{"id":27866,"date":"2026-06-03T04:27:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/?sharp_quiz=python-interview-heapq-priority-queue-pitfall"},"modified":"2026-06-03T04:27:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:27:39","slug":"python-interview-heapq-priority-queue-pitfall","status":"publish","type":"sharp_quiz","link":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/?sharp_quiz=python-interview-heapq-priority-queue-pitfall","title":{"rendered":"Python: Which practice avoids a common mistake with heapq and Priority Queues?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Question<\/h2>\n<p>Which practice avoids a common mistake with heapq and Priority Queues?<\/p>\n<ol type=\"A\">\n<li>Ignore the heapq and Priority Queues issue and rely on team discipline instead of clearer APIs or invariants.<\/li>\n<li>Do not assume iterating the underlying heap list produces globally sorted order, because the heap only guarantees the head element.<\/li>\n<li>Silence the heapq and Priority Queues problem by using broad catches, hidden globals, or extra shared mutable state.<\/li>\n<li>Prefer the version of heapq and Priority Queues that makes behavior less predictable as long as the code still runs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Hint<\/h2>\n<p>Look for the option that protects correctness instead of hiding the problem.<\/p>\n<h2>Answer and rationale<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Correct answer:<\/strong> B. Do not assume iterating the underlying heap list produces globally sorted order, because the heap only guarantees the head element.<\/p>\n<p>Do not assume iterating the underlying heap list produces globally sorted order, because the heap only guarantees the head element. This is a common failure mode in real Python code and a frequent interview follow-up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Track:<\/strong> Python<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which practice avoids a common mistake with heapq and Priority Queues?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","topic":[136,88,89],"difficulty":[7],"class_list":["post-27866","sharp_quiz","type-sharp_quiz","status-publish","hentry","topic-data-structures-heapq-and-priority-queues","topic-python","topic-python-interview-questions","difficulty-medium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sharp_quiz\/27866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sharp_quiz"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sharp_quiz"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftopic&post=27866"},{"taxonomy":"difficulty","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharpinterview.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdifficulty&post=27866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}