A Level Computer Science 9618, topic 10
Data Types and Structures: past paper questions
127 Cambridge A Level Computer Science 9618 questions on Data Types and Structures (10) from 50 papers, 2023 to 2026. Open the paper or try a question free.
Practising builds a set from this topic, free with an account. One question opens straight away, with no account.
- Questions
- 127
- Papers
- 50
- Years
- 2023 to 2026
- Total marks
- 1735
- Average per question
- 13.7 marks
- Largest question
- 30 marks
By type: Structured 127
How hard the questions are
- Recall23
- Apply66
- Analyse38
- Not banded0
Derived from the command word Cambridge prints in each question, banded by a fixed table beside the syllabus's own definitions. A question printing no command word is unbanded: unknown, not middling.
Command words
- writeRecall71 questions
write an answer in a specific way
- completeApply60 questions
add information to an incomplete diagram or table
- describeApply25 questions
state the points of a topic / give characteristics and main features
- explainAnalyse24 questions
set out purposes or reasons / make the relationships between things clear / say why and/or how and support with relevant evidence
- stateRecall19 questions
express in clear terms
- useApply16 questions
- identifyRecall14 questions
name/select/recognise
- giveRecall10 questions
produce an answer from a given source or recall/memory
- calculateApply7 questions
work out from given facts, figures or information
- nameRecall7 questions
Where the questions come from
By year
- 202615
- 202533
- 202437
- 202342
By session
- May/June69
- Oct/Nov58
By paper
- Paper 287
- Paper 313
- Paper 427
Questions on this topic
Showing 30 of 127, spread across the years. Open one to write your answer and have it marked.
- Try this questionQuestion 6May/June 2026, paper 21Structured12 marks
Fence parts are manufactured by a number of similar machines. The length of the part must fall within a certain range. Parts not within the length range are rejected.
- Try this questionQuestion 2Oct/Nov 2025, paper 21Structured5 marksHas a diagram
Data is a global 1D array containing 30 elements of type STRING An algorithm will output: • all non-blank elements (elements that do not contain an empty string) • the final total of the number of elements output.
- Try this questionQuestion 1Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured9 marks
Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators. 1 A program will calculate the tax payable based on the cost of an item.
- Try this questionQuestion 1Oct/Nov 2023, paper 21Structured11 marks
Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators.
- Try this questionQuestion 7May/June 2026, paper 21Structured12 marks
Different data structures will be suitable for different computing applications. Identify a computing application where a queue data structure is suitable.
- Try this questionQuestion 3Oct/Nov 2025, paper 21Structured9 marks
A program is needed to manage individual rentals in a car-hire business.
- Try this questionQuestion 3Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured9 marks
3 An algorithm will output the last three lines from a text file Result.txt The lines need to be output in the same order as they appear in the file. Assume: • Three variables LineX, LineY and LineZ will store the three lines.
- Try this questionQuestion 3Oct/Nov 2023, paper 21Structured8 marks
The diagram represents an Abstract Data Type (ADT). The operation of this stack may be summarised as follows: • The TopOfStack pointer points to the last item added to the stack. • The BottomOfStack pointer points to the first item on the stack.
- Try this questionQuestion 8May/June 2026, paper 21Structured6 marks
Global array MyData contains the values shown.
- Try this questionQuestion 4Oct/Nov 2025, paper 21Structured9 marks
A program contains a global 1D array Number consisting of 20 elements of type REAL A procedure Store() will input a sequence of up to 20 real values, one value at a time.
- Try this questionQuestion 4Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured10 marks
4 A program includes the following assignment statement: Result ← STR_TO_NUM(x) / STR_TO_NUM(y) When the program evaluates the expression in the statement, it performs a calculation. Variable Result is of type real and variables x and y are of type string.
- Try this questionQuestion 4Oct/Nov 2023, paper 21Structured9 marks
A global array is declared in pseudocode as follows: DECLARE Data : ARRAY[1:150] OF STRING A function TooMany() will: 1. take two parameters: • a string (the search string) • an integer (the maximum value) 2.
- Try this questionQuestion 9May/June 2026, paper 21Structured18 marksHas a diagram
A hotel has three floors numbered 0 to 2 (floor 0 is the ground floor). There are 15 rooms on each floor. The hotel gets many enquiries from customers to check if a room is available that day.
- Try this questionQuestion 8Oct/Nov 2025, paper 21Structured17 marks
A program is being developed to manage student book loans from a college library. Students may borrow up to five books at a time from the library. The programmer has defined a record type to define each loan.
- Try this questionQuestion 6Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured9 marks
6 A factory produces food items. The items must be used within a certain number of days after their production date. The number of days is known as the shelf life.
- Try this questionQuestion 8Oct/Nov 2023, paper 21Structured19 marks
A class of students are developing a program to send data between computers. Many computers are connected together to form a wired network. Serial ports are used to connect one computer to another.
- Try this questionQuestion 3May/June 2026, paper 22Structured6 marks
3 A computer game uses a text file named WordList.txt containing 10000 words, all in lower case. Each word is unique and is stored on a separate line of the text file. An efficient algorithm is needed to check that a word input by the user is stored in WordList.txt.
- Try this questionQuestion 1Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured11 marks
Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators. The table contains pseudocode examples. Each example may contain statements that relate to one or more of: • selection • iteration (repetition) • subroutines (procedures or functions).
- Try this questionQuestion 8Oct/Nov 2024, paper 21Structured15 marks
8 An exam paper has a maximum of 75 marks. One of five pass grades (A to E) is assigned, depending on the mark obtained. The lowest mark for a given grade is known as the grade boundary.
- Try this questionQuestion 1Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured11 marks
Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators. 1 A shop sells car accessories. A customer order is created if an item cannot be supplied from current stock.
- Try this questionQuestion 4May/June 2026, paper 22Structured9 marks
4 A desktop web browser stores the history of web addresses visited. The web browser uses a back button and forward button to move between web pages recently visited. Two stacks are used when each of these buttons are clicked: • back stack • forward stack.
- Try this questionQuestion 2Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured5 marksHas a diagram
Data is a global 1D array containing 20 elements of type REAL An algorithm will: • input a sequence of real values, one at a time • assign each value to…
- Try this questionQuestion 1Oct/Nov 2024, paper 22Structured9 marks
Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators. A program has been developed and released for general use. After a few months of use an error is detected where under certain circumstances it outputs an unexpected value.
- Try this questionQuestion 3Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured9 marks
The diagram represents a linked list Abstract Data Type (ADT). • Ptr1 is the start pointer. Ptr2 is the free list pointer.
- Try this questionQuestion 5May/June 2026, paper 22Structured10 marks
5 A programmer has defined a global 1D array Numbers of type INTEGER, which can store 1000 integers. The lower bound of the array Numbers is set to 1. Each element of the array has been initialised with a random integer in the range 200 to 99999.
- Try this questionQuestion 3Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured10 marks
A text file OldFile.txt contains IDs, names and email addresses for members of a club. Three information items are stored for each member and each item is stored on a separate line.
- Try this questionQuestion 2Oct/Nov 2024, paper 22Structured9 marks
A program is being developed to process bank card information. When a card number is displayed, all the characters except the last four are replaced with the asterisk character '*'. Card numbers are stored as strings.
- Try this questionQuestion 5Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured6 marks
A global 1D array of integers contains four elements, which are assigned values as shown: Mix[1] ← 1 Mix[2] ← 3 Mix[3] ← 4 Mix[4] ← 2 A procedure Process() manipulates the values in the array.
- Try this questionQuestion 6May/June 2026, paper 22Structured18 marks
6 A program is being developed to encrypt a message. The following terms are used in the encryption technique to be used: | term | definition | |---|---| | plain text | The original message before it is encrypted. | | cipher text | The encrypted version of the plain text.
- Try this questionQuestion 4Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured13 marks
A quiz has nine questions. There are: • five easy questions each worth 3 points • four hard questions each worth 5 points. At the end of the quiz the points for each correctly answered question are added to give a total score.






