Cambridge International Examinations

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

* 2 4 6 3 1 7 0 7 0 6 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9608/22

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills October/November 2016
2 hours
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.
No calculators allowed.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your Centre number, candidate number and name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.

Answer all questions.

No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

The maximum number of marks is 75.

This document consists of 19 printed pages and 1 blank page.

DC (NF/SG) 115874/3
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There is an Appendix on pages 18 and 19. Some questions will refer you to this information.

1 A number of players take part in a competition. The competition consists of a number of games.
Each game is between two players. The outcome of a game is that each player is awarded a grade
(A, B, C or D). Each grade has an associated number of points as shown in the table below.

Grade Points
A 0
B 1
C 3
D 5

The points total for all players is recorded. After each game is completed, the total number of
points for each player is updated.

For example:

• before the game between Ryan and Karina, Ryan’s total is 5 points and Karina’s total is 3 points
• the result of the game between Ryan and Karina is: Ryan achieved grade B, Karina achieved
grade D
• the players’ points totals are updated to: Ryan has 6 and Karina has 8

When a player’s points total reaches 12 or higher, that player is removed from the competition.

A programmer will write a program to update the player total after a game.

The program will output:

• the player’s updated points total

• the message ‘ELIMINATED’ if the player is removed from the competition.

The programmer designs the identifier table below:

Identifier Data type Description

PlayerName STRING Name of the player
PlayerGameGrade CHAR Game grade for the player
PointsTotal INTEGER Current player points
Procedure has parameters
SavePlayerTotal procedure PlayerName and PointsTotal
and saves the updated player total
Function has a parameter
ReadPlayerTotal function PlayerName and returns the current
total for that player

(a) Complete the following program flowchart by:

• filling in the boxes, using pseudocode where appropriate

• labelling the lines of the flowchart, where necessary.
[9]
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Start

Yes

No

Stop
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(b) Test data is to be produced to test the flowchart.

Complete the table of test data below to show five tests that should be used to test different
paths through the flowchart.

Test data Expected results

Updated Output
PointsTotal PlayerGameGrade
PointsTotal

[5]

(c) The programmer amends the design to validate the value of player game grade that the user
inputs.

The amended part of the flowchart is shown below.

Loop

OUPUT INPUT
"Invalid – Re-enter" PlayerGameGrade

Is
No PlayerGameGrade
= 'A' or 'B' or 'C'
or 'D'?

Yes

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Write the equivalent pseudocode using a pre-condition loop, for this part of the amended
flowchart.

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2 You will need to refer to the list of pseudocode string-handling functions in the Appendix.

(a) Give the value of the variables x, y and z for the following sequence of statements.

(i) x ONECHAR("Barcelona", 5) x ............................ [1]

(ii) y ONECHAR("Cool", 1) & ONECHAR("Ball", 2) & "t-food"

y ............................ [1]

(iii) Temp1 "13"

Temp2 ONECHAR("One-2-One", 5)
z TONUM(Temp2 & Temp1) z ............................ [1]

A computer program is to simulate the reading and processing of a string of characters from an
input device.

The character string consists of:

• a number of digit characters

• one or more <*> characters, each used as a separator
• a final <#> character.

A typical input character sequence, stored as InputString is:

13*156*9*86*1463*18*#

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Study this pseudocode.

01 DECLARE Numbers ARRAY [1:100] OF INTEGER

02 DECLARE InputString : STRING
03 DECLARE NextChar : CHAR
04 DECLARE NextNumberString : STRING
05 DECLARE i : INTEGER // Numbers array index
06 DECLARE j : INTEGER // InputString index
07
08 OUTPUT "String ... "
09 INPUT InputString
10 j 1
11 NextChar ONECHAR(InputString, j)
12
13 i 1
14 WHILE NextChar <> '#'
15 NextNumberString = ""
16 WHILE NextChar <> '*'
17 NextNumberString NextNumberString & NextChar
18 j j + 1
19 NextChar ONECHAR(InputString, j)
20 ENDWHILE
21
22 // store the next integer to the array
23 Numbers[i] TONUM(NextNumberString)
24 i i + 1
25 j j + 1
26 NextChar ONECHAR(InputString, j)
27 ENDWHILE
28
29 CALL DisplayArray()

(b) Write the line number for:

(i) A statement which declares a global variable used to store a single character. ........... [1]

(ii) A statement which runs code written as a procedure. ........... [1]

(iii) A statement which indicates the start of a ‘pre-condition’ loop. ........... [1]

(iv) A statement which increments a variable. ........... [1]

(c) Copy the condition which is used to control the inner loop.

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(d) (i) Complete the trace table below for the given pseudocode as far as line 27.

The input string is: 23*731*5*#

Numbers
i j NextChar NextNumberString
1 2 3
1 1 '2'
""
"2"
2 '3' "23"
3 '*' 23

[5]

(ii) Explain what this algorithm does.

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3 Radhika mostly studied the high-level programming language XYZ at university.

She has been working in her first job for two years using language XYZ.
She applied for a new job which stated:
“The majority of the development work is done using language ABC.”

(a) Radhika was interviewed for the job. Part of the interview process was to study some program
code written in language ABC.

11 settype($TimesTable, Integer);
12 settype($upTo, Integer);
13 settype($Posn, Integer);
14 settype($Product, Integer);
15 $TimesTable = 7;
16 $UpTo = 10;
17
18 $Posn = 1
19 While ($Posn < $UpTo + 1)
20 {
21 $Product = $Posn * $TimesTable;
22 Echo $Posn . ' X' . $TimesTable . ' = ' . $Product . "<br>";
23 $Posn = $Posn + 1;
24 }

Answer the following questions taken from the interview.

(i) State what the settype keyword does in this language.

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(ii) Name one variable that the code uses.

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(iii) Give a line number for an assignment statement.

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(iv) Line 19 is the start of a pre-condition loop.

State the syntax that language ABC uses to indicate which statements must be executed
inside a loop.

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(b) (i) Describe what is meant by a transferable skill.

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(ii) Give two examples which suggest that programming in a high-level language is a
transferrable skill.

1 .......................................................................................................................................

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2 .......................................................................................................................................

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4 A social club runs a weekly prize draw. A member can buy a ticket for $2. Each week, the club
sells up to 150 tickets, with consecutive numbers starting from 1. There is a main cash prize of
$120 and a further three prizes of $10. The computer program will generate the winning numbers.

Throughout this question, you will need to refer to the list of pseudocode functions in the Appendix.

(a) Write pseudocode to show how the RND()function can be used to generate a single integer
in the range 1 to 150.

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(b) Write program code to generate and output four winning numbers.
Ignore the issue that duplicate numbers may be generated.

Visual Basic and Pascal: You should include declaration statements for variables.
Python: You should show a comment statement for each variable used with its data type.

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(c) The prize draw is a success. After six months, the club decided to sell an unlimited number of
tickets each week. In any week, the total number of prizes may vary.

The programmer modifies the code written in part(b).

The revised program will use a function to generate a single winning number. Therefore, in a
week when the club offers six prizes, the program will use the function six times to generate
the six winning numbers.

The function has identifier GenerateNumber and:

• has a single parameter for the number of tickets sold that week
• returns a single winning number.

Write program code for the function header.

Programming language ............................................................................................................

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.............................................................................................................................................. [3]

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(d) The organisers do not want the same number to be drawn more than once in a week. To deal
with the issue of duplicate numbers being generated, the program in part (b) will require
adaptive maintenance.

(i) Describe what is meant by adaptive maintenance.

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(ii) The club does not want the program to output the same number more than once in a
week.

For each winning number, outline the extra steps that the program must have. Include
any data structure that the program needs.
Do not write pseudocode or program code.

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5 A team keeps a record of the scores made by each of their eight players in a number of games.

The data in the two tables below shows:

• the scores of the eight players after twenty games

• the eight player names.

1 2 3 8
1 12 17 67 31

2 35 82 44 29

3 61 39 80 17

4 81 103 21 11

5 56 0 98 4

19 45 6 81 77

20 12 11 3 6

1 Vorma

2 Ravi

3 Chada

4 Nigam

5 Bahri

6 Smith

7 Goyal

8 Lata

The team wants a computer program to input and record the player data.

(a) A programmer designs the following pseudocode for the input of a player’s score from one
game.

01 INPUT GameNumber
02 INPUT PlayerNumber
03 INPUT PlayerGameScore
04 PlayerScore[GameNumber, PlayerNumber] PlayerGameScore

Describe the data structure the programmer has used for the storage of all player scores.

.............................................................................................................................................. [2]

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(b) The player names are permanently stored in a text file NAMES.TXT, with one name on each
line. The player names will be read by the program and stored in a 1D array.

The design given in part (a) will be expanded so that the user is prompted for the player
name instead of the player number. Step 02 now becomes:

02.1 Read the player names from file NAMES.TXT into the array PlayerName
02.2 INPUT ThisPlayerName
02.3 Search the PlayerName array for ThisPlayerName to find the PlayerNumber

(i) State the computing term for the expansion of one or more steps in the original design.

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Write the program code for step 02.1

Visual Basic and Pascal: You should include the declaration statements for variables.
Python: You should show a comment statement for each variable used with its data type.

Programming language .....................................................................................................

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(iii) Program code is to be designed and written for step 02.3

The program will use these identifiers:

Identifier Data type Description

PlayerName ARRAY[1 : 8] OF STRING Stores the player names (read from the file)
ThisPlayerName STRING Input by the user (step 02.2)
Flags when ThisPlayerName is found
Found BOOLEAN
when searching the PlayerName array
i INTEGER Array index

Write program code to carry out the linear search for step 02.3

There is no requirement to declare or comment on variables used.

Programming language .....................................................................................................

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(c) The team wants the program to produce a report, with the following specification.

The program outputs the total number of player scores that are:

• 50 and over but less than 100

• 100 or higher.

You can assume that before the section runs, the program has assigned all eight player scores to
the PlayerScore data structure.

A first attempt at the pseudocode is shown below:

01 Total50 0
02 Total100 0
03 FOR PlayerIndex 1 TO 8
04 FOR GameIndex 1 TO 20
05 IF PlayerScore[GameIndex, PlayerIndex] > 100
06 THEN
07 Total100 Total100 + 1
08 ELSE
09 IF PlayerScore[GameIndex, PlayerIndex] > 50
10 THEN
11 Total50 Total50 + GameIndex
12 ENDIF
13 ENDIF
14 ENDFOR
15 ENDFOR
16 OUTPUT Total50
17 OUTPUT Total100

(i) Describe the control structure used in lines 03 and 04 and lines 14 and 15.

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(ii) Consider the following two statements.

Write either TRUE or FALSE next to each statement.

Statement TRUE or FALSE

The pseudocode considers all the scores for a player, before
progressing to the next player.
The pseudocode considers all scores in a game, before
progressing to the next game.
[1]

(iii) The programmer has made logic errors in the design.

State a line number at which an error occurs.

Explain the error or write the corrected pseudocode statement.

Line number ...............................

Explanation .......................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

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6 Study the sequence of pseudocode statements.

CONST a = 3.2 : REAL

DECLARE x, y, z, Answer1, Answer2, Answer3 : REAL
DECLARE p, q : BOOLEAN
x 3
x x + 7
y 6
Answer1 2 * (a + y)
z 6
Answer2 y ^ 2 + 5
p TRUE
q NOT(NOT(p))
Answer3 y + a * 2

Give the final value assigned to each variable.

(i) x ............................................. [1]

(ii) Answer1 ............................................. [1]

(iii) Answer2 ............................................. [1]

(iv) q ............................................. [1]

(v) Answer3 ............................................. [1]

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Appendix
Built-in functions (pseudocode)

ONECHAR(ThisString : STRING, Position : INTEGER) RETURNS CHAR

returns the single character at position Position (counting from the start of the string with value 1)
from the string ThisString.

For example: ONECHAR("New York", 5) returns 'Y'

CHARACTERCOUNT(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the number of characters in ThisString.

For example: CHARACTERCOUNT("New York") returns 8

SUBSTR(ThisString : STRING, Value1 : INTEGER, Value2 : INTEGER) RETURNS

STRING

returns a sub-string from within ThisString.

Value1 is the start index position (counting from the left, starting with 1).
Value2 is the final index position.

For example: SUBSTR("art nouveau", 5, 11) returns "nouveau"

TONUM(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER or REAL

returns the integer or real equivalent of the string ThisString.

For example: TONUM("502") returns the integer 502

TONUM("56.36") returns the real number 56.36

ASC(ThisCharacter : CHAR) RETURNS INTEGER

returns an integer which is the ASCII character code for the character ThisCharacter.

For example: ASC('A') returns integer 65

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CHR(Value : INTEGER) RETURNS CHAR

returns the character that ASCII code number Value represents.

For example: CHR(65) returns 'A'

RND() RETURNS REAL

returns a random number in the range 0 to 0.99999

For example: RND() returns 0.67351

INT(ThisNumber : REAL) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer part of ThisNumber.

For example: INT(12.79) returns 12

Errors

For any function, if the program calls the function incorrectly, the function returns an error.

Concatenation operator

& operator – Concatenates two expressions of STRING or CHAR data type.

For example: "South" & " " & "Pole" produces "South Pole"
'B' & "000654" produces "B000654"

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© UCLES 2016 9608/22/O/N/16