Programming concepts: past paper questions

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• Question 2May/June 2026, paper 21Structured4 marks

  Identify four operators that are not arithmetic operators from the list.

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• Question 1Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Multiple choice1 mark

  Tick (✓) one box to complete this sentence.

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• Question 5Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured3 marks

  Explain how variables and constants should be used when creating and running a program.

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• Question 3May/June 2026, paper 21Structured3 marks

  Complete the table by writing the most appropriate data type for each variable described.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured15 marks

  This pseudocode algorithm is intended to input a first name from a user and search for it in a two-dimensional (2D) array.

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• Question 10Oct/Nov 2024, paper 22Structured6 marks

  The function LENGTH(X) calculates the length of a string X Write the pseudocode statements to: • allow a line of text to be input to an appropriate variable •…

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• Question 7Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured5 marks

  The string operation SUBSTRING(Quote, Start, Number) returns a string from Quote beginning at position Start that is Number characters long. The first character in Quote is in position 1.

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• Question 5May/June 2026, paper 21Structured12 marks

  A computer system automatically creates usernames for new users. A new user enters their first name and their last name.

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• Question 4Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured7 marksHas a diagram

  A length check is a type of validation check. State the purpose of a length check.

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• Question 12Oct/Nov 2024, paper 22Structured15 marks

  A one-dimensional (1D) array Rooms[] contains the names of up to 20 rooms in a house. A two-dimensional (2D) array Dimensions[] is used to store the length, width and area of each room. The position of any room’s data is the same in both arrays.

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• Question 8Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured4 marks

  Explain why a programmer would use procedures and parameters when writing a program.

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• Question 6May/June 2026, paper 21Structured4 marks

  Give programming examples for a count‑controlled loop and a post‑condition loop.

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• Question 8Oct/Nov 2025, paper 22Structured15 marks

  A program is required to test the fairness of the random number generator. The one-dimensional (1D) array RandomNumber[] is used to store 100 000 random integers.

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• Question 2May/June 2024, paper 21Structured9 marks

  Four descriptions of programming concepts and five programming concepts are shown. Draw one line to link each description to the most appropriate programming concept.

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• Question 11Oct/Nov 2023, paper 22Structured15 marks

  A wood flooring company stores the names of up to 100 customers in a one-dimensional (1D) array Customers[].

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• Question 7May/June 2026, paper 21Structured4 marksHas a diagram

  An algorithm has been written in pseudocode for a user to repeatedly input positive whole numbers and store them in an array called Values[] until –1 is input or until the array is full. The algorithm outputs the average of the numbers to 2 decimal places.

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• Question 3May/June 2025, paper 21Structured4 marks

  The following pseudocode algorithm uses a count-controlled loop to read in 10 names and store them in the array Names[] FOR Count ← 1 TO 10 OUTPUT "Please…

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• Question 3May/June 2024, paper 21Structured4 marks

  State what is meant by the data types integer and real.

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• Question 4May/June 2023, paper 21Structured4 marks

  Explain the purpose of the library routines DIV and ROUND DIV ...................................................................................................................................................

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• Question 11May/June 2026, paper 21Structured5 marks

  The function Power(FirstNumber, SecondNumber) returns the value of FirstNumber raised to the power of SecondNumber. FirstNumber and SecondNumber are integers.

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• Question 4May/June 2025, paper 21Structured8 marks

  A telephone number with 13 characters is input. The first character is a ‘+’, followed by a 2-digit country code, for example: +20xxxxxxxxxx where 20 is the country code and x is a digit between 0 and 9 inclusive.

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• Question 4May/June 2024, paper 21Structured10 marks

  This pseudocode algorithm is intended to allow, at random, between 1 and 20 values to be entered and totalled. The total and average of the entered values are output at the end of the algorithm.

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• Question 5May/June 2023, paper 21Structured8 marks

  An algorithm has been written in pseudocode to allow some numbers to be input. All the positive numbers that are input are totalled and this total is output at the end. An input of 0 stops the algorithm.

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• Question 12May/June 2026, paper 21Essay15 marks

  A weather monitoring station records the number of minutes of sunshine for each day of a month. The one‑dimensional (1D) array Sunshine[] is used to store the number of minutes of sunshine for each day. The index of the array represents the day.

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• Question 5May/June 2025, paper 21Structured4 marks

  Two library routines used in programming are MOD and DIV. State the purpose of each of the library routines.

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• Question 5May/June 2024, paper 21Structured5 marks

  Write the pseudocode statements to perform this task: • accept the input of a whole number from 1 to 4 inclusive • use a CASE statement to: ○ output the number (1 to 4 inclusive) that was entered ○ output the word “ERROR” if a 1 to 4 inclusive number was not entered.

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• Question 6May/June 2023, paper 21Structured4 marksHas a diagram

  State two features that should be included to create a maintainable program.

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• Question 1May/June 2026, paper 22Multiple choice1 mark

  Tick (✓) one box to complete the following sentence.

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• Question 6May/June 2025, paper 21Structured6 marks

  An algorithm has been written in pseudocode to generate a random integer between 1 and 100 inclusive and store the value in N. The user enters a guess for the number and the algorithm indicates whether the guess is higher or lower than the random number.

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• Question 7May/June 2024, paper 21Structured6 marks

  Outline why it is useful to store data in a file.

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