diff --git a/common/lib/capa/capa/tests/response_xml_factory.py b/common/lib/capa/capa/tests/response_xml_factory.py
index de4c17bae3..af62ef715c 100644
--- a/common/lib/capa/capa/tests/response_xml_factory.py
+++ b/common/lib/capa/capa/tests/response_xml_factory.py
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ class ResponseXMLFactory(six.with_metaclass(ABCMeta, object)):
                 explanation_div.set("class", "detailed-solution")
                 explanation_div.text = explanation_text
 
-        return etree.tostring(root)
+        return etree.tostring(root).decode('utf-8')
 
     @staticmethod
     def textline_input_xml(**kwargs):
diff --git a/common/test/acceptance/fixtures/base.py b/common/test/acceptance/fixtures/base.py
index a327a3157c..652ae43573 100644
--- a/common/test/acceptance/fixtures/base.py
+++ b/common/test/acceptance/fixtures/base.py
@@ -166,10 +166,7 @@ class XBlockContainerFixture(StudioApiFixture):
         """
         Encode `post_dict` (a dictionary) as UTF-8 encoded JSON.
         """
-        return json.dumps({
-            k: v.encode('utf-8') if isinstance(v, six.string_types) else v
-            for k, v in post_dict.items()
-        })
+        return json.dumps(post_dict).encode('utf-8')
 
     def get_nested_xblocks(self, category=None):
         """
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/accounts/utils.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/accounts/utils.py
index 1d8b59b7bc..fdc9bf7b0d 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/accounts/utils.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/user_api/accounts/utils.py
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ def generate_password(length=12, chars=string.ascii_letters + string.digits):
 
     password = ''
     password += choice(string.digits)
-    password += choice(string.letters)
+    password += choice(string.ascii_letters)
     password += ''.join([choice(chars) for _i in range(length - 2)])
     return password