the Flask app configuration.
  • Use the @cross_origin decorator from the flask_cors extension.
To enable CORS in a Flask application, you typically use the @cross_origin decorator provided by the flask_cors extension. This allows you to control which origins are allowed to access your API.

How would you ensure that a piece of code in a module is only executed when the module is run as a standalone program and not when it is imported?

  • #execute_if_standalone
  • #only_run_when_main
  • #standalone_code
  • if name == "main":
To ensure that a piece of code in a Python module is only executed when the module is run as a standalone program and not when it is imported, you can use the special if __name__ == "__main__": conditional statement. Code inside this block will only run when the module is the main entry point of the program.

How would you find the loop in a linked list?

  • Iterate through the list and check for a null reference
  • Use a hash table to store visited nodes
  • Use a stack to track visited nodes
  • Use Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm
Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm is a popular technique to detect a loop in a linked list. It involves two pointers moving at different speeds through the list. If there's a loop, they will eventually meet. The other options are not efficient for loop detection.

How would you find the shortest path in a weighted graph?

  • A* Algorithm
  • Breadth-First Search
  • Depth-First Search
  • Dijkstra's Algorithm
Dijkstra's Algorithm is used to find the shortest path in a weighted graph with non-negative edge weights. It guarantees the shortest path but doesn't work with negative weights. Breadth-First and Depth-First Search are used for different purposes, and A* is for finding the shortest path with heuristics.

How would you handle collisions in a hash table?

  • Ignore the new value
  • Replace the existing value with the new one
  • Resize the hash table
  • Use linear probing
Collisions in a hash table can be handled by using techniques like linear probing, which involves searching for the next available slot in the table when a collision occurs. This ensures that all values are eventually stored without excessive collisions.

How would you handle large DataFrames that do not fit into memory using Pandas?

  • Reducing the precision of data
  • Reshaping the DataFrame
  • Splitting the DataFrame into smaller chunks
  • Using the Dask library
When dealing with large DataFrames that do not fit into memory, you can use the Dask library, which allows for distributed computing and can handle larger-than-memory datasets.

How would you handle missing data for a numerical feature in a dataset before training a machine learning model?

  • Ignore missing data, it won't affect the model
  • Remove the rows with missing data
  • Replace missing values with a random value
  • Replace missing values with the mean of the feature
Handling missing data is crucial. Replacing missing values with the mean of the feature is a common practice as it retains data and doesn't introduce bias, especially in numerical features. Removing rows or using random values can lead to loss of information or noise.