AQA GCSE Computer Science Paper 1: Computational thinking and programming skills June 2024 question paper 8525/1

Which pseudo-code statement assigns the length of the string film to a variable called value ?

Shade one lozenge.

The POSITION subroutine returns the position of the first occurrence of a character in a string.

For example:

• POSITION("Godzilla vs. Kong", "o") would return 1

• POSITION("Godzilla vs. Kong", "z") would return 3

letter and film are variables used in the algorithm in Figure 1.

Complete the pseudo-code statement to find the position of the first occurrence of the contents of letter in film and store this position in the variable location You must use the POSITION subroutine in your answer.

location

Which of the following would be the most suitable data type for the variable year ?

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Describe what is meant by an assignment statement in a program.

Write a C# program that:

gets the user to enter the name of a film

displays You entered followed by the name of the film entered by the user.

The output from the program must be on one line.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code accurately.

Where is a relational operator first used in the algorithm in Figure 2 ?

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In the algorithm in Figure 2, what will be the output when the user input is 5 ?

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Which value input by the user would result in True being output by the algorithm in Figure 2 ?

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Rewrite line 2 from the algorithm in Figure 2 without using the NOT operator.

The algorithm must still have the same functionality.

A user inputs a value into the algorithm in Figure 2.

State one value that the user could input that would result in an output of Unknown

The program should generate a random number between 1 and 100 (including 1 and 100). This will be the number the user has to guess.

Write the C# code that should be used on line 3 in Figure 3 to:

• generate a random number between 1 and 100 inclusive

• assign this number to the appropriate variable from the program.

You must use rGen.Next(a, b) in your C# code. rGen.Next(a, b) generates a random integer in the range a to b starting at a but finishing one before b

Complete the test plan in Table 1 to test the validation of userNumber in the program in Figure 3.

In an earlier version of the program in Figure 3, line 6 contained one syntax error and one logic error:

whil (userNumber < 1 || userNumber >= 100)

Complete the table to describe the errors in the program on line 6.

Define the term abstraction.

State the name for the process of breaking a problem down into sub-problems.

A university is writing a program to calculate a student’s total mark for three essays.

If any essays are handed in late, the total mark is reduced.

Write a C# program to calculate the total mark.

You should assume there are three integer variables called e1, e2 and e3 which have already been given values to represent the marks of the three essays.

The program should:

get the user to enter the number of essays handed in late and store the number in a variable

calculate the total mark for the three essays o if only one essay is handed in late, the total mark is reduced by 10 o if more than one essay is handed in late, the total mark should be halved o the total mark should not be less than 0

output the total mark.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code.

A shop owner wants to create stock codes for each type of sweet they sell.

Figure 5 shows some of the sweets.

A stock code is made up of the:

sweetID

first letter and the second letter in sweetName

first letter of the brand

For example:

the stock code for WINE GUMS would be S1WIM

the stock code for STARBURST would be S3STW

Write a C# program to create the stock code for a sweet.

The program should:

get the user to enter the sweetID, sweetName and brand

create the stock code

assign the stock code to a variable called code

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code.

Which of the following best describes a data structure ?

Shade one lozenge.

Write an algorithm using pseudo-code to display the name of the most expensive book.

The algorithm should:

• compare the price of B1 and the price of B2

• output the book name of the most expensive book

• output Neither if the books are the same price.

The algorithm should work for any values stored in B1 and B2

State what will be displayed by the Console.WriteLine statement when the subroutine First is called with the values 3, 4 and 4 for the parameters p1, p2 and p3

State what will be displayed by the Console.WriteLine statement when the subroutine First is called with the values 3, 4 and 8 for the parameters p1, p2 and p3

A program is to be written to authenticate a username and password entered by the user.

Figure 9 shows the only two pairs of valid usernames and passwords.

Write a C# program to authenticate a username and password.

The program should:

get the user to enter a username

get the user to enter a password

display the message Access denied if the username and password pair entered is not valid

display the message Access granted if the username and password pair entered is valid

repeat until a valid username and password pair is entered.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code accurately.

A program is being written to solve a sliding puzzle.

The sliding puzzle uses a 3 x 3 board.

The board contains eight tiles and one blank space.

Each tile is numbered from 1 to 8

On each turn, a tile can only move one position up, down, left, or right.

A tile can only be moved into the blank space if it is next to the blank space.

The puzzle is solved when the tiles are in the correct final positions.

Figure 10 shows an example of how the tiles might be arranged on the board at the start of the game with the blank space in the position (0, 1).

Figure 11 shows the correct final positions for the tiles when the puzzle is solved.

The blank space (shown in black) is represented in the program as number 0

Table 3 describes the purpose of three subroutines the program uses.

Explain the purpose of the second iteration structure in the program in Figure 16.

State the purpose of the program in Figure 16.

Table 4 shows a description of the getTile subroutine previously described in more detail in Table 3, on page 25.

Figure 18 and Figure 19 show example boards.

Write a C# program to:

check that in the first row: o the second tile number is one more than the first tile number o the third tile number is one more than the second tile number

display Yes when the row meets both conditions above

display No when the row does not meet both conditions above.

For example:

for the board in Figure 18, the program would display No

for the board in Figure 19, the program would display Yes

You must use the getTile subroutine in your C# code.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code accurately.

Table 5 describes the purpose of another two subroutines the program uses.

Table 6 shows a description of the move subroutine previously described in more detail in Table 3, on page 25.

Write a C# program to help the user solve the puzzle.

The program should:

get the user to enter the row number of a tile to move

get the user to enter the column number of a tile to move

check if the tile in the position entered is next to the blank space o if it is, move that tile to the position of the blank space o if it is not, output Invalid move

repeat these steps until the puzzle is solved.

You must use the subroutines in Table 5 and Table 6.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid opposite contains vertical lines to help you indent your code accurately.

Explain how the linear search algorithm works.

State one property of local variables that is not true for all variables.

Using C#, write a subroutine to help a museum review the number of visitors in a month.

The subroutine must:

have the identifier countDays

have the number of days a museum was open in the last month as a parameter

get the user to enter the number of visitors to the museum for each of those days

count how many of those days the museum had more than 200 visitors

return the count.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code.

A programmer is writing a game.

The game uses a row of cells represented as an array. Figure 20 shows an example.

Figure 20

Figure 21 describes how the game is to be played.

For example, using the array in Figure 20:

the player starts in position 0

if the player enters a 1, then they move to position 1

if the player then enters a 2, Bad Move is displayed as position 3 contains an X

the player then goes back to position 0

if the player then enters a 2, they move to position 2

if the player then enters a 2, they move to position 4

if the player then enters a 1, they move to position 5

if the player then enters a 2, the game finishes.

Figure 22 shows part of a C# program that will be used for the game.

Figure 22

int pos = 0; int lastPos = row.Length – 1; while (pos < lastPos)

pos is a variable that contains the player’s current position.

Extend the program from Figure 22 so that the game works as described in Figure 21, on page 37.

When writing your program you should assume:

there is an array called row

the number of X characters in row can vary

the position of the X characters in row can vary

the X characters have already been added to the array called row

the row array can be of any length.

You should use meaningful variable name(s) and C# syntax in your answer.

The answer grid below contains vertical lines to help you indent your code.