IndexError in Python — What It Means and How to Fix It
What Python's IndexError exception means and how to resolve it.
Published October 27, 2026
IndexError is raised when a sequence (like a list) is accessed with an index that's out of range.
Key points
- Catch it specifically with "except IndexError:" when you want to handle this exact case rather than a bare except
Example
[1, 2, 3][10] # IndexError: list index out of range