Programming Questions

© College Board 2017

A programmer completes the user manual for a video game she has developed and realizes she has reversed the roles of goats and sheep throughout the text. Consider the programmer’s goal of changing all occurrences of “goats” to “sheep” and all occurrences of “sheep” to “goats.” The programmer will use the fact that the word “foxes” does not appear anywhere in the original text.

Which of the following algorithms can be used to accomplish the programmer’s goal?

Enduring Understanding Learning Target
4.1 Algorithms are precise sequences of instructions for processes that can be executed by a computer and are implemented using programming languages. I can develop an algorithm for implementation in a program.

ASCII is a character-encoding scheme that uses a numeric value to represent each character.For example, the uppercase letter “G” is represented by the decimal (base 10) value 71. A partial list of characters and their corresponding ASCII values are shown in the table below.

ASCII characters can also be represented by hexadecimal numbers. According to ASCII character encoding, which of the following letters is represented by the hexadecimal (base 16) number 56?

Enduring Understanding Learning Target
2.1 A variety of abstractions built upon binary sequences can be used to represent all digital data. I can describe the variety of abstractions used to represent data.

The figure below shows a circuit composed of two logic gates. The output of the circuit is true.

Which of the following is a true statement about input A?

  1. Input A must be true.
  2. Input A must be false.
  3. Input A can be either true or false.
  4. There is no possible value of input A that will cause the circuit to have the output true.
Enduring Understanding Learning Target
2.2. Multiple levels of abstraction are used to write programs or to create other computational artifacts. I can identify multiple levels of abstractions being used when writing programs.

Which of the following statements describes a limitation of using a computer simulation to model a real-world object or system?

  1. It is difficult to change input parameters or conditions when using computer simulations.
  2. Computer simulations can only be built after the real-world object or system has been created.
  3. Computer simulations usually make some simplifying assumptions about the real-world object or system being modeled.
  4. Computer simulations only run on very powerful computers that are not available to the general public.
Enduring Understanding Learning Target
2.3 Models and simulations use abstraction to generate new understanding and knowledge. I can use models and simulations to represent phenomena.

Document the Questions

How does the question connect to the Enduring Understanding?

For each Learning Target, find an example in your own code that demonstrates your mastery. You may use any project from this year.