NoReservedWords
Incorrect
Every sequence of letters and digits starting with a letter or an underscore can be used as an identifier
Correct
Some character sequences are reserved for use as keywords and cannot be used as identifiers
CorrectionHere is what's right.
Here is what's right.
Python has some keywords (e.g. return, if, continue)
and some literals (True, False, and None)
that are reserved and cannot be used by a programmer as identifiers.
That means it is not possible to use these words to name variables, methods, or classes.
Reported in published research
Language
Python
Concepts
Other Languages
Literature References
The following papers directly or indirectly provide qualitative or quantitative evidence related to this misconception.
Chiodini et al. 2025
Quantitative systematic research
97 Swiss high school teachers and their students
Python
ArtifactProgramming Language Misconceptions studied:
NRW: NoReservedWords
Teachers hold misconception
Teachers familiar with misconception
Importance (reported by teachers)
Prevalence in students (reported by teachers)
Altadmri and Brown 2015
Repository mining study (BlueJ Blackbox)
250000+ students across the world
Java
ArtifactMistakes studied:
H: Using keywords as method or variable names
Users making mistake
Hristova et al. 2003
Qualitative (survey of instructors and students)
Unknown number of undergraduate students, professors, SIGCSE members
Java
Errors studied:
Syntax8: Using keywords as method or variable names