What happens to exceptions that are not caught in a try-except block?

• A. They are logged
• B. They stop the program immediately
• C. They propagate through successive function calls
• D. They are ignored by the interpreter

Answer: (C)

When an exception is not caught within a try-except block, it propagates through successive function calls. This means that the Python interpreter will look for an exception handler in the current function, and if it does not find one, it will then check the function that called it. This process continues up the call stack until a handler is found or the top level of the program is reached. If no handler is found by the time the interpreter reaches the top level, the program will terminate, and an error message will be displayed, indicating what kind of exception occurred.

This behavior allows programmers to structure error handling in a way that can manage exceptions at various levels of the program, leading to better debugging and user experience. The propagation of exceptions can lead to a cascading effect if not managed properly, potentially resulting in program termination if the exceptions remain unhandled.