Programming Fundamentals & Data Types (OCR GCSE Computer Science): Exam Questions

A teacher researches the length of time students spend playing computer games each day.

Tick (✓) one box to identify the data type you would choose to store the data and explain why this is a suitable data type.

DIV and MOD are both operators used in computing-related mathematics.

State the value of 13 DIV 4

State the value of 13 MOD 4

The symbol ^ is used for exponentiation.

Give the result of a^b when a = 3 and b = 2.

Each member of staff that works in a restaurant is given a Staff ID. This is calculated using the following algorithm.

01     surname = input("Enter surname") 

02     year = input("Enter starting year") 

03     staffID = surname + str(year) 

04     while staffID.length < 10 

05         staffID = staffID + "x" 

06     endwhile 

07     print("ID " + staffID)

Define the term casting and give the line number where casting has been used in the algorithm.

Tick (✓) one box in each row to identify the programming construct where each keyword is used.

The students are put into teams.

Students gain points depending on their result and the year group they are in.

The points are added to the team score.

The team with the most points at the end of the sports day wins.

Data about the teams and students is stored in a sports day program.

Identify the most appropriate data type for each variable used by the program.
Each data type must be different.

A library system assigns unique Member IDs to new users. The following algorithm is used to generate these IDs.

01     firstname = input("Enter first name")

02     month = input("Enter birth month as number")

03     memberID = firstname + str(month)

04     while memberID.length < 12

05         memberID = memberID + "z"

06     endwhile

07     print("Member ID: " + memberID)

Define the term casting and give the line number where casting has been used in the algorithm.

A library management system assigns unique Member IDs to new library users. The following algorithm is used to generate these IDs:

01     firstName = input("Enter first name")

02     lastName = input("Enter last name")

03     membershipYear = input("Enter membership year")

04     tempID = firstName[0] + lastName + str(membershipYear)

05     memberID = tempID.upper()

06     counter = 1

07     while len(memberID) < 12

08         memberID = memberID + str(counter)

09         counter = counter + 1

10     endwhile

11     finalID = memberID[:12]

12     print("Member ID: " + finalID)

Define the term casting and identify all line numbers where casting has been used in this algorithm. Explain why casting is necessary in each instance you have identified.

Describe one reason why a programmer would use a constant instead of a variable for the value of pi (π)

Explain the importance of using a string prompt inside an input() statement

print(total)
total = total + price

Describe how the order of these lines affects the logic of the algorithm

if mark ≥ 70 then
    grade = "A"
elseif mark ≥ 60 then
    grade = "B"
endif

Describe the role of the elseif statement in this code

Consider the two loops below:

for i = 1 TO 3
    password = input("Enter password")
next i

while password != "secure"
    password ← input("Enter password")
endwhile

Explain why a while loop is more suitable than a for loop in this situation

Identify the result of the Boolean expression

(X > 5) AND (Y < 10)

if X = 7 and Y = 12

Identify and correct the errors in the Python program below.

Explain why each correction is necessary.

NAME = "Alice"

PI = 3.14159

name = "Bob"

NAME = "Charlie"

radius = 10

area = PI * radius ^ 2

print("The area of the circle is", area)

Modify the Python code to include a selection construct that only adds even numbers to the total.

total = 0

for i in range(5):

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))

total = total + num

print("Total is:", total)

Identify the output of each print statement in the following Python program:

a = True

b = False

print(a and b)

print(a or b)

print(not a)

Modify the code in part(a) to include a conditional that prints:

"Both are True" if both a and b are true

AND

"One is True" if either a or b is true but not both

Students take part in a sports day. The students are put into teams.

Students gain points depending on their result and the year group they are in. The points are added to the team score.

The team with the most points at the end of the sports day wins.

An algorithm works out which team has won (has the highest score).

Write an algorithm to:

• Prompt the user to enter a team name and score, or to enter "stop" to stop entering new teams

• Repeatedly take team names and scores as input until the user enters "stop"

• Calculate which team has the highest score

• Output the team name and score of the winning team in an appropriate message.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• A high-level programming language that you have studied

balance = balance − amount
if balance ≥ 0 then
    print("Withdrawal approved")
endif

Explain the possible impact of this sequence error

do
    password = input("Enter password")
until password == "secure"

Evaluate why a do until loop may be more suitable than a while loop for this system

Justify why the Real (Float) data type should be used instead of Integer to store the result of a division