Generic exception handling in Python - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

Output of generic exception handling with division

What is the output of this code snippet?

Python

try:
    result = 10 / 0
except Exception:
    print("Error caught")
else:
    print("No error")
finally:
    print("Done")

A No error\nDone

B Error caught\nDone

C Done

D ZeroDivisionError

💡 Hint

Remember that dividing by zero raises an exception caught by the generic except block.

The division by zero raises an exception. The generic except block catches it and prints 'Error caught'. The finally block always runs and prints 'Done'.

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

Output when no exception occurs in generic handler

What will this code print?

Python

try:
    x = 5 + 5
except Exception:
    print("Error")
else:
    print("Success")
finally:
    print("Always")

A Success\nAlways

B Error\nAlways

C Always

D 10

💡 Hint

No error happens, so else block runs.

Since no exception occurs, the else block prints 'Success'. The finally block always runs and prints 'Always'.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

Output of nested generic exception handling

What is the output of this nested try-except code?

Python

try:
    try:
        print(1/0)
    except Exception:
        print("Inner error")
        raise
except Exception:
    print("Outer error")

A Inner error\nOuter error

B Inner error

C Outer error

D ZeroDivisionError

💡 Hint

The inner except re-raises the exception, caught by outer except.

The inner except catches the ZeroDivisionError and prints 'Inner error'. Then it re-raises the exception. The outer except catches it and prints 'Outer error'.

❓ Predict Output

advanced

Output when generic except block is missing

What happens when this code runs?

Python

try:
    print(5/0)
except ValueError:
    print("Value error")

A No output

B ZeroDivisionError

C ZeroDivisionError exception raised

D Value error

💡 Hint

Only ValueError is caught, but division by zero raises ZeroDivisionError.

The except block only catches ValueError, but the code raises ZeroDivisionError which is not caught, so the exception propagates and causes a runtime error.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

Why use generic exception handling?

Which of these is the best reason to use a generic exception handler (except Exception) in your code?

A To improve program speed by avoiding specific exception checks

B To ignore all errors silently without any notification

C To catch all errors including system-exiting exceptions like KeyboardInterrupt

D To catch all exceptions that are subclasses of Exception, allowing graceful error handling

💡 Hint

Think about what exceptions are subclasses of Exception and which are not.

Using except Exception catches most runtime errors allowing the program to handle them gracefully. It does not catch system-exiting exceptions like KeyboardInterrupt or SystemExit, which is usually desired.