Python - Dictionary Exercises (Complete Guide for Beginners)

 Practicing dictionary exercises is one of the best ways to improve your Python skills. Dictionaries are widely used in real-world applications such as data analysis, APIs, databases, and web development.

In this tutorial, you will find Python dictionary exercises with solutions from beginner to intermediate level.

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Exercise 1: Create a Dictionary

Task:

Create a dictionary with the following data:

• name = John
• age = 25
• city = London

Solution:

person = {
    "name": "John",
    "age": 25,
    "city": "London"
}

print(person)

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Exercise 2: Access Dictionary Value

Task:

Print the value of "age".

Solution:

person = {
    "name": "John",
    "age": 25,
    "city": "London"
}

print(person["age"])

Output:

25

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Exercise 3: Add New Item

Task:

Add "job": "Developer" to the dictionary.

Solution:

person["job"] = "Developer"
print(person)

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Exercise 4: Update Value

Task:

Change "city" to "Paris".

Solution:

person["city"] = "Paris"
print(person)

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Exercise 5: Remove an Item

Task:

Remove "age" from the dictionary.

Solution:

person.pop("age")
print(person)

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Exercise 6: Check Key Exists

Task:

Check if "name" exists in the dictionary.

Solution:

if "name" in person:
    print("Key exists")

Output:

Key exists

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Exercise 7: Loop Through Keys

Task:

Print all keys in the dictionary.

Solution:

for key in person:
    print(key)

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Exercise 8: Loop Through Values

Task:

Print all values in the dictionary.

Solution:

for value in person.values():
    print(value)

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Exercise 9: Loop Through Key-Value Pairs

Task:

Print all keys and values.

Solution:

for key, value in person.items():
    print(key, ":", value)

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Exercise 10: Merge Two Dictionaries

Task:

Merge these two dictionaries:

dict1 = {"a": 1, "b": 2}
dict2 = {"c": 3, "d": 4}

Solution:

dict1.update(dict2)
print(dict1)

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Exercise 11: Nested Dictionary Access

Task:

Print Alice’s age.

students = {
    "student1": {"name": "John", "age": 20},
    "student2": {"name": "Alice", "age": 22}
}

Solution:

print(students["student2"]["age"])

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Exercise 12: Count Dictionary Items

Task:

Find number of items in dictionary.

Solution:

print(len(person))

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Exercise 13: Copy Dictionary

Task:

Create a copy of dictionary.

Solution:

new_person = person.copy()
print(new_person)

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Exercise 14: Get Value Safely

Task:

Get "salary" safely without error.

Solution:

print(person.get("salary", "Not Found"))

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Exercise 15: Create Dictionary from Keys

Task:

Create dictionary from keys list.

Solution:

keys = ["name", "age", "city"]

new_dict = dict.fromkeys(keys, "Unknown")

print(new_dict)

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Real-World Practice: Inventory System

Task:

Create a system for products and quantities.

Solution:

inventory = {
    "Laptop": 10,
    "Mouse": 25,
    "Keyboard": 15
}

inventory["Monitor"] = 8
inventory.pop("Mouse")

for product, qty in inventory.items():
    print(product, qty)

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Real-World Practice: User Management

Task:

Manage user profiles.

users = {
    "user1": {"name": "John", "role": "admin"},
    "user2": {"name": "Alice", "role": "editor"}
}

users["user3"] = {"name": "David", "role": "viewer"}

for user, info in users.items():
    print(user, info["name"], info["role"])

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Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Using wrong key

print(person["country"])  # Error if key does not exist

✔ Use:

print(person.get("country"))

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Mistake 2: Forgetting items() in loop

❌ Wrong:

for key, value in person:
    print(key, value)

✔ Correct:

for key, value in person.items():
    print(key, value)

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Conclusion

Practicing dictionary exercises helps you master one of the most important Python data structures.

You learned:

• Creating dictionaries
• Accessing and updating data
• Looping through dictionaries
• Using built-in methods
• Working with nested dictionaries

Keep practicing these exercises to improve your Python programming skills for real-world applications like APIs, databases, and backend development.