iGCSE Computer Science: Problem Solving

Which of these activities are examples of following an algorithm?

• Playing a game of chess

• Baking a cake

• Playing a piece of sheet music on the piano

• Following directions from Google Maps

Which of these are fundamental control structures in any computer program?

• branching

• sequence

• selection

• repetition

• iteration

A structured approach to programming which involves breaking a large program down into a number of smaller sub-programs is called ...

• object orientation

• algorithm

• decomposition

• abstraction

Which of these are valid methods of representing the steps of an algorithm? (select all that apply)

• Flowchart

• Pseudocode

• Program code

• English

Which of these are valid reasons for using subprograms to structure a program? (select all that apply)

• Fewer lines of code

• Can test subprograms independently

• Avoids repetition of code

• Different programmers can work on different parts of the program

• Avoids need to use local variables

Which of these are recognised techniques of Computational Thinking? (select all that apply)

• Debugging

• Decomposition

• Abstraction

• Pattern recognition

• Brute-force search

Abstraction is a recognised technique of Computational Thinking. Which of these is the best definition of abstraction?

• Creating a set of logical steps that when followed achieve a particular task

• Breaking a problem down into several layers of smaller and simpler subproblems

• The process of removing or hiding unnecessary detail from a problem

• Exploiting the recurrence of patterns in data to make processing more efficient

Which of these sorting algorithms is the most efficient?

• Merge sort

• Bubble sort

• Insertion sort

• Selection sort

Which of these sorting algorithms uses recursion?

• Merge sort

• Bubble sort

• Insertion sort

• Selection sort

For which algorithm would it be best to use a conditional loop?

• Finding largest number in a list

• Calculating average of a list of numbers

• Counting occurrences of an item in a list

• Checking if an item is in a list